In 2007, we found ourselves being married for seventeen years, four children, and fast approaching our forties.  We had been living in a small three-bedroom and one bathroom house.  As our children were getting older, the house was getting smaller somehow.  We had lived there for 10 years, creating memories, remodeling, and paying the mortgage down.  This house had served us well, but now it was time to upsize.  We put the house on the market, and within two weeks we had a buyer.  We had already been looking for a new home, but nothing we could find that fit our needs.  Now we found ourselves in a rush to find a place to live.  We had a fixed price max in our minds.  Had to be a larger house, and location within driving distance to work.  Since we weren't finding anything, we had to up our price range and bought a house considerably over our budget.  It was a nice house, a great location, and plenty of room for all of us. We would just have to cut some other things out of our budget.

 

What Just Happened?

The following summer after moving in, my wife's company closed.  We were down to one income now, trying to make ends meet.  As much as I hated working overtime, there seemed to be an abundance of it, so bills were just barely getting made.  This went on for a while, there were no good-paying jobs around the area at the time.  A lot of added stress, and exhaustion.  At this point, we were not in church.  I had been bitter against God and didn't want to hear what He was saying.  I can do things by myself, don't need God's help.  After struggling, for several months I felt God was calling me to church, but I didn't want to listen still.   There were other valleys we were going through in our marriage, the stress in life that was challenging for us.  The financial burdens were secondary issues. 

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Who Me?

I felt God's nudging, his direction increasing more and more each day.  After a series of dreams, I finally gave in.  We started trying to find a church to go to reluctantly.  Eventually, we found a place almost right next to where we lived.  The spiritual burdens were growing, and a few months later we were both saved.  God had challenged all my beliefs I had.  The bitterness even before the recent struggles had kept me from God.  I could not understand why God let bad things happen in the world.  I often had taunted God,  "...prove me wrong".  Now he had moved in our hearts, we saw our sins, our need for a personal savior.  Our hearts and minds had changed.  We put our faith in God now.  The struggles after being saved, intensified, but our joy in life increased even more.  We were being faced with issues but had our faith in God now. 

 

Who Is Calling Now?

Several months later, in the middle of the night, my wife received a call from a friend she hadn't seen in quite a while.  She told her that a company she worked for here in town was having a hiring event at a local hotel, and she should go and apply.  I remember how we both felt that it was odd to get this call from someone she hadn't seen in a while; especially in the middle of the night.  Our thoughts at that time were it must be from God.  My wife went to the hotel when they were accepting applicants.  There were nearly 400 people who had shown up that day, for just a few jobs.  People with more education, more experience needing a job.  Times were hard, this was during the economic crash of 2008.  We were thinking, who would hire this mother of 4 children, no college degree, and less experienced than most of the applicants.

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Who Provides for Us?

Shortly, after applying, she got a call saying she was hired.  Out of all these people, my wife got hired.  What are the odds of that happening?  They are not odds, they are God blessing us.  As my wife went to her new hire meeting, she was asked how it feels to be working there.  She told the others that God had blessed her.  Thank you, God, for your provision in our life.

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Thank you, Lord, for the blessings in our life.