God Will Provide

It's been a while since I blogged what I was thinking about instead of just posting pictures or kid quotes. As much as I love that, events have been unfolding that warrant public acknowledgement. I hesitate to share some of this. Not because I'm embarrassed, as I would have been a few years ago, but because I don't want anyone to think we can't take care of our family. We chose willingly the lifestyle we have now. When I resigned my position to become the full-time mom to 5 children, we knew we would be giving up some material things. We chose to believe, above all, that God would and will provide for our family as long as we remain in His will. . The summer months and early fall are usually very hard on our family financially, for various reasons. It takes a lot to feed a family of our size throughout the summer, there are usually sporting events we want our kids to participate in, we want to travel to see family, there's always stuff to purchase for school and most of our the birthdays are in the fall. Our normally tight budget is stretched really thin. . It was definitely that time of year again when I used change to purchase milk for the kids' breakfast and stretched every bit of food. The other day when a couple of neighbor kids who don't have much were at our house, I invited them to stay for supper as I was praying to God to please provide as He did with the loaves and fishes. Let there be enough and no kid go hungry! Thankfully all had enough to eat that night. . As I was again pondering our grocery situation, I conversed with God about our finanial situation. A few years ago, I would have been stressed and crabby and carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders. This week, I've told God that I trust Him to take care of us. He will provide. I do what I can and God will do what I can't. God and I were the only ones who knew the desperation of my prayer but I felt completely at peace about it. . In the few short days following my prayer, here are just a few of the things that came to our house: *Lots of sweet corn from a local family that grows produce *Three jars of homemade jam from the family I babysit *A big bag of baby carrots that was left over from a church function *Two giant bags of tomatoes *Eggs from chickens raised by a local family *Cucumbers and squash from the parents of an old friend of mine *Two cookie-mixes in a jar leftover from a missions fundraiser *A huge watermelon from my dad *A big bag of fresh potatoes from a family in bible study . I wasn't even going to write about this because I hate people to think we are struggling. But when the doorbell rang a few minutes ago and there stood a friend holding a box full of pounds of ground hamburger fresh from the butcher, I knew I was supposed to share the wonderful power of God and prayer! Amazing! . I have another prayer out there right now that I might write about later. I don't want to limit God's ability to work by putting it out there just yet. And even if he doesn't answer the way I'd like, He ultimitely knows what's best so I'll continue to trust Him!