Count Your Blessings.

I heard, said and even preached at times the often used phrase..."Count your Blessings" more than once in my life, but I have to say that this last week has truly shown me the true meaning behind this commonly used statement. 
I debated on whether to even write about what has been going on the past few weeks, trying to avoid getting "too personal" on a public blog, but after some quality time and good conversation with a dear friend today, I decided to move forward with writing...

The last two weeks have been very interesting.  Let me take that back... the last YEAR has been very interesting.  Just to give you a quick recap of all that has happened...  Wade and I started to get very involved in church and our walk with the Lord, something we had neglected for quite some time.  We were learning so much, taking a Dave Ramsey class to become "debt free," had 1 beautiful daughter and another on the way, plans to build our dream home and move, an income that met all of our needs and then some... life couldn't be better. 

September 2009... Lela, 8 weeks prior to delivery, had a cyst on her brain and was miraculously healed by the good Lord.  Just a few weeks later, Wade lost his job.  He went from a substantial income, to unemployment benefits that wouldn't even pay our bills, 4 weeks away from my due date.  Lela arrived, Wade decided to open up his own Construction Company and forfeit his unemployment... scary, but I supported.  Months have varied throughout his career path... months of wondering how we were going to pay the bills, months of feeling like everything was going to be just fine...  God was and is Faithful, which we knew, but over the last 2 weeks it has become even more clear how faithful He really is. 

Wade has been looking for full-time employment since he was laid off, in addition to doing his construction job.  God has spoken to us that He is moving us and is going to give us a job... where and when are still the missing details!  With this in mind, I guess we have tried our best to avoid "government assistance" for all this time.  Wade and I came to a crossroads... we knew that God was going to provide, but even He may use other means to do so... So we put all our pride aside and marched ourselves down to DSS and sought out the help we so desperately needed.  I didn't know that it was going to be the learning experience of my life...

I walked in feeling "I don't belong here"... not because I am better, but because we HAD it so much better than some of the people that were there.  But here is the thing... 6 hours of waiting to be helped can create some bonding time between you and the other people waiting.  Not once, did anyone judge me for my nice jeans and comfortable tennis shoes, but how often have I judged?  How often have I stood behind the person in the grocery line and complained that they were buying "Digiorno", while I had "Great Value" in my cart all to find out that they were on Food Stamps. I am guilty of this... and ashamed.  My eyes were opened sitting in one small little town in America.  There was so many people that would have loved to be in "our shoes."  So many people without, hungry and hurting, but to make it worse... there are so many people thats' only comfort is found in government sources and they don't rely on the Lord for means of provision, hope and support.  I think this is what hurt the most...  I realized that I have a giving heart, but I need to give beyond the material possessions...  God wants us to have things, but only so that we can give to others and give the glory to Him...  otherwise it is just useless stuff.  Christians must have compassion for the hurting... just as Christ does for us. 

Over the last 2 weeks we have been humbled by the people that we spoke with and met and the experience we had.  We have had some medical scares over the last two weeks with our girls, (which I will post later) but again, we are so blessed!  We gathered our tax information for 2010 and realized that by the "Number" we ended up with, that God has definitely, supernaturally multiplied our income in order to pay our bills... otherwise I can guarantee that some bills would have been unpaid.  We have had some really tough times, but I know that our hardships are another person's dreams...

That is why today I am choosing to COUNT MY MANY BLESSINGS and know that my Lord has got my life in HIS hands... Wade and I have realized that we need to wake up... it's a big world out there and there are a lot of people that we can show God's love to.  It's not just about us...