The first was when we were living in Colorado and we had a plethora of dilemmas that hit us at one time. We were expecting our newest baby, Kristi was going to quit working, tax time was coming, and we owned a Condo and a house because we thought we would have sold the condo be then. All these expenses were coming due at the same time (Kade even came a month early to insure that all of these things happened simultaneously) and we were living off of a $12.00/hour - 40 hour per week budget. I remember thinking as a young husband and soon to be first time dad that I was not cut out for either job. I remember feeling that "there was no way we were getting out of this one." It was so impossible in my mind that my only resort was to pray as hard as I ever had (funny - that is all I should have done to begin with and that is probably what I was being taught.). We both prayed and low and behold if things didn't turn our spectacularly. We had our baby boy and we were able to pay for him with a surprise tax return instead of a bill. We also were able to finally sell our condo to reduce our monthly expenses to the house only. Kristi was able to be the stay at home mom - which was a huge thing for us. What a huge bunch of blessings to come tumbling down upon us.
The next experience didn't have the number of obstacles or the excitement of our first one - but it was a huge blessing none the less. We had to make a decision about what to do after I graduated. I still had no obvious plan following graduation. I needed to stall and I decided to get more schooling. At the time I convinced myself that I wanted to be a professor. Looking back on it I can still say that I would love to be a professor but have zero desire to show the patience it would take to get there. That is too long and slow of a process for me. All along it was the professorship I wanted and the schooling it would take to get me there filled me with dread. But I believed in the old saying - "Fake it till you make it!" I believe that perhaps the Lord allowed me to fool myself in order to get me to the right place. Because when we left Colorado to go to Idaho we knew it was the right thing to do. We just thought it was right because that is what I needed to do to be a professor. Which leads me to number 3 . . .
Around Thanksgiving time of our first year in Idaho I had one of my most spiritual experience of my life. It was literally a life changing experience because my life has not been the same since. I was going to school full time and working full time. I saw my children and my wife very little of the time. However, we were making things work and we were doing very well. Kristi was still at home with the wee ones and I was making good grades and making good progress in school and work. It was towards the end of November that I first had strong impressions that I should not go back to school the following semester. I had already registered and had been planning to go but I felt that I shouldn't. I resisted these early promptings because I knew that I had to for my family's sake. I had no other alternative. But the urge would not go away and it wasn't 3-4 days further that I absolutely knew that the Lord had other plans for me. So I quite school immediately after my finals in the first week of December. That same week I was called in by my Stake President and asked if I would accept a calling to be the Elder's Quorum President. At work I was made a full-time Sales Representative. There was no way that I would have been able to fulfill my duties in Elder's Quorum, school, and work. The Lord intervened and to this day I have absolute confidence that he was in charge during that week of my life.
The fourth time that I have been absolutely sure that we have been guided by the hand of God is now. Over the past 3 months - the Lord has taken over. In August we suddenly felt we should put the house on the market. This did not coincide with our financial goals or plans. We had other things worked out - but we went ahead and within just a couple of days had our house on the market. During those couple of days we made some phone calls. One was to a mortgage lender to ask him if we could get a loan if we were to sell our house. He said that we absolutely could by October or November. We thought that sounded perfect as we could rent Jim and Arelene's place if we had to. But first we had to sell our house. We put it up at a horrible time. The market has been slow for everyone so we thought it would take some time to sell anyway. We showed our home over 10 times in the next 2 weeks. That is a ton of action for any home during these times. We had an offer by the end of all these showings and we had closed by Aug. 23rd, which was all of 3 or so weeks after we put it up.
On the day we accepted the offer on our house we found out from the mortgage guy that we would actually not be able to buy another home in a couple of months. He had made a mistake and it was actually going to be a couple of years before we could buy a home. Needless to say we were deeply frustrated but we knew that the Lord was in charge. We figured we would have to rent for a few years but that isn't the worst thing in the world. We couldn't see any other way around it. That is until Todd got us in touch with a builder he knew. He said we could look into building and that might be a long-term solution. The key was "would the builder finance?" It turns out he does. We are now on our way to building a home that we have designed ourselves. We are building on a plot that is beautiful and we both know that is where the Lord wants us.
We don't know why the Lord wants us there - but He has never been wrong yet. We have been through this enough times to know what it is like when the Lord takes over the wheel for a little while. What is happening right now is another instance where I know he is in charge and man am I glad that he is.
Believe it or not - He has always done better for me then I would have done for myself. What I am doing now for my profession could not be better for me as a person. I love it. I would never have thought I could enjoy work like I do now. I never would have thought to be in a position to build a home that will suit our family so well for the goals that we have. As a matter of fact, I have spent most of my married life trying to temper Kristi's expectations of what is realistic and what is appropriate to hope for. Heavenly Father has taught us that he has much higher hopes for us then we have for ourselves. He knows us and will guide us if we let Him. I add my testimony of that to all the many other testimonies that have been shared by others throughout the generations. I count on Him - I am sure that He guides and directs us to become our best possible selves.
Well, you don't post very often, but you sure post good when you do. Thanks for sharing these meaningful and faith promoting experiences.
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