I Got Your Bag…I Mean Your Back!

The last couple of weeks have been stressful on many personal fronts: financial, work,family and friends. Everything seemed to start piling on top of each other, as things tend to do for all of us.

Despite my positive outlook and resilience, I get overwhelmed at times.  The motivation speaker in me says,  “Keep focused, we don’t have time to worry, pout or have regret. It’s time to focus on things that will get us where we need to be.”

I give myself positive pep talks and more importantly I visit with God about my doubts, faults and concerns.

” I know you say…Don’t be anxious about anything, pray about everything. But can you help me with that? ”   

Whenever I have doubt, anxiousness, when a clear plan or path seems impossible to figure out,  I talk to Him. We talk in the car, in the house, whenever these worry wart things jump into my mind.

 ” Please God take anxiousness away. Help me realize that you are in control, not me. Help me be patient as you work on this.”

In addition to my own worries this month, seems like everyone around me is suffering. I have friends who have financial troubles,marriage troubles, cancer, strokes, custody battles, work issues, kid problems, safety issues and more. I have a list of people to pray for in my office, afraid I might forget about someone or something.  Everyone seems to be struggling right now.

Work has been a struggle the last few months for me. I’m having to work harder for tiny deals. I’m selling a lot of them, but it’s just harder to get to goal.

 After reviewing finances in January, I felt overwhelmed and kind of hit a wall of worry. Our business had a large bill that was due, and I wasn’t sure exactly how we were going to pay for it without moving monies around.  Lately, I’ve heard a lot of families say they have to “Rob Peter to pay Paul.”  With times like this so many of us are having to shift monies around to make it through a given month. Some of my most successful friends are having to do this. Times are tough right now.

My husband said don’t worry about it. I will ramp up the jobs and figure it out. We will get it paid. So  I prayed to God for financial favor in my cinema business, in my real estate business and with Steve’s many businesses.

Steve  figured out how to pay the large bill and  went to pay the invoice.  To his surprise and astonishment they said, ” Sir, the bill has already been paid. Here is your paid receipt. “

Had he paid it and forgot? Life is busy. He went back through every business check.

He had not paid the bill. None of our family knew about this bill so not from them.

He came home and said, ” You’re not going to believe this but when I went to pay the bill, it was paid !”

 I said, “What do you mean?” He said, ”  Look at the receipt!”

Looking down I held in my hand a paid receipt for Five Thousand dollars!

As I looked at the paid receipt,   I knew that God had taken care of that bill for us. I tried to figure out how it was paid for but honestly in my heart I just knew this was the answer to one of my prayers, a gift from heaven above. Miracle #1.

I’ve had heavenly gifts like this before. On the week of my wedding, I got a huge gift box on my front door steps. I opened the box to find the entire set of China from my registry.  The registry list before had shown that not a single piece  had been purchased.

There was a gift card in the box from Macy’s from a name that I didn’t recognize. The gift was bought from a Macy’s in Dallas.

 I called every family member on both sides to see if anyone had heard of this couple that lived in Oklahoma. I found a phone number that might be their phone number. I called to see if it was a mistake….I even left a message.  Nobody ever called me back.

God knew my heart.   I was anxious to walk  by myself down the aisle.  My Dad and I still had an estranged relationship at that point. My Grandpa had passed away.  There wasn’t anyone to give me away. I would walk alone on my wedding day.

To onlookers, this seemed to be no big deal, but God knew the real- real in my heart.  It did cross my mind that people would be staring at me not thinking about the dress or occassion but thinking about how sad it was that I had to walk myself down the aisle.

I believe this package was from my  heavenly Father, a reminder that I would not be walking alone… this was an unexplained, mysterious  heavenly gift from above.

When my son was born, I was very sick with pre-eclampsia. I was let go from my job during my preganancy and forced to pay for very expensive  cobra insurance. With all the complications, added medications, emergency c-section and a premie baby, I knew the hospital stay was going to be expensive. Being out of work and big bills, not a good combination. 

After his birth, I kept waiting for some kind of bill. I mean we even had nurses come to the house to check my son’s blood count. We should have had bills.  We never received any bills for anything! We all know that children are a gift from God, but I really thought I should have received some kind of invoice for him and for my medical care. Another  heavenly gift from above during a tough time.

So the paid  business invoice was miracle # 1 this month. Another stress that has been on my mind has to do with my son who is struggling with reading. This past month has been a series of ups and downs with my 7 year olds reading. At report card time, they wrote on his report card that his reading level was a  10. Ten is below where he needs to be at this stage of first grade, but after meeting with the reading specialist, she assured me that he would be close to level by year end. I took a deep breath and continued with his tutoring and so forth.

Then shortly after  his  classroom teacher returned from maternity leave , she emailed me that 3 different teachers tested his reading level, all getting a 6!  I was devastated. He has worked so hard with his tutor since January. How could this be?

 It was like someone telling you had a C in the class with hopes of B before semester end only to tell you, “Hey, just kidding you’re  getting an F! How on earth could we get from a  6 to a 16 even by the end of summer? I was so disappointed and heartbroken for my son who has been trying his little heart out.

So sales in work have been less than, finances not so good and now my son has a reading level is a 6!  I know these aren’t life and death things ,but sometime the regular old day to day life stuff can pile up and seem to suffocate. Might explain why on occassion this week I’ve felt short of breath.

So happy it was Friday and the beginning to a long Memorial Day weekend. Just wanted to hang out in the lake and chill out.

While wrapping up my so/so week, I checked my gmail account  and noticed an email from the classroom teacher.

 She explained that all the  kids in his reading class  were out the Friday due to Memorial Day weekend, Slade was the only one in the class. The reading teacher decided to test him. To their amazement ,  he was 2 “miscues” away from a 12.  The teacher wrote that she was so excited. Miracle #2!

I broke down and cried like a big fat baby.  I could barely talk I was crying so hard. It was as if everything from that week was coming out through my tears. God had first paid a 5,000 bill and now he had miraculously increased my son’s reading level from what they said a 6 to almost a 12. Thank you Jesus for the second miracle! God was listening and answering my prayers!

After reading the email, I craddled my son like a baby and said, “I’m so proud of you. You’ve worked so hard. Do you want a treat for your success?”  He was like, “Mom, let me up; all I want is a drink.  I’m hot from getting off the school bus.  Can I get up?”

He squirmed out of my arms as I covered him with hugs and kisses while complementing him on all his hard work .  I know a reading level doesn’t seem like a big deal. But my son is easily defeated and gives up easily. I want so much for him to feel confident like he does with math and spelling. I can’t imagine starting second grade at a 6!

My in laws brought my sister in law and nephew  for the weekend. My brother in law who is in the army just arrived in Afganistan not long ago.

During the weekend, we skyped my brother in law, who is stationed in a tent community somewhere in Afganistan. His unit trained for months on how to work with the Afgan army.  The army unit learned  all kinds of things. They were trained on how to have kind relations with the Afgan people and how to train the Afgan army so that one day they can protect themselves.

My brother-in-law explained that they just got orders to do a raid that goes against all their training. This mission did not seem to sit right on his heart. Every night when he closes the conversation with his wife, my sister-in-law she asks him, “Is there anything you want us to pray about?”

He said, “Yes. Please pray that I don’t have to go on this mission.”

The next day his entire unit went on this very dangerous mission except him and one other. He was kept behind to do special training on a new weapon. God answered yet another prayer in our family. Miracle #3 for the week!

Sunday rolled around and finally some Memorial Day down time. We went down to a park on the shores of Lake Travis near Point Venture. There were a lot of people enjoying the lake, but I noticed a ton of trash ranging from empty beer cans, candy bar wrappers, broken flip flops and more.  I started picking up trash around the shoreline and stacked it up into a pile since I didn’t have a trash bag.

I walked out into the water to cool off and yelled back to my Mother in Law, who was sitting in a beach chair on the rocks,

” Wish I had a garbage bag.”

She said, “Yeah, we didn’t bring one, huh?”

Right then as I stood shin level deep in water, a medium size plastic bag drifted like a balloon in the air and landed right next to me.

We were all in amazment .

I giggled and said to my Mother in Law, “Ask and you shall receive.”

She said, “You’re not kidding.”

The bag was the perfect size to fit all the trash I had collected. I quietly thought to myself that this was God’s way of showing me that he does hear my requests, prayers and pleas. He is listening to me. He cares about me, and he WILL take care of me….He’s even got my bag… Reminding me that I can hand all my garbage over to  Him to carry. He’s not only got my bag,  more importantly; He’s got my back!

So many of us have stresses and family struggles.  Last week, was a full week of listening, praying and offering encouragment to friends and family who are struggling.

Just remember as you cry out for help, as you pray…HE hears you, HE loves you and  everything will work itself out.

More importanly as you struggle don’t be so absorbed in the problem that you forget to pray because when things seem too big for you…remember nothing is too BIG for GOD! Thank goodness for that!

 Scriptures for the Week

Matthew 6:34
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

 1 Chronicles 16:12
Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,
1 Chronicles 16:11-13 (in Context) 1 Chronicles 16 (Whole Chapter)

Psalm 77:14
You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.

 Questions & Reflection:

1. Do you have stresses, worries or anxiousness that you haven’t prayed about?

2.What small miracles has God performed for you? ( Are you paying attention and giving GOD credit?)

3. As you look back on your life, were there any “heavenly gifts”? Perhaps help that came out of nowhere?

4. Make A Visible Prayer List

Christian Craft Project: Prayer Board

Get a wipe board from the dollar store. Take any plastic border around it off and take the wipe down front part off.

Find a picture frame that fits your wipe board insert. Take the glass out of the picture frame and place your wipe cardboard inside the frame. Then, put the picture frame with wipe board on a stand. Keep a running list of prayer requests in a visible place: night stand, office,kitchen. Then, you’ll be constantly reminded who needs prayers.

I’ve also seen people take a white tile and drill holls in it at the top to run ribbon through it. Then, they embellish the tile on the bottom with crosses, rhinestones etc….You can write on it with an erasable marker too. Put on a  frame stand.