JEHOVAH-JIREH: the Lord will provide

I thought that I would explain in a little more detail the ways that God is moving in the relationship that He ordained between Andrew and myself. He has really moved in BIG ways since we have been married and really even from the first day we met. (I say met because he claims he saw me WAY before we met on a church trip and told the friend he was with "I will never date someone like that..." It is things like this that I enjoy tasting a little bit of God's humor. HA!)

Anyways, I guess I will start from the beginning of our marriage and help you watch God's hand through our relationship as I have done.

Andrew lost his job a few weeks before we got married. He had been working a very decent, full time job and was on the brink of getting benefits and he received lots of overtime and would have been a fantastic, steady job for us to start with as I was working full time in Amery, no benefits but the pay was good. But, God, in His great wisdom and for reasons only He will understand took that cushy life we could have had and changed it to a teaching life where we had to fully rely on Him in order to make our payments. Yes, the thought did cross my mind a few times and I wondered "should I really marry him now?" But we went through with it and it just revealed God's glory in amazing ways.

We were married in September and our relationship was VERY taxed due to the failing economy and shortage of jobs in our area. To add to our hardship, Andrew's car broke down and we didn't have the money to pay to fix it so we decided to sell it...We were a single car couple now. Andrew ended up having to WALK all over New Richmond to find work. He even walked almost all the way to Star Prairie which is quite a few miles, and one day he even walked to Amery, 25 miles. As I type this, I think of how miserably I failed him in not giving him enough credit and respect for what he went though for me and my heart just sinks. What a wonderful man I married.

We had our struggles with things at home as well as him not finding a job. I felt that he should be doing more at home since I had the full-time job and he felt he was doing enough and on it went. Winter came and Andrew was dedicated enough to continue to walk around town looking for work. As it came to be, the landlord of the building that I worked in could use a hand with maintenance around the place, and Andrew was the man for the job. Between what I was bringing in and what Andrew brought in we had just enough for our small amount of bills and just enough groceries. I see now what a mistake we made when we chose not to tithe. What a small faith I have. Father forgive me.

It came to Christmas and God blessed us with enough money to buy a tree and we had ornaments from my bedroom at home which actually happened to be enough to fill a good-sized tree. God really came through for us at Christmas. I remember just being broken and asking Andrew what we were going to do to pay the bills for next month and Andrew had just brought in the mail (probably with bills in which was why I was at that point...). He mentioned we got something from my grandparents and I opened it and it was a check made out for an amount that would help us to pay our monthly bills and catch up on a few that we were behind on. The gratefulness that I have to my grandparents, still, I am just so thankful and blessed. I cannot tell you how much it mean to me that they would think of us and send money for Christmas...I need to write another card to them...

Well, the blessing continued because my boss gave me a dollar raise in January. As many struggles as I had with her, she really was good about being understanding about when I needed my check. She was willing to write them out early for me. What a blessing. Right around that time, I emailed the owner of the grocery store in Amery, I babysat for them when their boys were little, and told him about the tough spot that Andrew and I were in. He said he would keep his eyes open for us and a week later Andrew had a part-time job paying just enough for us to catch up on all of our bills and make our monthly payments along with my paychecks. January always begins to be very expensive for us with our utility bill as we have all electric base-board heat and a big old drafty house.

I forgot to mention previously that Andrew had sworn into the Air Force Reserve January 5th and we were counting on him leaving for basic training in June of 2010.

The good news just kept coming because on Valentine's Day 2010 we learned that we were pregnant...I was so excited and at the same time I just felt shame for bringing a baby into the world where we just weren't even sure if we would be able to buy groceries. But God's grace and mercy abounds, and I attribute it not to the faith that Andrew and I had (because that has been so small and we have just really failed Him in our walks) but to the prayer and faith that my mom has.

So things started to loosen up a little bit in our wallets as Andrew started working more and more hours and I continued to work regular hours. That isn't to say that we didn't have our amount of hardships. We only had one vehicle at this point, remember, so we had to work out ride-share. Typically he would ride with me and stay at work and then walk to Dick's which was nice. During our dating days, one of our favorite things to do was to just drive around and talk. That is probably one of the major blessings, and totally God's hand in keeping our marriage strong by giving us that time together.

The car situation is a whole different story, another revelation of God's grace and provision. JEHOVAH-JIREH. How much meaning that name has to me now. I will tell about the cars another time.

The summer came and went, we were still pretty tight, but God pulled us right along. We still weren't tithing - amazing how small our faith can still be even after everything that God does. Around August I believe we received our long-awaited tax refund and the first time home-owner's credit. A huge blessing. We worked at saving some and being a little bit more free. It's amazing how when you get a little taste of financial freedom, or any freedom I imagine, you just take it and RUN, no matter what you have learned...so that leads us to where we are today...

Andrew was finally sent to Basic in January and it couldn't have come at a better time. We had finally squandered all of our savings by December and were living on just what Andrew had left to bring in and he took off work the week before he left.

I was left here at home in the freezing Wisconsin winter to manage the finances which I had been doing from the beginning but I had no control over what we bring in since I quit when our son came. That's right, God was gracious enough to allow me to be a stay at home mom since October. What a good God we serve. It has always been my dream I guess to be able to be a stay at home mom.

Well, at the beginning of January I faced possibly having to go back to work because as Andrew's check showed, it just wasn't going to be enough for us to even live on...now that we have diapers and wipes to pay for. But God just doesn't stop. Andrew's next check was PLENTY for me to even put a little away. So we will be able to fly down and see him for his graduation and I can still pay our bills.

That presented another question though, what was he going to do when he comes home? He is hoping to find a job working for an airline loading planes which is what his military job will be. I would be tickled if he would be able to do that, but I was starting to feel called to be a full-time military family. I prayed and had others praying about that, and that God would place it on Andrew's heart to do that as well. I didn't want it to be just something I wanted for us, but for Andrew to feel that it would be God's will for us and for his career. Well, the last time I talked to him he mentioned that he was looking in to working full-time reserve. We would be able to stay at our home and he would have a full-time job in the reserve working on the base in Minneapolis. It would be such an answer to prayer because it would be a steady-fail safe job for him and I really believe it would be a good one for us.

So that is the story of God's provision in our lives. Shortened some, and there are so many different places that I can expand on but since I didn't, I have to believe that this message is going to bless someone else as God guided my fingers on the key-board. May this bless you and encourage you as you go on with your day.