Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Limited Time

Hey Friends!  I just found this on one of my favorite blogs!  Happens to be e-books that I don't own, and worth the price any day of the week.  But when you read about a precious family of 7 who just lost their daddy, it is all the more worth it.  This is 9 ebooks (you don't have to have an e-reader, you can read them or print them on your computer, I did that for YEARS before we got our Kindle!) for $5.  Each author donated the book, so this is 100% donation to the family!  I have already bought mine, you can pay through pay pal!  I encourage you to go get yours now!


Here is the link--http://life.yourway.net/barlow-family-benefit/

Speechless

I don't know who actually said this first, but it is a good little saying that is floating around, "live like no one else lives, so you can give like no one else gives."  In my down and out attitude these past few days I have been complaining to God about that a bit.  We do live like no one else lives, and financially we STILL can't give like no one else gives.  It's been kind of a bummer, for me.....some of you know me well and you know that I love to give, I LOVE IT!  To me there is nothing greater than seeing the smile on someones face when you give them a small (or big) gift!

So anyway. At church Sunday, some friends were telling us about some new bunk beds they just got for their kids.  They were really excited about some of their family buying the beds for the kids and just kinda mentioned in passing, that they were now just looking for some cheap mattresses for the beds.  Now, for those of you who follow our other blog, you know that my kiddos are now sleeping in hammocks!  (yeah, crazy, I KNOW)  So on my back porch I had a STACK of mattresses, twin mattresses, four of them to be exact.  Two were spoken for by some friends, but we still had two (well actually three) left.  We were planning to keep two, but really didn't NEED to keep two, so we were able to tell them we had TWO mattresses that they could have!

I really didn't get it till later that day that b/c we live like no one else were were able to give!  (seriously, how many people do you know that sleep in hammocks, and you can't count our family of 6!)  I was SO thankful that despite or finances God was allowing us to give.  I still am amazed that God can use us to give and meet the needs of others.

Now, flash forward to yesterday afternoon.  Our friends come to pick up the mattresses and we begin to chat a little about different things. And he hit a sore spot for me.  He started talking about an item that Matt has REALLY been wanting/needing since before we bought this house.  It is an item that we CAN live without but really, we do kinda need it.  Our friend, not knowing anything at all about our situation or our need, drove home the point to me that we really did NEED this item.  (I am still not for sure it is a need, but regardless)  I found myself VERY sad yesterday afternoon that even in all my frugality (is that a word?)  I had done a few things to try to get this done for him, but  I just could not make this happen for my hubby.  NOTHING I could do would make it to where we could afford this.  Since our friend was something of an expert on this issue, I decided to email and ask him what would be the cheapest, best way to get this item.  I was determined to work toward this goal, eventually, I knew I could do it.  LONG story short, by the end of the night he was talking to my husband telling him how he would give us one.

It still brings tears to my eyes to see how God uses the Church to encourage and love on us.  He allowed my family to bless theirs (which just blessed me beyond measure to be able to help them).  But then He allowed their family to bless us, which I think blesses them, from the sounds of it!  Neither of us ASKED nor expected the other family to be able to just meet the need we had, but God, in His wisdom allowed it to happen.

My guess is, He wants me to know that even though this season of life is hard, He still cares.  He loves me.  He allowed me to do the things I wanted to do, and He gave my hubby the thing he wanted/needed most!  All He wants from me is for me to get out of the way, stop trying to do it on my own and allow Him to show me how it can be done!