New Floor!

My wife and I are living in constant amazement at what God can do when you rely on Him. I cannot express enough to you what a blessing our lives have become. We were living pretty tight as far as our budget goes when I got laid off in May. I was the primary bread winner when it came to our income and we weren’t too far removed from living paycheck to paycheck. When I lost my job, our income was reduced by roughly 65%. You would think that for a family on a tight budget that this would be a disaster, but for us it has been a blessing. I am positive that this is only possible through the glory of God and obedience. Through others loving obedience and our obedience to Him and through His faithfulness to His promises, my wife and I have experienced miracle after miracle in our lives.

Malachi 3:10 (NLT): Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!

This floor is just one example. My wife’s desire for many months leading up to the lay off in May was for us to get to a point where she could stay at home and take care of the house. Through a lot of prayer and discussion, she accepted a promotion at work about a month before I was laid off. This promotion has been very stressful as she has not only had to learn a new position with added responsibilities but she’s also been responsible for the transition from a family owned medical practice to a corporate owned practice. She’s been working long hard hours at work and coming home exhausted in the evenings. I’ve probably not helped things very much because of my affliction; couchpotatoidess (see tagged part 1 sec 3) so when we came home to a chewed up kitchen floor, you can imagine her dismay. It also didn’t help that the reason the “puppy” chewed through the floor was because I had procrastinated for several years and hadn’t fixed the hole caused by a leaky back door. I’m watching my wife as she works a high pressure job seeing her husband sitting at home turning down high paying jobs all in the name of feeling God has called him to something else. I don’t know if she’ll believe this or not but it really tugs at my heart not to be able to take away some of that pressure, relieve some of those struggles or provide her with some of the “nicer” things in life. Now we have a kitchen floor that’s in need of repair and I’m looking at two options and knowing that neither one is going to turn out very nice but not knowing what else to do. Taking the advice of two dear friends, I patiently spent some time in prayer about this situation. Here’s the miracle, through the loving obedience of two followers of Jesus, God provided the material for us, allowing us to put in a floor that looks awesome! Christ said to them “follow me” and they followed, He said to share and they shared and He said to love and they loved. I can’t begin to explain to you what an incredible blessing this is. My wife whom, I’ve watched work long hours and come home tired day after day was able to come home to a beautiful new kitchen floor. I think that was the greatest blessing for me, to be able to provide my wife (through the generosity of others and the grace of my Father) with something nice to come home to. I worked right up until the last minute before leaving to spend a week at the beach with my father and step-mother, which they paid for (another blessing) and came home to this:





I am in constant awe of God's glory and many times, that glory is revealed through the obedience of those that surround me.

Matthew 5:16 (NIV): In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

God is good… all the time!