The Faithfulness of God

It has been ages since I have written. Between multiple moves with the military and homeschooling four kids, I just haven't had the time I would like. However, I find myself in a new phase of life. The kids are getting older, and more independent in their studies. I truly hope this means I will have more time for blogging.

Today, I want to write about God's faithfulness. Over the past eight years, my family has been through some crazy times! Today, I have time for only a brief summary, but as I write, I think perhaps our story lends itself well to a series on God's faithfulness. Stay tuned for future blog posts on this topic, as I share more of our testimony regarding God's hand of grace in our lives. 

My husband separated from active duty with the military in 2014, and joined the reserves. During that transition, a clerical error caused his pay to stop six months early, and we conducted the entire move on our own dime, to include buying a new car when one of our cars broke down on the side of a remote highway in Northern California. We spent the next several months trying to recover from that pay mess-up while my husband took on a contracting job to provide for the family. 

A year into contracting, my husband's pay began getting cut. Each year, it got cut a little more until we were struggling to make ends meet. We had to move back into a tiny 1000 sq ft, 3 bedroom, 1 bath house we'd purchased right after the housing market crash in 2008. Six people, two dogs, and one cat in that one tiny shoe box of a house. My husband picked up real estate on the side, hoping he could build a business that way and eventually be able to cut loose from contracting.

God had other ideas. Just as my husband got his real estate license, he got recalled to active duty. He sold two houses, including our own, and we moved to Japan. What an incredible experience that was! At the same time, COVID hit halfway into our three-year tour there, and all hope of traveling to see the rest of Japan or other parts of Asia, or even to come home for a visit, flew out the window. We were stuck on that rock doing God's work for three whole years.

Once the three year orders were up, it was time to head back to the States and try to make a life for ourselves again back in the civilian realm. My husband is back on reserve status, and we are STILL waiting for this transition to end. Five months with no home and four months with no income. We are FINALLY getting ready to close on our new home, and my husband has started his new job at a non-profit Christian counseling center. However, the Navy has come knocking again, and we have no idea what is coming next. Should we pursue this opportunity? Should we tell them "NO WAY!" and hope they leave us alone? The Navy doesn't exactly work that way. So, here we sit, trusting God with our future, as we have trusted him with our past.

All of this brings me to the point of this blog post. Not once in all of our wanderings, in spite of pay disruptions, homelessness, and whatever else has been thrown our way, have we been left destitute. God has been SO faithful. We have never not been able to pay the bills. We have never gone hungry. We have never been left without a roof over our heads, even if that roof was not our own. Through family, both blood relatives and our Christian brothers and sisters, God has provided in HUGE ways. It is amazing when you can sit back and see what God was doing and how He was working over the years, even in the midst of your chaos. I will have to write again in the near future, detailing God's faithfulness to our family in each and every circumstance. For now, let me just leave you with these words. Whatever you are going through right now, God is in control. You may not be able to see what He is doing now, but if you are trusting in Him, He will not let you down. Your life might not look the way you planned it out in your head, but none of this is a surprise to God. He sees you, He knows you, He knows your needs even better than you know your own needs, and He will NOT let you down.

In Matthew 6: 25-34, Jesus tells us:

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Do not worry about tomorrow. Today has enough trouble of its own. I hope you find these words encouraging today.