A Reminder That No Matter How Tight Times Are, God DOES Provide even the Little Things

I received a complimentary issue of "Homeschool Enrichment" Magazine a few days ago, as I'm sure many of you also have. I've never heard of, let alone read, this particular home school magazine before, but so far I've enjoyed every article in it. But one, in particular, really struck me, because it reminded me of something miraculous in my life that I'd forgotten about.

Back in October, 1998, I was a brand new wife, and a brand new mother. I had 2 step kids that I considered my own and raised their entire lives who were, at that time, 4 and 7 years old. I had a baby less than 3 weeks old, and we were, to say the least, poor as church mice. Our bills weren't much...rent, power, and that as about it. We had propane heat because we lived in the country, and we had well water for the same reason, and we burned our trash, so no garbage or sewer bill. We didn't have a computer, so no internet, and we didn't even have TV, so no cable TV bill. But we also had no income....neither of us worked. We had very little food, because it's hard to buy food with no income. We had a clean house, happy kids, and when my then husband found an odd job here and there, or my mother sent us a little cash, we bought several weeks worth of cheap groceries for the kids, and he and I rationed our food to one meal every 3 or 4 days. By cheap, I mean our kids LIVED on Ramen noodles and bologna sandwiches. On a good day we had grilled cheese and tomato soup.

One morning, I noticed my 2 week old baby girl, C, had thrush. She was screaming in agony, and wouldn't nurse. I called the doctor, and he prescribed some medicine for me to go pick up for her. However, when I called the pharmacy to see how much it was, they said it would be almost $9.00. Now, $9.00 certainly isn't much, but it was about $8.00 more than we had when we scraped out change together.

I couldn't bear seeing my baby girl crying, in pain and hungry, but unable to nurse because of the pain. I was sure she was going to starve to death. I was crying, and, though I had no faith at that time, I didn't know what else to do, so I said, "God, please help me help my baby. Help me find a way to make her better." As I sat there trying to rock her, and both of us crying, D went out to get the mail. One of the envelopes was addressed to my baby, and was obviously a card congratulating us on her birth. I opened it up, and....enclosed was a 5 dollar bill and 4 ones. $9.00.

Now....who in the world sends $9 for a baby gift? NO one sends such an odd amount. People would either send a an even $10 or $20, or just a card and gift, but not a 5 and 4 ones. So here i am, not a Christian yet, having NO faith, but in my desperation to calm my baby and help her get well I cried to God without even thinking. And less than 15 minutes later not only did he provide, he very clearly provided the EXACT odd amount I needed to go buy C her thrush medication. Maybe back then I didn't yet have faith, but He sure wanted me to know he listens!

Times for me right now are just about as tough as they were back then. I have no babies, my youngest daughter is now 8. I have no rent, as I own my home, but I have way more bills, and again, no income, and haven't had child support in over 6 months. I AM a Christian now, and I have a very STRONG faith, a faith that actually began the very day I am writing about, and 15 months later was fully planted. But I think God sending me the particular free issue of a home school magazine in the mail at this particular time in my life was meant as a reminder....the similarities to the story in the magazine, and to my OWN story are just too eerily similar to be a coincidence. And I sure needed that reminder at this time in my life that no matter how tight my financial situation happens to be right now, He WILL always provide for us.