Giving Thanks, Thanksgiving, Work, Provision

My 26 days of Thanksgiving list continues:

5. I am thankful that my husband is able to provide for our family through his job.

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It has not always been this way. When we were first married I made more money than he did and we were quite frivolous with our income--going here, going there, buying whatever. We had decided before we were married that if or when we had children that I would stay home with them. Two years after we were married I did just that when our first son was born, creating a huge dent in our cash flow. After about 2-3 years, our savings was gone, we had cashed in my 401K (boy, I wish we had kept that for these times) and we had accumulated some consumer debt since we no longer had a reserve fund. My husband closed his office and went to work for another firm but was laid off after about a year. That's when we noticed God really starting to work in our lives and  on our behalf.

One month our finances were so stretched that we could not make our condo mortgage payment. My husband went to our church elders for help. They gave us the money for that one month and also provided a huge amount of groceries which my older son and I picked up from the church office. I'll never forget that day--I even took a photo of all the groceries when we got home so my son would always remember what God had done for us that day. The elders counseled my husband about work and finances and we made some major changes. Within one week he had two freelance offers and a full-time job which he still has today (12 years later). We were able to pay off all of our debt within two years even after the birth of a 2nd child and a surgery for me. The following year we were able to move from a 1,000 s.f. condo to a 2,200 s.f. house with a pool in an older established neighborhood, all within our budget. God orchestrated events so that the sale of our condo and the purchase of our new home were within 30 minutes of each other as a testimony to my father particularly, that He was indeed at work. The sale of the condo is another story in itself. [Someone actually stopped ME as I was crossing the street and asked me if there were any condos for sale!]  We prayed, watched and waited, all the time trying to remain generous and thankful even in the lean times.

Matthew 6:30-31

“But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’