Provision

I have never doubted about God's provision in my life. Never.
The reason I could say this loud and clear is because God has always provided both my earthly needs and my spiritual needs.
I have always had a roof over my head, clothes on my body and food on the table.
These all seem to be very basic stuff, but, when there's only one income in the house, sometimes things could look and feel scary.
I have done my share of frustration, self pity (when I compare my home with others), and sometimes, down right angry.
I felt entitled, I felt I deserved something better, I felt the bitterness.
But one thing I never loose sight of, though, is His presence in all the situations. I know God always has a lesson to teach me as He allows me to go through some of life's trials.

Envying beautiful homes had always been my weakness. I would get all worked up inside after I visited a friend's home with all the bells and trimmings. I would come home and literally hated my place. One good thing I got out from blogging has been that I could see many bloggers' homes without knowing them or them knowing my "stalking". I was surprised that while I have "envied" many pretty homes, there were quite a bit of bloogers living in places that are much older than mine or more clutterer than mine. And than one day, I wandered into the Tiny house website. It has changed me. I started looking around my home, all of the sudden, my home seemed huge! It is still 800 Sq. ft., but it is 700 Sq. ft. bigger than the tiny houses. I clicked. It was all about perspective. The Tiny house floor plan was well laid out and the items in the house are simple and functional. I was sold on the concept of "Less is More" once again.

Did I say God led my wandering into that website? Well, He did. Shortly after that "conversion", I was in this huge and beautiful house for an event. As I was admiring the beauty of the place, there was not a trace of covertness inside my heart.

My appetite of a big house has curbed. Thank you Lord for forgiving my sin of covertness!

Next came my children's needs (and wants).
We have always taught our children to know the value of a dollar. They all have done well. Not sure about my married son as I don't really know his spending habit any more. But for Christine and Joshua, they have done well in their "money management". They have been blessed with material things from family members as well as friends and acquaintances! I won't go into details as to what they have been blessed with but we were surprised and speechless every time when the gifts were given. Sometimes, it was not even the tangible thing, it was the gift of TIME! These dear people WANT to invest their time to enhance my children's lives! Wow!

This gift of love humbles me, greatly. Praise the Lord for His goodness!

As for food, clothes and everything else, we have been blessed with some wonderful programs in the community. We have food share, clothes exchange, freecycle.com and Craig's list. Which has been so helpful to our family. We still shop for new stuff but have grown to be very aware of what we bring into our home. My 4Rs were born from participating these programs.

Our earthly needs definitely were met, to say the least. Thank God for His provision!

A beautiful Easter bouquet from our dear friends the Neuzils.

I rescued these two basil plants from the community food share. One died and one survived. Guess my thumb is getting a little greener, I have not killed them both.

These clothes (after minimized Josh's closet) went to the clothes exchange box to bless others as we have been blessed.

This post is linked to Sharon's Just For The Joy of It!