Bumps And Blessings - God's Continued Faithfulness

It's funny how we make such amazing plans for ourselves, yet we overlook how little overall control we have of the world. There's nothing wrong with planning, preparing, saving, investing, and all that, and maybe we even budget for unexpected health crises or for house repairs and car problems, but we cannot be 100% prepared for everything.

That's where TRUST comes in. Trusting in God's provision, faithfulness, and GRACE!

So, here's a brief description of some things of our lives of late to illustrate how life just "is" - the bumps and the blessings - and typically the bumps come with blessings mixed in, and the blessings come with bumps mixed in - crazy how that works, right?:

Let's start with a

*BLESSING*

Dawn and I are pretty consistent with a "Date Night" weekly. It doesn't always happen, but we earnestly try. This is from one date night this past Summer. Florida has its perks, right? It is definitely a blessing living here, and a blessing that we have older kids who can babysit so we can escape.

*BUMP*

Recently our Air Conditioning decided to go out on us. Here's proof of the temperature inside:

Although the work and parts were covered by our home warranty (Blessing) the refrigerant was only covered at $10/lb. It costs about $75/lbs and they estimated up to 20 lbs (20 lbs times $65 = lots of money!!). The A/C company did cut us a deal (Blessing) and said they would only charge us for 10 lbs regardless! It actually ended up only needing 11 lbs, but that additional $65 was covered by them. The big BLESSING in this bump was the fact that some sweet friends of ours let us stay at their beautiful home whilst our air was out (They were on vacation). Talk about God's faithfulness and provision in the midst of our situation! We were also able to pay cash for the A/C work, so we're grateful for that. God is so good. Here's a picture of us playing at the pool of the friends who let us stay in their home, and Michael enjoying the water (Which is so good for him physically - another BLESSING in the BUMPS):

 

*BLESSING*

Working as adoption consultants is something we LOVE doing, but it means that our income is variable, and some months this year have been pretty tight, which brings its own levels of anxiety and doubts (Bump). However, during Christian Adoption Consultants recent Fall discount promotion God has blessed us with some new families! Praise God for His provision and faithfulness to our family - He never stops blessing us! Here's a picture of Dawn's new home office space (Complete with sleeping cat and hot beverage),

*BUMP*

Florida Carpenter Ants have decided to visit us! Right now as we speak.

Yes, they are that big (At least they're easy to see - I don't know if that's a blessing, however). After research and advice we have contracted a professional pest control service to take care of this. They are coming next week. I did a little research with the company and saw that the are an "Angie's List" award winner, and I found out that I could get a $35 discount with them for being a member. So, I went online, found a coupon code (Blessing), re-activated my expired Angie's List membership for half the cost they wanted to charge me, and we are still saving money by paying for the membership, so that's a win! So, although it's going to cost, yet again God has provided for us to do this (Blessing), and we get a little discounted rate. Sometimes we have to look at the silver lining. It may still rain, but it's not ALL doom and gloom. I have to continually examine my outlook.

Let's close with a

*BLESSING*

How about 9 of them:

Oh boy - life isn't easy, and parenting is the toughest job on the planet (I think being a nuclear physicist must be easier than this!), BUT we make a conscious choice each day to exact "Love In Action" to one another even when we don't "Feel" it. When the "Crap hits the ceiling" (Bumps galore) with behaviors, attitudes or lack of respect we can make the mistake of only seeing the behavior when we look at our child, rather than a precious child made in God's image with simply a need being expressed (Can you tell we're also Empowered To Connect Parent Trainers?). We often make mistakes and have to practice "Repairing Our Mistakes", but I declare in the name of Jesus that our children ARE A BLESSING and inheritance from the LORD, and I am so glad God saw fit for me to be their Daddy. I am truly a blessed man, and I have lots of blessings to count!

When the bumps and blessings come:

"But the LORD has become my fortress,

and my God the rock in whom I take refuge."

--Psalm 94:22

"For the LORD is good and His love endures forever;

His faithfulness continues through all generations."

--Psalm 100:5