God's Faithfulness

God had been so faithful to us!!!  I know we could all share countless stories of how God has shown His faithfulness to us over and over again!  This spring I did a Bible study called "Believing God" written by Beth Moore--one of my spiritual mentors whom I love dearly--and one of the last lessons was about the Israelites passing through the Jordan River into Gilgal and into the Promised Land.  Read Joshua 4 to get the full story, but basically Joshua took twelve men, one from each tribe of Israel, and had them go into the middle of the Jordan River and each take up a stone from there and put it down where they were camping to set up a memorial to the Lord for His faithfulness of bringing the Israelites out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.  These were rocks or stones of rememberance.  Joshua 4:20-24 "And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal.  And he said to the people of Israel, "'When your children ask their fathers in times to come, 'What do these stones mean?'  then you shall let your children know 'Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.' For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever." 

Why do I bring this up?  Because I believe that we should all have a way of remembering God's faithfulness in our lives.  For me I will at some point purchase a large, beautiful vase so I can put different stories of God's faithfulness into it.  It may look like folded up pieces of paper, but my prayer is that it will be a conversation starter that will bring God glory for all the times He has been faithful to Mike and I throughout our lives together.  This vase of stories will be our "rocks of remembrance" and also so we can tell our children someday all that God has done for us.  It will also serve as a reminder when we are discouraged, all we will have to do is pull out a story and remember how mighty and faithful the God we serve is!!!

Now for the reason that I am sharing this important information: After 5 months of searching for a second job and getting every door that I tried to open closed, God has provided not just one but two nanny jobs for me!!!  I will start this first one on Wednesday and work for this family every week on Wednesday and Friday.  The second family I will work for are a wonderful Christian family from my chruch and I will care for their two girls Monday and Thursday each week starting next Monday.  I feel truly blessed!!!  Not only do I get to work with these two families, but God allowed me to continue my Tuesday morning Women in Leadership Development (WILD) class that I'm taking through chruch.  This was an area that I had such a hard time surrendering to God.  This spring when it came time to register for our Spring Bible Study classes, the WILD program was being kicked off--I originally was going to do a study on Esther, but God kept on tugging at my hear to be part of WILD.  At first I refused, due to finances, but told God I would "check it out" and go from there.  Part of my big hesitation of joining this program was that it is a two year commitment and Mike will graduate from Seminary this coming May 2010 and we have no idea where the Lord will take us.  After attending the info meeting and talking with Mike, he told me that I should take the class and that we could probably pay bit by bit, which ended up being the case.  I have grown to love this group of women so much that the thought of leaving them for a job, as well as my commitment to the class as a whole, was causing me deep distress.  I had several wise and wonderful women tell me that I had to be willing to surrender it if that was what the Lord wanted.  I came to that place and as I continue to interview for jobs I would simply pray and say that "if this is where you want me Lord open the door, if it is not, then please close them."  Our finances have been getting tighter and tighter and the Lord has continued to provide just enough.  Now the Lord has given me two nanny jobs in which I can serve these two families!  My heart is overjoyed and I can't wait to write this story down as a "rock of rememberence."  What will you do to remember all the times and ways God has been faithful to you?