Category: This and That

How God Provided: Meat for Our Freezer

Psalm 68:19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.

As a ministry mama, I don’t work, I stay home with our four kiddos and my schedule stays full as it is. Sometimes I really want to do more to make money for our family so we can update a few things here and there but every avenue that I have attempted at home has left me with expending too much time, neglecting the kids, and getting little in return. So, I have come to grips with the fact that God does not want me to work even in doing something from home so I have also accepted that at this time I cannot be the one to add to our bank account. So, God does it for me!

A friend of mine works at Trader Joe’s and received some meat, and she was so kind to share some of it with our family. It was a simple gift from heaven, a few texts, and a knock on the door. Simple delivery. I love when God’s gifts are so quick and obvious!

God provided:

  • 2 packages of chicken thighs

  • 2 packages of ground turkey

  • 12 packages of chicken legs

  • 17 pounds of beef

So, as God filled our freezer He also provides for our finances. The meat added up to around $96.00. We will be able to save money in our groceries now and maybe we won’t get to replace some of the things I would like to, it may just buy some new shoes for the kids or something like that.

We never seem to run out of needs and God never stops running out of solutions to provide for them. He’s a good God that loves us so tenderly. I am so thankful that I am His child!

A Foreigner Fights for Our Freedom

This is a little something I wrote back in 2008 when my husband was on summer break in between semesters as Bible College. He had just begun a new job building valves for the oil and gas industry.

We went to the 60th Anniversary Celebration for my husband’s new job on Friday afternoon. They had just gone all out and had hired a company to bring in huge blow up obstacle courses, slides, a little toddler town with balls and mini slides, a coconut tree to climb, bungee jumping things, a laser tag and huge swing, and last ponies and goats, sheep, and a llama to pet! Oh, and we can’t forget the free barbeque which was some good eatin’.

All that was fun and I was so bummed that I had forgotten the memory card for our camera. The biggest blessing to me was meeting the volunteers that were supervising all the rides and moon bounces all afternoon. When we were at the “Toddler Town” bounce we got to talk to a guy named Vladic and he was asking us what the company manufactured. After hearing his accent I asked him where he was from and he said “Poland.” And I asked him what he was doing here in the states and he told us that he was stationed at the local Air Force Base. So I asked “Are you from Poland over here flying with us?” And he replied “No” and explained that he had joined our Air Force. He also acted like he planned to re-enlist. We thanked him over and over for his service because we know from talking to and hearing stories from other soldiers they aren’t thanked enough. We went onto the other areas and thanked other Air Force men, they were all from the same squadron working the booths so that they could have a Christmas party in December.

Jeff was the second young man that we spoke to, he had been in the Air Force for a little over a year. His father was born in Cuba and had joined the Navy and he had grown up moving here and there and decided he would serve also. He said “Thank you for saying that to me, it really means a lot.” He had unsurety in his eyes. When I asked when they would be sent out he told me it was “classified.” The look in his face makes me wonder if it will be soon.

So all in all I was thinking, Vladic and Jeff’s father were not Americans but they made a choice to join our military and fight for our freedom. Some may say “They just did it for the benefits” and have a sarcastic attitude about it but if you just put that out of your mind for a minute you can consider some other things…

Not only are they like other soldiers that give their life in a noble way so that we might carry on life here in peaceful living, they have no roots or patriotism in their blood like we do. And I just wonder why? And I have respect for their decision. It puts me in awe though.

It reminds me of Christ, THE Foreigner to our sinful world coming to fight for our freedom so that we might have salvation.

His fight was to conquer sin on the cross and defeat death in His resurrection so that when we accept His payment for us we might have life, and life more abundantly. The freedom that a believer carries is the freedom to live in Christ and grow in the love of God. And that should warrant even more respect and honor and thanks than what I owe every soldier that has given his life for my freedom.

The simple things in life can be a great reminder of our Lord and liberty in Him because after salvation we have been given not only the freedom from sin but freedom to live for Him in His purposes, not enslaved by the world any longer. 

I have loved this verse about liberty for many years and wish to share it with you on this special occasion.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Galatians 5:1

I wish you all a Happy Fourth of July and hope you all have a wonderful time with your family and friends!

How God Provided: Clothes for Our Son

It’s amazing how God provides in mysterious ways! Just last week we saw God provide for our oldest son, Uno’s need for clothes. He, being the oldest, usually is the one that we buy new clothes for even if they are just “new” to him from the thrift stores. Our daughters have been provided for from about five different families in our church and we have tubs of clothes in our garage waiting for them to be old enough to wear them. Uno, however, has a pair of winter boots, a couple of shirts, and maybe a few other miscellaneous items in his tub…until now!

A month ago when I was packing up the winter clothes and getting out the summer clothes I noticed he was down to the bottom of his tub with all the winter clothes he had worn this year going into the tub for our second son, Dos. It would remind you of how the widow woman who Elijah saw felt when she noticed she was down to the bottom of the barrel with her meal and oil that morning. I began praying and telling God about Uno’s need and asking Him to provide.

We thought nothing of it when we were on our way to find some jeans at the store when my husband mentioned something to our neighbors that were outside. “Oh, we’re just going out to buy some clothes for our son before we head out on vacation,” my husband said. Then, bam! What do you know, God prompts the neighbor lady to go inside and bring us something…

When we returned from the store the doorbell rang and as we swung open the door, there she was with her arms stacked high, almost higher than her face, with boy clothes! God’s answer to my prayers was right there. She has two older boys that had outgrown the clothes and they were sitting in their garage waiting to be given away to charity. Well, God’s charity was shining down upon us when He provided so much!

When God provides so generously I am always reminded of the verse that my mother would quote to my sisters and I as children,

“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” Luke 6:38.

I can’t count the times that God has impressed on my heart to give away our children’s clothes. There have been times when Uno had outgrown clothes and Dos had not grown into them yet (they are 18 months apart) and God has burdened my heart for a single mother that needed clothes for her children. I have gone in and taken a majority of the clothes and given them to that mother. I can’t help it, I just feel like sometimes it’s a waste to have things sitting in storage when they can be used for someone else’s child.

If Jesus came back tomorrow would I wish that I had obeyed when He had placed that burden on my heart? That’s why when I’m impressed to give I do… I want to be obedient.

When we see God’s principles work, like when we give away clothes and then we receive clothes for our children, then we cannot question the principle outlined in Luke 6:38. The clothing stacked up in our neighbor’s arms were the evidence of “pressed down, and shaken together, and running over.” He now has clothes up to size 14 when he wears size 7.  Whether they will be in style in 7 years may be a different story!

If I could encourage you in one way through this testimony it would be, do not doubt God’s ability to keep track. He repays all things, whether good or bad. It’s been said many times that God is never a debtor. While we should give without expectation of receiving, we should be looking for God’s provisions and being thankful for them. The times we hold back and give begrudgingly are times we rob ourselves of abundant blessings!

Even ministry women, that are on a budget, with little to give can find themselves in a battle of generosity vs. holding on to their substance while on their knees praying to God to meet their needs. Remember God’s Word says in II Corinthians 9:6-8,

But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. 

God not only loves a cheerful giver, He provides abounding grace for you to be able to “abound to every good work.” In other words, He gives you plenty of grace to do plenty of good toward others. He will prompt your heart to give. Then, in time He gives back to you. If you recognize His abundant blessings and glorify Him for it, then you will have a story to tell just like we do.

The next blessing you can give is sharing with your children how He has provided and He cares for them by answering your prayers. They need to know He cares about the needs they have. When you share stories like these, you are not only exercising your faith, you are passing it on to the next generation. You are setting up stones for them to look back on and to see and remind them when they need to trust again, that God has come through in the past and He will do it again.

When God provides and answers our prayers it becomes a stepping stone of faith that leads us to the next step.

  • Will we trust God to provide the next need?
  • Will we be waiting in anticipation to see how He does it differently this time?
  • Will we spread the praise to those around us?

Our neighbors are unbelievers that God worked through. That is nothing short of a miracle. You just never know how God will come through! He is so good!