Eagles Landing, Ridiculous Challenges, and Super Heroes

Friday was a typical day, doing school, cleaning up, working...yet it wasn't typical at all as we all wondered, "Would the cheque come today?"  We weren't pretending when we said, "It doesn't matter if it comes or not."  We were really trying to exhibit true faith.

I tried to walk through what our weekend would look like without it.  Or what we would say to the suppliers who were waiting to be paid.  I really thought, "God will just have to provide in another way that we haven't thought of" and dismissed the thoughts of concern that once in a while tried to enter into my head.

The whole week of waiting for the cheque, I'd been reading a rather shocking account in a book about the Amish Schoolhouse shooting that happened in 2006 in Pennsylvania.  The "shooter's wife" as she became known, was the author.  She's a solid Christian woman who only had God to lean on during her whole ordeal.  She decided to write a book about the event and how she'd gotten through it five years after the fact.  What an incredible testimony.  Though it seems hard to imagine, her faith was so strong that even though she'd gone through the horrible shock of what her husband had done, without knowing he was capable of such evil, and then how he even took his own life, she was still able to walk around in a spirit of expectancy, always wondering, "what is God doing?" or "what is He up to?"  "How will He use this in my life?" But not in a questioning/angry sense, more in a state of hope and anticipation.  Many of the verses she quoted in the book, were the exact verses I had just underlined in my Bible, such as, Psalm 34:4, "I sought the Lord and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears."

As I read her testimony, I actually found that I could completely relate to her.  Here we were on the edge once again, knowing it was bleak if it that money didn't come, yet at the same time wondering, "Hmmmm...I wonder how God is going to come through?"  It seemed crazy for her to believe that strongly, but that was how strongly I was believing, too.

About mid-afternoon, my husband walked into the kitchen, cheque in hand, "The eagle has landed....I'm off to the bank...."  Relief swept over all of us, yet, in a way, there was a sense in the room that said, "Of course it came!"  I've written many times how, at least in our lives, God is the God of the 11th hour.  He often comes through at the last moment when there is no other thing to rely on, but Him.  I had read to the kids that morning, "...if riches increase, set not your heart on them."  I told them God is asking us to trust Him, not the cheque.  We are supposed to put our trust in Him, whether the cheque came or not.  Even if it did come, we were not supposed to praise and worship the cheque, but the God who sent it.  It was a beautiful thing that it did come, however, and certainly was a wonderful answer to prayer.  Our kids prayers that night as we sat around together were so beautiful and filled with true awe and gratefulness for His provision.  Is that why God allows these on-the-edge experiences?  So that our kids will see His faithfulness? What will their futures be like? God must know that they will need a strong faith, too, for their future ordeals and trials.

The rest of the weekend was spent at a Bible quizzing tournament where our older four participated and two more went as their cheering squad.  They did great, my oldest son earning top quizzer with his points.  I remained at home with the younger two which is always fun as they are just so busy and fun to watch.  They built forts, watched nature shows, ate popcorn, played outside.  Meanwhile, I got this bizarre urge to go from cupboard to cupboard, drawer to drawer in my kitchen and do a major clean.  Even though I had the younger two, I barely got interrupted.  I made a challenge to myself to try and somehow get the whole kitchen done before the other kids came home at 5.  I started around 10 am.  I have to say, I loved it.  It felt so good to get done as so many drawers and cupboards were driving me crazy with all the spills on them and in them.  By 4:30, I had a couple of "junk" drawers left, which I will finish this Saturday hopefully, but I made the challenge for the most part!  Every glass shelf was washed, all the insides and outsides of each surface was cleaned.  All the horrible fly poop from the summer was taken away (which only stands out more from the white of the paint).  It felt so good and to my kids, I was mom of the year.  Am I allowed to say, "I love cleaning!"?  I really do.  Weird.

My last thing to comment on is about another strange challenge I made to myself nearly two years ago.  In the spirit of trying to save money, I told myself I wouldn't buy anything new for myself, as far as clothes were concerned, for at least a year.  I'm well into the second year now and I can't actually recall anything new except for a few necessary items due to rips or whatever.  I never mentioned this to anyone in my life except my kids, but somehow, I have new items coming in all the time through people who are actually giving clothes to my kids!  They will go through a bag given to us by my sister or sister-in-law or someone else and they'll say, "We don't want the rest..."  So I literally get the hand-me-downs of the hand-me-downs, but most of the time, I love the stuff!  I've acquired so many "new" things lately, it's awesome!  They all fit, they're all things I would have bought anyway.  They're all relatively stylish and, here's the big thing....they're free and I didn't have to go shopping for them.  I really hate shopping these days as everything is so expensive.  It takes so much time.  I can't haul kids to malls.  I can't even get them to a thrift store as they go nuts in those stores, running around saying, "This is only a quarter?  Can I get this?  This is so cheap!  Can I get this?!"  It's worse than a mall because the stuff is so plentiful and inexpensive, it's almost harder to say no.  Then I come home with a bag of junk!  I half-wonder if God looked down and me and said, "Nothing new, huh?  Well, I know you like new things.  I know it would be nice to shake up your wardrobe once in a while.  I'm just going to have to send things to you through other people.  Hope that's ok!"  Yeah, it's ok....keep it coming!  The only time I hated making that challenge to myself was when a special event was coming up like my daughter's grad last year, Christmas events, or any kind of big occasion, but amazingly, I got through them all.  I always found something.

Right now, my son is out with RM in the shop.  Up since 5:30 am, he and my other son are alternating days working outside with their Dad, before he goes to his other job, in an attempt to get his contract finished that is due end of March.  Not having seen dawn for a long time, my son came in so excited yesterday, "I saw dawn!"  Yes, I shook my head.....how funny that he hadn't seen that for awhile!  His other comment to me that morning as he was barely able to stay awake as the morning went on was, "Dad's a super hero.  The people he works with have no idea how much he gets done in a day."  It's true.  Their Dad is a super hero.  I'm glad we know it.