How Big is Your God?
There have been many thoughts swirling around in my head regarding the college discussion. I appreciated many excellent points which were brought forward. I hardly feel like I need to say much more, there is one thing I want to finish this discussion with, though...
I think the bottom line is this: How big is your God?
Is He big enough that if you step out in faith and follow a path which may seem contrary to the world's way of doing things, you can trust Him to provide? My God is that big!
Is He big enough to care for you if your husband dies and you are left with 12 mouths to feed? My God is that big!
Is He big enough to take care of you so that you can live on one income? My God is that big!
My God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. If I need anything, He can supply it.
I can say all of this because I know. I have experienced it the last three years of my life. We have lived through some very lean times, but God has been so faithful. We always had plenty to eat and a roof over our heads and more than we needed. God has answered prayers in amazing ways --sometimes at the last minute. God has made the "ends meet" when the budget wouldn't work out on paper.
It is amazing for me to look back upon the last few years of my life and see how God has carried us through. Two years ago, we had no clue how we would survive law school. We only had a small amount of money in the bank, plus the money we'd saved for law school. We wanted to stay out of debt, we wanted to trust God regarding our family size and accept with joy however many children He saw fit to send us whenever He saw fit to send them, and my husband and I wanted to follow the conviction that the Lord had led us to that I should be a keeper-at-home.
I admit that the first year was very rough for me. I worried a lot. I prayed a lot. I cried a lot. Having been raised in a well-to-do family and always having more than I could possibly need or want and then learning to live on the bare neccessities and often not even knowing how we would pay for those was definitely a test of my faith. But, as I continued to cling to the promises of God in Scripture that He would provide for us and as I saw God time and time again answer our prayers, my trust in Jehovah-Jireh began to deepen.
The Lord provided jobs for me to work as a mother's helper for Christian, homeschooling families. God provided a job for Jesse and then moved him to an even better job. I got pregnant and stopped working as a mother's helper. We didn't know where the money would come from, but I began to truly depend upon the Lord to provide. I prayed that the Lord would give me creative ways to earn an income from home. I started researching and trying things. Little by little, doors began opening and money started trickling in through my efforts.
I continued learning, continued praying, and continued trying. More and more opportunities opened up and more and more money started coming in. I began to realize that you can make income from home and you don't need a college degree to do it or even experience necessarily. You just have to have the willingness to put forth the time and effort and endurance to see it through and keep plodding along through the tough times for you can't just set up a successful business overnight.
In the past year, God has blessed our business beyond my wildest imaginations to the point where it is now bringing in a nice income for us. God has allowed us to stay out of debt through law school (only one semester left!). And, He has given me more income-earning opportunities than I have time for.
In addition to our business, I also began working for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine doing some temporary work this Summer. I was just planning to work for them for a few months and that would be it. God had other plans. After taking on new responsibilities little by little, they offered me a managing position. Just a few weeks ago, they offered me the position of Marketing Manager. Jesse and I prayed and talked about this for a few days before we felt a peace about me accepting it. It has been the quite the learning experience, but I am enjoying it very much. It's wonderful to get paid to do what you love to do!
In the last few months, I have been cutting back in other areas and trying to just focus on a few income-earning things that I enjoy doing and feel I am more gifted in. There are so many possibilities that I know of now and I would rather just focus my extra time and energies on those things I truly enjoy!
I'm not saying all of this to "pop my buttons" -- I have a long way to go and a lot left to learn, believe me! I am telling you this because want to encourage you from my own experience that I know God will provide. I also know that it is entirely possible to earn a good income from home -- even part-time. And you don't have to have a college degree to do so. I'm not saying that college is always wrong or that everyone should have a home business. What I am saying is that I serve a big God. He can take care care of you whether you have a college degree or not.
We often can limit God by trying to fit our lives into a presubscribed box of what one has to do in order to succeed in life. God is bigger than any presubscribed boxes.
I think the bottom line is this: How big is your God?
Is He big enough that if you step out in faith and follow a path which may seem contrary to the world's way of doing things, you can trust Him to provide? My God is that big!
Is He big enough to care for you if your husband dies and you are left with 12 mouths to feed? My God is that big!
Is He big enough to take care of you so that you can live on one income? My God is that big!
My God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. If I need anything, He can supply it.
I can say all of this because I know. I have experienced it the last three years of my life. We have lived through some very lean times, but God has been so faithful. We always had plenty to eat and a roof over our heads and more than we needed. God has answered prayers in amazing ways --sometimes at the last minute. God has made the "ends meet" when the budget wouldn't work out on paper.
It is amazing for me to look back upon the last few years of my life and see how God has carried us through. Two years ago, we had no clue how we would survive law school. We only had a small amount of money in the bank, plus the money we'd saved for law school. We wanted to stay out of debt, we wanted to trust God regarding our family size and accept with joy however many children He saw fit to send us whenever He saw fit to send them, and my husband and I wanted to follow the conviction that the Lord had led us to that I should be a keeper-at-home.
I admit that the first year was very rough for me. I worried a lot. I prayed a lot. I cried a lot. Having been raised in a well-to-do family and always having more than I could possibly need or want and then learning to live on the bare neccessities and often not even knowing how we would pay for those was definitely a test of my faith. But, as I continued to cling to the promises of God in Scripture that He would provide for us and as I saw God time and time again answer our prayers, my trust in Jehovah-Jireh began to deepen.
The Lord provided jobs for me to work as a mother's helper for Christian, homeschooling families. God provided a job for Jesse and then moved him to an even better job. I got pregnant and stopped working as a mother's helper. We didn't know where the money would come from, but I began to truly depend upon the Lord to provide. I prayed that the Lord would give me creative ways to earn an income from home. I started researching and trying things. Little by little, doors began opening and money started trickling in through my efforts.
I continued learning, continued praying, and continued trying. More and more opportunities opened up and more and more money started coming in. I began to realize that you can make income from home and you don't need a college degree to do it or even experience necessarily. You just have to have the willingness to put forth the time and effort and endurance to see it through and keep plodding along through the tough times for you can't just set up a successful business overnight.
In the past year, God has blessed our business beyond my wildest imaginations to the point where it is now bringing in a nice income for us. God has allowed us to stay out of debt through law school (only one semester left!). And, He has given me more income-earning opportunities than I have time for.
In addition to our business, I also began working for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine doing some temporary work this Summer. I was just planning to work for them for a few months and that would be it. God had other plans. After taking on new responsibilities little by little, they offered me a managing position. Just a few weeks ago, they offered me the position of Marketing Manager. Jesse and I prayed and talked about this for a few days before we felt a peace about me accepting it. It has been the quite the learning experience, but I am enjoying it very much. It's wonderful to get paid to do what you love to do!
In the last few months, I have been cutting back in other areas and trying to just focus on a few income-earning things that I enjoy doing and feel I am more gifted in. There are so many possibilities that I know of now and I would rather just focus my extra time and energies on those things I truly enjoy!
I'm not saying all of this to "pop my buttons" -- I have a long way to go and a lot left to learn, believe me! I am telling you this because want to encourage you from my own experience that I know God will provide. I also know that it is entirely possible to earn a good income from home -- even part-time. And you don't have to have a college degree to do so. I'm not saying that college is always wrong or that everyone should have a home business. What I am saying is that I serve a big God. He can take care care of you whether you have a college degree or not.
We often can limit God by trying to fit our lives into a presubscribed box of what one has to do in order to succeed in life. God is bigger than any presubscribed boxes.
posted by Crystal Paine at 1:59 PM
12 Comments:
Yep, my God is that big too.
The transition will probably be a bit easier for me as my family isn't what one would consider well to do. Daddy currently works 2 part time jobs on top of the FULL TIME job of pastoring... to help make ends meet. Even so, we have more than enough and lots more than we need. It's really a matter of what you choose to focus on. How much you do have (even on a limited income) or how much you don't have.
Thanks for sharing. The oppurtunites that open for us are sometimes amazing!
I just wanted to let you know that this post was a big encouragement to me this afternoon!:o)
I've thinking about that ALOT lately. Somethings have happened that are very shaking to fatih.
Sadly they think a man named Tom Fox was executed today in Iraq by terrorist. He was a Quaker and a big influence in the Quaker community in my hometown here. His daughter gratuated from Guilford College- a Quaker college just a minutes from me. They are having a peace vigil there now.
It is very upsetting. But Tom took a "step out in faith" and was doing God's work in Iraq.
The right thing may not be easy but you can't stop having faith. That has been a real hard thing to learn.
Crystal, thank you again for sharing your personal journeys with all of us. I can tell you from experience that going to school and working is very difficult and often a trial. Being married and going to school is even more of a challenge, but as you and Jesse have shown many of us, it can be done. Your trust in our Lord and such profound faith has carried both you and your family through so much.
From what I am reading and gathering, you not only speak the Lord's word, but you live it. It's difficult, and perhaps more so if you don't come from a family that homeschooled or had two Christian parents (like me), to put all of your trust in God, but as I am learning, it's the only way I could've ever made it.
I still struggle with learning to be on my own (since college). Finances are just not my forte, but as I am learning, trusting in God and believing that I have God-given talents, I am able to get by. I can't say that I regret going to college, because I believe God had a plan for me there (to meet my beau and his mother, who is such an inspiration to me). We all have a plan that God has set in motion for us, but it is our will to listen and to heed his call. Much like a sheep and his sheperd.
Keep on going, Crystal...and if ever you should feel discouraged, you've definitely got friends on this blog who can give you a word or two about encouragement.
That is an encouraging post and (dare I say it?) you sound quite feminist in parts of this post! (And of course I mean that as a compliment!) Women all too often fail to credit their own ingenuity and efforts -- so I was glad that you recognized your own role in your success as well as God's.
From my secular feminist viewpoint, the most positive aspect of "Biblical Womanhood" is the idea of women bringing in income through home businesses.
Sorry I didn't have a chance to comment on your series of posts regarding the women-in-college discussion. I just read them now and they were most interesting
Excellent, excellent, EXCELLENT!!!!! post Crystal! I am so thankful that God has put you where you are. Just look at the huge impact you have had on all of us!!!!! HUGS, HUGS, HUGS!!!! :-)
Thanks for this post Crystal, it was exactly what I needed to hear. I've been feeling a little burned out lately and discouraged and this has helped me rethink my attitudes. If God is for us who can be against us? We have to allow him to work in us and through us as he won't force his way into our lives. I forget that sometimes. My God is BIG!!!!
I too know God can care for you even when it looks physically impossible. I look over the last year when our income tax return said we made less than $2000 and that was hard to come up with. Yet, we paid all our bills, our rent and had food without government assistance, but lots of hard work and prayer. It was not physically possible for me to get a job as no one usually wants to hire someone 7-9 months pregnant!
My husband was hospitialized and the situation was of a sort that I really didn't want to broadcast it. Our landlord was not fond of children and was upset because the rental agency rented to a family when she did not want that. She did everything possible to make it uncomfortable for us there, yet God provided us with a place to move to that was nicer and my husband came home from the hospital to a nice place to live.
God can take care of us, it is not usualy the most comfortable or easiest way. I often thought we were going to not have enough money or something and at the last minute something would come up- a job I could do or my husband, money from someone that I didn't know really or something... and we would be fine...just barely with not much room for anything!
God is good to those who trust in Him....He does not promise an easy life or one without pain, but He does care for us.
I don't know that if I had gone to college if anything would have changed about my situation, I may have just been more frustrated or depended on myself more than God.
There are Christians in other countries that are suffering in cold, hungry etc and I do not think they have less faith because of it, but it is what God has for them as He has this for me.
"He does not promise an easy life or one without pain, but He does care for us."
A good reminder Martha A.! Thanks! I am always blessed when you post. (o:
Crystal, this was a wonderful post and yes, my God is that BIG!
Yes, our God is that big!
Nothing else explains my husband's survival as a child born in Ethiopia, or as a reluctant soldier in thier civil war, or our having more than enough to eat and *buying a house* with our income the first year in the states being less than 11K. Nothing else explains going from that situation to this one, owning three houses, two completely paid for, having so much to eat I need a wieght loss plan, and having doubled our income, all in 3 years, with me not working ever, and having had two babies in that time.
What's more, nothing else explains why his parents were willing to risk life and limb to preach the gospel to unreached tribes. Nothing else explains why the 12 disciples were willing to do the same, and why Christianity flourished even though loss of life and limb was a frequent occurrence.
Your post put me in mind of the song that my son loves to sing..."My God is so great! so strong and so mighty! There's nothing my God cannot do!!!"
Olivia: Sometimes I wish I had known "want" before I was married because it was a bit of a shock -- but it has been very good for me to learn to completely rely upon the Lord!
Erin: Praise the Lord and I've been meaning to write you a quick not eto say that I am so happy to hear how the Lord is leading you and I know He is going to take care of you and your hubby!
Meme: Praise the Lord and thank you for your kind words. God bless you!
HF: I don't think I'd be classified a "feminist," by anyone, but I got a nice chuckle out of that! :) Anyone who knows me knows that I believe strongly in not just trusting God and completely relying upon Him, but also using our brains. He gave us creativity and ingenuity to use in a way that is glorifying to Him. This does not necessarily mean that all women need to be earning an income of some kind, but we all need to be doing everything we can to use the talents and giftings God has given us to glorify Him -- to bless our husbands and families, our surrounding communities, and the world at large. I don't credit any success I may have in any area to me, though, it is all God. I am nothing without His grace and strength living in and through me. Plus, I have about the best husband anyone could ever ask for. I am so blessed and I don't deserve any of it.
Thanks to the rest of you for posting such great thoughts!
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