Wednesday Spiritual Encouragement

Trusting In God

This week, My dear friend  shares a personal experience in her Marriage in which God proves that trusting in him can lead to strengthening not only our marriage but also our walk with him. I hope that this week's spiritual encouragement strengthens your walk with the Lord as well.

Shalasha

When God tells you to move, He isn’t joking around! Two months ago, I was a stay-at-home-mommy with a nice teaching job that allowed me to work for only 6 hours a week. This meant I could bring in a little money for my family, but could also “be with” my kids.

Then one night, my husband and I began a stressful conversation about money and how, if we continued on the our current financial path, we would not be able to put our kids into the school of our choice – let alone afford any kind of vacation without the financial help of our parents, any big luxuries (like a much needed mattress), or even be able to save money. I mean, things were tight, but I always thought we could manage. I do want to add that I’m extremely blessed to have married a man who does not believe in “going into debt”! He firmly lives out his life with the philosophy that “if we don’t have it – we don’t spend it!” and it has worked for us – until we began thinking about our kids future. So, my “wonderful” husband told me that he believed I should find a job! I thought “What!!? How in the world can my husband ask me to LEAVE my kids to go work and be OK with someone else taking care of my babies?!”.

But, don’t you know I felt God tell me to at least look for a job. And I did…and I found a part-time position that sounded interesting. The idea of part-time was great because I could work and still “be with” my kids! A small voice told me to apply and as I was updating my resume, I was talking with God. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: God, this is a part-time job. There’s no way it will pay me what is needed to afford daycare AND help our family’s budget.

God: Trust Me.

Me: God, I don’t want to put my kids in daycare.

God: Trust Me.

Me: God, this is really scary.

God: Trust Me, Child.

So, I applied. I told my husband and he was impressed, to say the least, because he knew my strong reluctancy on the matter. A couple of weeks later, I got the call for an interview. The interview went great! I loved my would-be boss, the job itself, my co-workers, the idea of having my own office (with a window!) and the potential for growth. I told them my acceptance would be dependent on finding a good daycare, so my husband and I began looking around. We went to every daycare and didn’t like ANY of them. Constantly praying for God to show us the “pros” and “cons”, we walked into the last daycare and felt peace! We loved the environment, the staff, how clean it was, etc…but there were no openings for my youngest child! I have to be honest...I was excited inside; because I thought this was God “closing the door” on this job and that I could stay at home with my kids! Boy was I wrong. The director called me the next day and said she could squeeze my kids in and gave me their start date!

I immediately started crying. My husband was so torn in knowing what would be best for our family and wanting me to be happy – that he only said 3 words: “pray about it”. And, I did! I went into my closet and fussed with God! I did! I told Him how I felt and how uncomfortable I was with this situation and asked him to make it as clear-as-day to me what I needed to do, because I did not want to make any mistakes with this huge decision.

God never lets us down.

God is always in control.

God knows what’s best for our family.

God knew what He was doing when He put my husband into my life.

God knew my husband would ignite this “job-hunting” process which would ultimately benefit our entire family.

God is trustworthy.

            So, when I called this job back and told them I had a daycare picked out, they told me how much they were willing to pay me and it was clear-as-day what my decision was going to be.

God answers prayers.

            Here we are, 4 weeks of working a job and my kids being in daycare. We are still alive! I’m not going to lie…there were adjustments and hardships to get past in the beginning but, I see so many benefits already!

I love my job!

I’m working with Christians!

My youngest kid loves her teachers!

My oldest comes home singing new songs and talks about his “friends”!

I feel like God can use me more now than ever before.

            Now that this huge change has taken place, I can say that I trust God. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to say it before with real meaning…but, after this change, I know God is trustworthy! And it all began with my wonderful husband, listening to the call of God to make changes in his family!

Ashley