February 2007

Allow me to share a testimony of God’s faithfulness and provision:

We’ve had some financial difficulties since last October, and though we are making progress, we still have a ways to go before everything is back to normal. We have tried a number of conventional solutions–refinancing and so forth–and none of them has worked out, though it seemed like they should have. And each time, I was not surprised, because I’ve concluded that God wants to work in our finances in a different way than the conventional. And that’s okay, though it has been a challenge at times when it seems like a simple loan approval would have taken care of everything. I’ve seen enough of God in action to know that often He has bigger plans than the immediate need, and so I’m willing to see how He wants to handle things and be blessed by and in the process. In the meantime, we’ve worked on bringing in more money, being careful with our spending–making the changes we need to enact to be good stewards.

In the process, we have seen God increase His provision through Teddie’s drapery business and sewing classes; she has had a record income since the first of the year, mostly through her classes. But even with this increase, I saw that it would not be quite enough to take care of February’s bills. For one, our car tags are due in February, and then we’ve had sick kids with doctor visits and prescriptions. (And yes, I know that we should have budgeted monthly for the car tags and for medical expenses–we haven’t done that in the past, but we’re getting there! Part of God’s bigger plan in this is teaching us stewardship skills that will eliminate the need for loan-getting skills.)

For the past week, I’ve been praying daily over our finances, bringing specific bills and amounts before God, because it was more than we could naturally expect to come in from Teddie’s work or any other “normal” source–I knew God would have to move supernaturally. And on almost a daily basis, we’ve seen God provide through Teddie’s work; for instance, on Sunday she had seven students show up for a demonstration class, when she had expected only three–in other words, God more than doubled the expected income from that class. read the complete post