Friday, March 6, 2009

God's Provision....



This picture of hubby and I on the California coast was taken a couple of years ago. It was a fun trip and you can read all about it if you go here and scroll half way down. I chose this picture for today simply because with our busy teen raising season we are in at the moment....I don't have many pictures of us together. But all of that isn't even important at the moment because right now I want to simply share about God's Provision.

Hubby is a very hard worker. He is never one for keeping very still (unless there is a fun movie on t.v. that is). As a high school senior way back in the day, he balanced school and three jobs at the same time. Then he made the Air Force a whirlwind of a career, settling into the sort of job that ......well that we could never talk about because it was a secret.

14 Years ago he retired and decided to follow his dad into the world of truck driving. Boy is he good at it. He can back a 73 foot truck and trailer combo into a tight spot faster than you can say "eighteen wheeler". He works for a local long haul family type trucking company and has been with them thru good times and slow times. (What does local long haul mean? It means that he can put up to some 500 miles on his truck in a single day and be home at the end of his shift.) He has built up seniority there and above all else has definitely shown his character.

Why am I telling you this? Well the basic story goes like this.......
With the current economy, as work is getting tight and the demand for product goes down, the company has had to put the drivers on an every other day rotation roster. All the drivers that is except my husband. They have asked him to be part of a new long term project and they changed his pay style. See, for the last 14 years, he has been paid by what he does. That is the way with most trucking establishments. A paycheck will vary each week depending on the loads and mileage that each driver does. It is honest pay for honest work.......but it had made poor hubby have to always compute in his head every day how much he needs to do so that we as a family can live. That can become a pretty stressful way of thinking. Now though, his pay is going to be based off of an hourly salary and guaranteed 55 hours a week.

Do you see God's provision there? For the last 4 years we have been working hard to pay off all of our bills and become debt free. We now have 10 months left to go and we are locked into our plan. If he would have been one chosen to work every other day, oh how quickly we would have spiraled into financial oblivion.
We are so humbled and grateful for God's favor.

I don't mean it to sound like we are jumping up and down in a virtual party here. I know that others are affected in a bad way with this company shift and I do feel for them and have compassion. Do you know what I mean?



(David at Authorblog honored this post with a mention in his post of the day column. I am so glad to be able to share our blessings with everyone.)

27 comments:

  1. I'm glad to know that God is providing for you; and that you are giving him praise.

    An Arkies Musings

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  2. Times are tough right now, but it is good to see that you are able to find the blessings and share them. Too many people dwell on what they don't have - and blog about it. : )

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  3. One can rejoice in their own fortune without seeming uncaring toward another's misfortune. And those folk working every other day are still better of than people who have been laid off completely.

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  4. I am very very happy for you both. Think it might also have something to do with the value the company put on your husband for all his loyalty and hard work.

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  5. Great news GOD is Good. But sad for others.But hard times ahead in these end times.But we look to God. Amen. Love to family. Did hubby read the joke "To be six again." in your comments. St. Pod.

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  6. Hi Jules,
    this is Mae.....just change my blog and doing things a little different. Yes, time is really tough all over. And I hope for the day it began to get better. With God we will get through it. Have blessed week.

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  7. I'm so happy for your family, Jules.

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  8. The humility in your words speaks volumes. Congrats to your hubby on the job and to you both for sticking to you debt free plan.

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  9. The $100 Prayer


    A little boy, who wanted $100.00 very badly, prayed for two weeks but
    nothing happened. Then he decided to write GOD a letter requesting
    $100.00.

    When the postal authorities received the letter to GOD, U.S.A., they
    decided to send it to the President. The President was so
    impressed,touched, and amused that he instructed his secretary to
    send the boy $5.00. Mr. President thought that this would appear to be
    a lot of money to the little boy.

    The little boy was delighted with the
    $5.00 and immediately sat down to write a thank you note to GOD
    that read: "Dear God, Thank you very much for sending me the
    money. However, I noticed that for some reason you had to send it
    through Washington, D.C., and, as usual, those JERKS deducted
    $95.00 for taxes!.

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  10. Great news! Nice to hear a success story every now and then.

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  11. I know exactly what you mean. There is no such thing as a coincidence, everything happens in life for a reason, I have, and always will, strongly believe that.

    CJ xx

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  12. I'm glad for your family--your husband's faithfulness is being rewarded. And I do understand. We can rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.

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  13. I'm dancing with you! May God continue to bless you! Congrats on POTD!

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  14. That's fantastic! Hats off to your respectable man, and praise the Lord for His provision!

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  15. Thanks for your visit to my skies today, so glad you enjoyed the moon also!
    So nice for you to have a little relief in knowing what the job situation is for your husband for the next while. And yes, it is hard to reconcile that with others who are not so well off!
    It is raining here, and the birds have started to warble and sing again...just precious!

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  16. Dearest Jules, you are the 2nd person I know whom blogged about this recession. Everyone else seems to be having a good time..or that's what I thought so, or maybe a blogger reminded me, no one wants to talk about it. It was also the reason the need for me to cut down on blog posting and hopping, to concentrate and work harder (no choice haha). I am very glad and happy for your husband..to be able to keep a secured job and steady income, it's god sent during tough times like this, when we hear nothing but sad news on people unemployed. What a great honest man he is. Driving a 73 foot truck is no joke, the longest we have are the standard 40 footers, so he must be very skilled. Now i know he and i are in similar industry :P Have a great and wonderful weekend Jules. Much love/M

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  17. What a blessing! It is good to share blessing, and congrats on the POTD!

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  18. Jules please pop over to pick your award?????

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  19. Ah Jules, you are such a "cup half-full" as opposed to a "cup half-empty" person, seeing the good and the positive in everything around you. You are a regular breath of fresh air girl! Smile.

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  20. So happy for God's Provision for your family...and for David's seeing the wonderful humanity of it...
    hugs
    Sandi

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  21. Hi Jules Had this sent to me today ..........Judgment
    March 16, 2009

    "For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name." (Amos 4:13)

    This awesome ascription of judgmental power to God is in the midst of a dire prophecy by Amos to the ten-tribe northern kingdom of Israel. He had reminded them of earlier judgments, including even that of Sodom and Gomorrah, concluding with the fearsome warning: "prepare to meet thy God, O Israel" (Amos 4:12).

    Then, in our text verse, he seems to carry them still further back in time to remind them of an even greater destruction. The great winds of the earth, like its rains, first blew over its surfaces at the time of the mighty Deluge (Genesis 8:1), and the present mountains of the earth likewise rose out of the churning waters of the Flood (Psalm 104:6-9). It was at the time of the Flood that dark clouds first obscured the sunlight which before had perpetually shown through the pre-Flood "waters which were above the firmament" (Genesis 1:7), which had then condensed and fallen to the earth in great torrents from "the windows of heaven" (Genesis 7:11).

    This awful judgment had come because the antediluvians, like the Israelites, had rejected their Creator and gone after other gods (Genesis 6:5). As if to confirm that he was, indeed, referring to the great Deluge, Amos, a few verses later, exhorted the Israelites to "seek him . . . that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth" (Amos 5:8).

    It is dangerous and foolish for any nation or any person to question the true God of creation. He made all things, He knows all things, and He judges all things. "The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name." HMM From St.POD.

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  22. I am glad to hear that nice story, I also think that dear Hubby got this fixed income because he truly deserves it, he has worked hard for it, and it is very grant of you to thank God for your hapiness.
    I feel very sorry for the ones who are at pain because of recession, and it's not finished, the recession is going down to the most humble and poor people who are going to become poorer, this is terrible.
    However, life is being nice to you, because you deserve it, and i am happy for you and your family.
    Big bisous.

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  23. Jules when you get sometime please take a look at this christian ladies site. .....http://channelofhealing.com/?page_id=601

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