Budgets. Whether spreadsheets, cash envelopes, budget programs, or monthly allowance methods, we all try to obtain (or say we do) some budget some kind of organization for the few dollars that pass through our hands that supply our families with everything from toilet paper to tools, from groceries to gifts. But what happens when you don’t have enough income to budget when budgeting no longer makes sense? When you don’t have the extra 5% to put into an emergency fund or 10% into savings, or when you don’t have enough to purchase the bonus-size box of diapers even though it is a better deal? That’s exactly where my husband and I have found ourselves for the last 16 months.
The change was abrupt, which by no means was an accident. When God wants your attention you can be sure He knows how to rock your world and bring you to your knees in an instant. My husband had been gainfully employed by the same company for 4 years and had already obtained a promotion that most thought was out of his league. The pay was great, the hours were good, and our little family of 3 ticked right along quite self-sufficiently. Which, on a side note, I believe is where the problem started. God doesn’t intend for us to live out our lives “self sufficient” with little reliance on him. He wants us to not only need Him but to want Him as well. In March of 2013, we had a huge wake-up when my husband, through a sequence of unfortunate events, lost his job. If that wasn’t enough to get our attention God also decided to expand our family. One month to the day of him losing his job, I found out I was pregnant with our second little miracle. By “miracle” I mean just that, I had been told on multiple occasions that a second baby wasn’t in our future, but nothing is impossible with our God. He will go to great measures to bring His children to him.
With my husband looking for a new job that would support our family and allow me to stay home with not only one child but a second that was rapidly headed to her debut, the walls seemed to slowly start closing in. Fear and anxiety seemed to be the only emotions I knew. I had never had to face financial instability quite like this before and at first, it was downright terrifying. The smile covering up the panic wasn’t going to cover for long, but God will never give us more than we can handle and He always provides (1 Corinthians 10:13). It isn’t until we reach a complete state of instability and uncertainty that we truly began to see God’s active hand in our lives. For the next several months, we saw God’s hand in so many undeniable ways, anonymous gifts, HSA contributions that shouldn’t have been, mortgage refunds, guilt-free/unprompted family assistance, and tax reimbursements that came just in time.
My husband was able to land a local contracting job several weeks after being let go from his job. The contracting job was an answer to our prayers but was hardly the end of our journey. Contracting jobs by nature are flakey (at best) providing a paycheck but nothing more and very little promise of continued employment. So the search continued and continues to this day. We have had our hopes rise with phone calls, interviews, and follow-ups only to drop with a rejection, job “fall-throughs”, and no callbacks. We’ve seen financial stability on the horizon only to have a storm blow in.
I’m not going to lie and say that it’s easy to trust God when what you need is something real and tangible and it feels like God is anything but tangible; however, I can tell you that this last year has been a year that I would never change. God has brought me to my knees worldly speaking but at the same time has picked me up and placed me in His lap. I have never felt that peace and confidence in Christ that I have felt this past year. Handing over finances to God is one the hardest, yet most rewarding, things we have ever done.
The past year plus has been hard, financially-wearing, mentally exhausting, and emotionally taxing. It has stretched our finances, our marriage, and our trust, but I wouldn’t change any of it. The thrill of seeing God at work and knowing it’s for the best outweighs everything. I even said at one point that even though I long so much for financial stability again I have also learned to love the instability because it allows me to see the active hand of God. As I look back on the past 16 months and remember the ups and downs, the tight weeks, and the financial gifts that made things possible I realize that this whole situation never was about money or employment, it was about trusting God to provide. Every tight week feels worse than the last, but every gift is sweeter.
I have learned through these gifts that it’s not a coincidence or an obligation on someone else to help us; it’s the hand of God at work. Working through someone else to make sure he provides for his children. I often thought back to the Israelites and their escape from Egypt and how many times they doubted that God would provide, how each situation felt worse than the last, and how they missed out on the beauty of trusting God. I don’t want to miss out! Even this very day I look at our bank account and wonder how we will make it to the next paycheck and if I will be able to buy diapers before we run out; the problem may still be there, but the fear is slowly diminishing. Fear is being replaced by fascination; the fascination of what God will do next.
Abby Kelly has been writing non-fiction and inspirational writing for about 15 years, with a drought in her twenties due to health reasons and discouragement. She was created to write, and in whatever capacity God reveals, she wants to use it to expand His kingdom.
