God's Shovel

“God’s Shovel is Bigger Than Ours.” My husband often told me this when I seemed hesitant to give his hard earned money away to whatever backyard missions he had in mind at the time. We scrimped much and went without much and I selfishly wondered sometimes, “What about us?” I would have like to get something new for once. But the principle my husband taught me has stuck with me. Just days after his death I gave the money he had squirreled away for some backyard missions where he had wanted it to go. A part of me wanted to cling to that money now that my earthly provider was gone. Another part of me feared God in doing that. So more out of fear than obedience, I gave. Just two days later, I was given a check from a church I don’t even know for about twice the amount. Okay, okay. “God’s shovel is bigger that ours” echoed in my head. And since then I have felt like I am in the money recycling business. The Lord lays it on my heart to give to Person A. Person B feels led to give to me. I feel the Lord commanding me to give to Person C and Person D gives me a great savings on health care. And it isn’t just money. I feel led to send someone a card that the Lord knew they need right then. A different person orders ice cream for us then sneaks out the restaurant. This is how God works, at least in my life He does! By the way, I don’t give out of fear anymore. But out of loving obedience and wait in expectation for what He is going to do next:)

Fingerprints of Protection

This month has been very busy with 4th of July drama, two back to back vacations out of state, adjusting to being home, and preparing for the upcoming school year.

In the midst of all this, God has left His fingerprints all over us. I will share just two incidences:

(1) On one of our trips, we had traveled right into a storm. It was downpouring so much we pulled off on the side of the highway because we just couldn't see. Now mind you, we were in flat country, so we had high winds rocking our van, lighting and thunder crashing around us, and rain beating on the roof. Snipp, Snapp, and Snurr as well as I felt like the disciples in the boat. It was rather scary. So we huddled in prayer and within moments..........nope, the storm didn't calm, the wind didn't stop either. But we felt calm. The Lord blanketed us with peace within. After a wait, it let up enough we could travel on. Another lesson for the boys to learn to run to God and experience Him working in their lives.

(2) Several days after returning home, Snipp said one of our tires looked low. I let him be manly and add air. When he did, he discovered a lugnut was just a little loose. We tightened it up and I didn't give it another thought till the next afternoon. As I turned a corner when we were returning from some errands, I felt the driver side tire just feel funny. Please, Lord, just get us home. Again when we turned into the driveway, something was just not right. Once stopped, I hopped out to discover every lugnut on the driver's side front tire was loose!!! And not just a little loose, but loose enough I could see at least an inch of the threads. WOW!!! When I think of all the miles we covered at speeds of 65 plus mph and thought about the "what if's", I just trembled. Once again Christ in His mercy has answered our prayers for protection.