It's the little things.

The weather has been so beautiful the last few days. Low 70's, clear and sunny is perfect! Because of daylight savings time it's light after we finish dinner, so the last few nights we've taken a family walk (well, Clark rides). Caroline is staying with us this week so she has joined us for our family walks. As I sat down to write I couldn't think of anything in particular. All I could think is that it's the little things that make life great. I don't want to take it for granted when we have beautiful weather or the ability to be together as a family and have the health and physical ability to exercise together.

Life has been a rollercoaster since last summer. The move to Jacksonville has been full of ups and downs. Michael was miserable in his job with the Boy Scouts, he was applying for church jobs and hearing no answer or "we've decided to go with other candidates", we've gotten our hopes up about several jobs and then smashed repeatedly. I've found myself getting discouraged and feeling sorry for myself.

I'm reminded of a sermon Chuck Berry preached a few years ago (you can tell it had an impact on me since I still remember it and reference it after several years). My paraphrase of his main point was that when we face hard times the difference between discouragement and faith is what set of circumstances we choose to focus on. One of his examples was the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. They could choose to look at the army of Egyptians chasing them or at the pillar of fire (God) leading them who had just parted the Red Sea. In our current situation I often find myself focusing on the negative circumstances, rather than on the way God had been providing.

In the past few months since Michael quit with the Boy Scouts we have had several unexpected sizable checks sent to us in the mail or left on our counter, a tax refund over twice what I thought was possible, a retirement payout because Michael wasn't vested in the 5 months he worked for the Boy Scouts and mandatory overtime in the first job he worked with Kelly Services, and we had an energy credit on our power bill so that it was only $35 in the coldest month of the year. Even though he's been out of work now for three months we still have money in our bank account, our bills are paid and we haven't taken any money out of savings. We have been forced to trust God even more than usual and he has proven faithful. We never know where the money is coming from or how it is going to arrive, but God has not left us alone.

I'm choosing to focus on God's provision. Just today I found a visa gift card I thought was empty. I called to check the balance to be sure before I threw it away and found it had $104 on it! God's provision once again!