Brag post.....

"When we get to Heaven, we will find out that nothing that would have benefited us was withheld from us."
~Anonymous
Our new Pastor here preached a message yesterday that seemed to be just about us.  It was based out of the 80th Psalm.  We had actually decided that we were going to join this church yesterday morning since we don't know when we are moving and haven't belonged to a church for a couple of months.  So, I thought it was time I wrote a brag post.  Not on us, mind you, but on God.

When my husband first lost his job, I was terrified.  I constantly had a sick feeling of dread knowing that our very lives were changing and hanging in the balance.  We couldn't get unemployment because we worked for a church...so we had NOTHING coming in.  We did have some savings, but with a mortgage and 4 kids....you could go through that pretty quickly.

I can't tell you the number of times people would come up to us and hand us money.   Over and over and over again.  We would leave church just shaking our heads at what God was doing in our lives.  Like my sister in law said this morning, it is almost like God knew that you needed time with your husband.

And I did!  Shortly after he found out that he wouldn't have a job anymore, we found out we were expecting...SURPRISE.  I was not physically or emotionally prepared for that.  AT ALL.  I am not one of those people that glows while they are pregnant.  Nope, I do not glow, I get fat...and my nose grows, and I whine and complain...and then my feet swell and my fingers and I have a perpetual cold the whole time and for the first 3 months, I am in my bed wishing I could just puke already.  It isn't pretty, let me tell ya.  But you see, God knew that.  He knew that through pregnancy and the heartache I would need Justus.  We also began homeschooling this year.  I shudder to think what would have happened to our poor children if Justus wasn't here everyday helping them.  But again, that wasn't me, or Justus, that was God.  HE ALREADY KNEW WHAT I WOULD NEED.   And while it took me a while to come to grips with the fact that we weren't just going to go out and get a job at the snap of the finger, I did get it and I became THANKFUL that Justus was home with me.  


Now fastforward a couple of months.  We JUST NOW had to get into our savings...3 months later.  Just days before my husband landed a job!  God met our EVERY NEED.  Even the ones we didn't know we had.  We began putting money in an envelope...if someone handed us a 20 dollar bill, it went into the envelope.  If someone gave us a Wal-Mart gift card, in the envelope it went.  And everytime I needed something there was enough money in that envelope to take care of it.  Can you believe it?  God was even so good to me that a friend of mine sent me a Starbucks gift card just so I could occasionally have my fix.  


I am literally in tears right now thinking about it.  I could go on and on, name names, etc.  But I know that these people that blessed us so much did it because they let God use them.  Maybe it was through a still small voice.  Maybe they saw a need.  (Though no one took Isaac off of our hands yet, that's a need.  Any takers?)


So, there is my brag post.  Sure I could brag on the fact that my husband is such a tightwad :)...and he is.  But God gave him that ability.  


Back to the quote at the beginning...I still don't understand it.  I don't know why God had us walk through this valley, but I KNOW nothing that would have benefited us was withheld from us.  Not money, not a job....nothing.  


I hope you made some sense out of this.....thank you for those of you who even said one prayer for us.  It means the world to us.