Luke 9:23

My mom sent this beautiful picture to me! It matches my living room wonderfully! I especially love the verse!

"If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me."

Building Relationships

Last night we had dinner with one of John David's new co-workers and his family. We enjoyed sharing a meal with them and getting to know their family. As I was talking to his wife she said something I have thought of often, "you don't really get to know the people you go to church with until you visit with them outside of church." This is something I have often thought of too! When we go to someone's home or they come to our home we are in a relaxed atmosphere and it is there that you are really able to start building a relationship that is more than talking over prayer requests in Small Group. We are thankful that we are in a church that encourages out of church gatherings because at our church we "do life together," and isn't that something every church and every Christian should strive for, "do life together," not just "do church together?"

Financial Blessings

The past month has been a month of change for our family. We purchased a home, John David resigned from his position with Farm Credit, and started his job at our church on January 5. Since he resigned 2 1/2 weeks before starting his new job, we have gone 4 weeks without a paycheck! Isn't that a scary thought? Somehow we have made it this past month and have not been financially strained. We still have some money in our checking account and we still have some money in our emergency fund. We are so thankful that we have been able to go 4 weeks without pay and not be stressed about it!

Of course we didn't have a big Christmas at all, in fact John David and I didn't purchase each other anything (although we did buy each other a home for Christmas!) Since this is the 4th week, I haven't been grocery shopping and it is amazing how much food I still have and how many meals I can make when I "need" to go to the grocery store. God has definitely taken care of us and blessed us tremendously!

Car Repairs

Yesterday we had to have John David's truck repaired, the clutch went out and to fix it, the shop had to lift out his transmission which equaled to a bill over $350...no fun at all!!

However, we can still praise God in this situation because this is the first time in 2 1/2 years of marriage that we have had to put one of our vehicles in the shop (and we drive older vehicles). We also had the money available to cover it; when I started working in October, I started taking out a percentage of my earnings for a car savings account because our vehicles are getting older. That money funded most of the bill and the rest we were able to cover from our checking without having to dip into our emergency fund! God is so good and faithful and blesses us so much!

Filled with Faith Friday

God has blessed me in so many ways and praising him is something I often fail at. There are so many little ways that God works which we often take for granted but he blesses us with so much and reveals his promises to us in simple ways.

Just last night I was reading in Malachi where God speaks to the nation of Israel about robbing him by not giving their tithe. Here is some of the passage:

"8 You ask: 'How do we rob You?' 'By not making the payments of 10 percent and the contributions. 9 You are suffering under a curse, yet you - the whole nation - are still robbing Me. 10 Bring the full 10 percent into the storehouse so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this way,' says the Lord of Hosts. 'See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.' " Malachi 3:8-10

Verse 10 really stood out to me. God has richly blessed John David and I throughout our marriage. When we married we had maybe $2,000-$3,000 to our name (cash, checking, savings, everything!) That was it, no assets, no furniture, only our clothes and cars which our parents blessed us with. Before we even married we committed to God that we would give our tithe and then give above that each year. God has honored that commitment and our giving, he has blessed us in so many ways! He has provided furniture to us (we have only had to purchase 3-4 items), he has provided clothing and food, and he enabled us to graduate college debt free which is a huge blessing.

After reflecting on this last night I mentioned to John David how good God is and this verse shows that he wants to bless us if we will only be willing to give to him. Today I received in the mail a graduation check! It was completely unexpected and a blessing! Every little bit counts when you are saving and right now we are saving up 3 months living expenses in an Emergency Fund. I am just amazed at God's faithfulness to us!

This morning I was reading in Matthew and read this passage:

"25 'This is why I tell you: Don't worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the sky: they don't sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you worth more than they? 27 Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don't labor or spin thread. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these! 30 If that's how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won't He do much more for you - you of little faith? 31 So don't worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' 32 For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. 34 Therefore don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." - Matthew 6:25-34

It takes a lot of faith to truly apply this passage to our lives. But when we stop worrying about things and give our life, our situations, our finances to God he does amazing things! He tells us in verse 31 not to worry what we will eat or drink or wear. Just today after reading this passage I received a package from my mother-in-law and in it was a beautiful white cardigan.

Isn't it great how God works? He worked through my mother-in-law to teach me a lesson on faith. He says he will provide and he does! This wasn't a true need but I have wanted a white cardigan for months now and have been unsuccessful at finding one. I was blessed with this beautiful sweater and shown that God is faithful and his word is so true and DON'T WORRY!!

I think it is important to share the ways God works in our lives. We often don't share with others and it is so important to let people know what God does for us everyday. Just like yesterday when I was driving I nearly ran into a car that pulled out in front of me but I was able to react quickly enough to avoid an accident and all this happened while I was singing "My Savior loves, my Savior lives, my Savior's always there for me" from Aaron Shusts song My Savior My God! It's just awesome to think about how God works in our lives!!

Now that I have shared I would love to hear about how God is working in your life and showing himself to you!

The Small Ways God Works

This morning I looked at my meal plan list on my fridge and I thought that God so often works and shows himself in the small things. Last Sunday I had planned 9 meals and here we are on Thursday and we have only had 2 of the meals!! Isn't that amazing? Monday we were invited to dinner at the Simmerman's, Tuesday I cooked, Wednesday I made chili which was lunch for John David yesterday and dinner last night. We so often make it through a week and only 2 or 3 meals have been cooked and we often think "wow, what did we eat, I only crossed 3 meals off the list?" God just blesses us in so many ways and he shows himself to us by blessing us in so many little ways. Without God we could not make it on a $160 a month food budget and have excess groceries and money in the budget each month! GOD IS SO GOOD!

His Love Never Quits

This morning my sweet husband let me sleep in which was absolutely wonderful! I am so thankful for such an amazing man who goes to work every day and allows me to stay home ungrudgingly. How God has blessed me with a man like this! These were the thoughts on my heart this morning.

Then after breakfast I found out that another person I know is getting divorced. In the past few months John David and I have known several friends and acquaintances from our hometowns that have separated or have gotten divorces. It hurts my heart every time I hear of this because that is not what marriage is about and not what God wants. I was so hurt this morning that I knew that I could only turn to God for comfort and assurance.

I have been reading the Psalms lately and today I found Psalm 136.

Psalms 136 (The Message)

Thank God! He deserves your thanks. His love never quits.
Thank the God of all gods, His love never quits.
Thank the Lord of all lords. His love never quits.
Thank the miracle-working God, His love never quits.
The God whose skill formed the cosmos, His love never quits.
The God who laid out earth on ocean foundations, His love never quits.
The God who filled the skies with light, His love never quits.
The sun to watch over the day, His love never quits.
Moon and stars as guardians of the night, His love never quits.
The God who struck down the Egyptian firstborn, His love never quits.
And rescued Israel from Egypt's oppression, His love never quits.
Took Israel in hand with his powerful hand, His love never quits.
Split the Red Sea right in half, His love never quits.
Led Israel right through the middle, His love never quits.
Dumped Pharaoh and his army in the sea, His love never quits.
The God who marched his people through the desert, His love never quits.
Smashed huge kingdoms right and left, His love never quits.
Struck down the famous kings, His love never quits.
Struck Sihon the Amorite king, His love never quits.
Struck Og the Bashanite king, His love never quits.
Then distributed their land as booty, His love never quits.
Handed the land over to Israel, His love never quits.
God remembered us when we were down, His love never quits.
Rescued us from the trampling boot, His love never quits.
Takes care of everyone in time of need. His love never quits.
Thank God, who did it all!
His love never quits!

What a comfort to know that no matter what happens on this earth that God's love never quits! And in a marriage if both partners are committed to each other and most importantly committed to God and seeking him that God will never allow their love for each other to quit. I can't imagine how God's heart much ache when his followers choose to abandon their marriage.

He created marriage and with God at the center of the marriage it will succeed! His love never quits!

What's Next

In the past few days we have entered back into the "seeking" phase once again! We spent all of last year praying and seeking for what we were to do after John David graduated. In April that was revealed to us and we moved to Columbia May 5th and have been here almost 4 months. John David's training period is 6-12 months so as we approach nearer to the 6 month mark we have both felt the need to begin earnestly praying and seeking God's will for what is next. We just ask for your prayers as we pray for guidance and direction! It is a challenging time but it is also exciting because we get to see how awesome God is as he works in our lives and reveals things to us! We are not worried; we are resting in his promise that he will take care of us and that is such a comfort!