GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS - FAITH UNDER FIRE

Today I am grateful for Faith.

“Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it, the elders received a good report.” Hebrews 11 verses 1 & 2 - KJV

At a time in my life, if someone told me about faith, I would have asked, faith who? I knew faith existed and I knew it could be used to enhance my life, but I just did not know how to use it and as a micro-manager, I guess I did not think I had any use for faith.

Later on in my life, I found I had to draw on my faith and so I made the effort to find out what it was all about and put it to the test.

I remember when my infertility issues began taking its toll on me, I felt I needed a break and so I decided that a trip to the United States, could help. I had gone to the American Embassy a couple times before and they had turned me down. This time, I would not take no for an answer and so I called a travel agency, booked my flight, then I went to the Embassy to ask for my visa. Yes, it had to be there waiting for me to have had such audacity. Let’s say, that vacation did me good.

As my infertility issues took its toll on me, I knew somehow that I would come through it victoriously. There were times, I must admit, when this hope stood on shaky ground, when I felt like I had gotten to the end of my rope, but I tied a knot and held on for dear life, I held firmly to the thinnest thread of faith. God rewarded me as you all know by now, and I have the gifts to show. My mother-in-law reminded me of my faith in this regard, when I shared with her our current plight.

I cannot count the ways that he has used our faith to bless our family financially and even as I pen this,  he continues to work in our finances in ways that is beyond words.

We have now come to a point in our life, where we are forced to put our faith to the test again. We are about to embark on a very significant move, but the thing is, our faith is being frustrated by well-meaning critics, who feel that our fabric is not up to the test. Let me say here that I do respect and appreciate their interest in our well-being, but our God who is above all and knows all, stands ready to help too, and I want to give him that chance. In all fairness, though, for all we know, God could be using these critics in his overall plan, to convince us that what they are proposing is the plan he has for us as well, but you know what, I am not at the point yet where I believe that God is, by any means, through working his plan out and so I am challenged to continue to seek him to the very end. With this said, I hope it is not my own naïve agenda speaking here, but I will allow God to be the judge of that.

God is not known to lie about his promises and as experience has taught me, once I am aligned with his will, I have every confidence that he will reveal to me his plan and equip us for its undertaking, to his honour and glory.

I am therefore extremely grateful for having allowed faith into my life.

BE BLESSED ALL!!!!

GRATEFUL WEDNESDAY – ‘Where there is faith’

Today, I am grateful for the realization, once again, that faith, when put to the test, works.

In my husband’s line of work, his invoices are almost all of the time, paid in parts, a deposit and then the balance and sadly, due to the harsh economic climate, that balance comes in, in parts as well (I guess this is why I was forced to develop good budgeting skills).  As a result of this we have some outstanding tithe and so as not to have it pile up much further, I decided to start paying down on this amount when the next cheque comes in. It did and after paying up some bills, I was face with the dreaded decision of paying the tithe or another very crucial bill (all bills are crucial, I might add), this one the credit card. I soon decided that I would pay the credit card because we all know what happens when a credit card payment is late. For the rest of the days leading up to Sunday, I was conflicted, I felt like I was under scrutiny by God and so Sunday morning I got up, placed the money in my bag and took it to church.

The time for offering came and I confidently asked for an envelope, tagged the envelope and paid my tithe. I felt relieved. The Pastor soon after, announced that he was asking for a second offering to assist two youngsters to go to the Church camp. I became convicted, I need to help these youngsters, I thought, but remembered that I had not walked with any extra money. only some to stop by the grocery store to pick up snacks for our son’s camp trip. The conviction did not go away and so as soon as the offering plate approached I quickly went into my bag, took out half of that money and dropped it in the offering plate. Wow, that was a rush, I thought, let me now see if God will honor this obedience, by providing the balance of the money for my son’s snacks and also the credit card payment, which becomes due by midweek. I began to wait with anticipation.

Monday came, no words of any funds, by Tuesday, I began having very serious and honest conversations with God. “God, do hear me out,” I said, “you want us to use our faith to challenge you to provide for us, and here it is you are about to let me down.” My husband, realizing that we were in danger of defaulting on our credit card, decided to call the bank just to let them know. They made a note of our call and our promise to make good this payment later in the week. I went through the rest of the day still having that conversation with God, but somehow optimistic that he would come through for us. I went to bed feeling a little flustered but still optimistic.

This morning at about 9:30, the phone rang and by husband took the call. After the call, he came to the kitchen to tell me that a job he had done for a client, even though he was already paid, because the client’s Architect had requested some work which should have been part of the overall work for the client, the Architect was now calling to tell my husband that he could submit an invoice for this work. My husband said he began saying to the Architect that he did not expect to be paid any more money because the client had already paid him in full. The Architect responded, thanks for being so honest, but I have no problem paying you for the work I requested.

The Architect then went on to tell him that he is requesting his services on a project for the next 2 months. I smiled and over breakfast, told my husband how I had proven God. I told him about all the events from Sunday leading up to this call  (he knew nothing of this as I am the one who handles the family's finances) and how God is now providing the money that I gave up in faith on Sunday in over tenfold. What I realize is that even though I was experiencing such anxiety, this provision is not late by any means, God is an on time God, as the money was provided on the day that the credit card is due, it just will not make it in time to be paid to the bank and so that call that my husband made, will give us some time.

God is truly awesome and this is not the first time that myself and my family have proven this. A few years ago, when my husband was laid off from one of his jobs, we went to Church that Sunday, and when the time came for the offering I went through the same conflicting decision of whether to pay offering or hold on to every cent we have, given the fact that we did not know when we would start earning again. Well, I gave the offering and just as I stretched my hands out to drop the money in the offering bag, a lady who was sitting in front of me, crossed her hands over mine and placed an envelope in my hand, it was some money, as she had heard that my husband had lost his job. I almost fainted.

I challenge us all who are children of God, to take his promises seriously. Put God to the test in our lives and watch him work. Notice how secure and confident our children feel, knowing that we as parents have their backs, do you see them worrying about their well-being? Let us therefore employ that same childlike trust with our Heavenly Father, being secure and confident of his provision. 

Blessings be yours.

GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS – Feature 14

As a people, we are very ambitious and this is good, there can however be a downside to this, if we are not careful. We could find that we lose ourselves in pursuing self-advancement; a bigger degree for that bigger salary, a bigger house, a newer car, and find ourselves wondering, why are we not happy, why does our life feel so dull and empty. The thing is, we forget to be thankful for the little things that we already have, without which, our lives would not mean much. Our relationships, our health, our faith, our freedom, I could go on.

There are times in my life when I feel I could have achieved more in certain areas, and as a result I beat upon myself and take on a 'woe is me' attitude. Thankfully, I am soon reminded that less I be accused of being ungrateful, I do have many other things to be thankful for.

In my pursuit to become a more thankful and happier person, in general then, I am urged to add a new posting feature to my blog, a segment dedicated to being thankful, which I have decided to call ‘GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS', my gratitude journal, if you will, where I will, on Wednesdays of each week, post one thing in my life that I am thankful for, regardless of how small. 

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Today I am grateful for health.

I am grateful for the health of my children. For all my pregnancies, my main prayer was that my babies  be born healthy. All parents, I believe have that prayer as well and do believe they got their wish, only to find that before their baby’s first birthday, they are faced with devastating news that their baby has a terminal illness. Such was the case for a young couple, of which the mother appeared on the Today Show on NBC just last week. She said that when she received the diagnosis that her son had a fatal genetic condition, she peed in her pants. At that moment, she became me, as I vividly remembered how I fainted on my OB’s examination table, when my husband and I received the devastating news that our SaraMarie (our first miracle) was gravely ill. I could not hold back the tears, and the host of that segment had problems holding back hers too. They lost their son two weeks ago.

I am grateful for my health and the health of all my loved ones. Our health is not by any chance 100%, but at the moment neither am I, or any of my loved ones battling any terminal illnesses, that I am aware of.

For this I am extremely grateful. 

GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS – Feature 13

As a people, we are very ambitious and this is good, there can however be a downside to this, if we are not careful. We could find that we lose ourselves in pursuing self-advancement; a bigger degree for that bigger salary, a bigger house, a newer car, and find ourselves wondering, why are we not happy, why does our life feel so dull and empty. The thing is, we forget to be thankful for the little things that we already have, without which, our lives would not mean much. Our relationships, our health, our faith, our freedom, I could go on.

There are times in my life when I feel I could have achieved more in certain areas, and as a result I beat upon myself and take on a 'woe is me' attitude. Thankfully, I am soon reminded that less I be accused of being ungrateful, I do have many other things to be thankful for.

In my pursuit to become a more thankful and happier person, in general then, I am urged to add a new posting feature to my blog, a segment dedicated to being thankful, which I have decided to call ‘GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS', my gratitude journal, if you will, where I will, on Wednesdays of each week, post one thing in my life that I am thankful for, regardless of how small. 

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Today I am grateful for the gift of sight.

I adore God’s creation and there are days when I get up and feel ever so grateful and appreciative of the way he chooses to bless us by way of his beautiful creation. I am very happy that I am able to so indulge, by way of my sight.

I love to smile and I love to see others smile, especially when the whole face smiles with that special twinkle in the eyes. They say the eye is the window to the soul and I am every so grateful that I have sight to be able to catch a glimpse of what happens in the soul.

With this said, there is a lovely lady that I met while my family and I were living in Trinidad, who happens to be blind. This lady has such quiet dignity about her, she is always smiling and always respond in the most pleasant heartwarming way when approached. She never seems perturbed by the fact that she is blind. She does not wait on others to take her around and even sings in church in the special item slot, using her braille sometimes. She has four children, two of which are daughters.  I asked one of the daughters how she thinks her mother feels about not being able to see her children (she seem to have been blind early in her life). She said, well she takes my face in her hands and feel all the contours and this, she says, gives her a pretty good idea of her features. I was so taken by this and thought if I were blind, I wish I would be able to deal with it with such grace.

Most persons know by now that I stutter. I remember telling someone one day that I wish I was blind or dumb or had some other affliction, because there are days when being a stutterer causes me so much distress. The person responded, cautioning me, “are you sure?  I feel strongly about my opinion that it is through being able to communicate that others know how smart and articulate we are. So it goes without saying that there are days when I do feel less than smart and articulate. At least in the case of being dumb I could fluently communicate through sign language, I thought, but then again only persons who know sign language very well would I be able to communicate effectively with. I have since rebuked myself and taken this all back, because God, in his sovereignty, knows what we are able to deal with and gives only what he thinks is best for us.  I probably would not have been able to deal with being blind for dumb or deaf for that matter, half as how I am able to deal with being a stutterer.

For my gift of sight then, I am truly grateful.

GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS – Post 10

As a people, we are very ambitious and this is good, there can however be a downside to this, if we are not careful. We could find that we lose ourselves in pursuing self-advancement; a bigger degree for that bigger salary, a bigger house, a newer car, and find ourselves wondering, why are we not happy, why does our life feel so dull and empty. The thing is, we forget to be thankful for the little things that we already have, without which, our lives would not mean much. Our relationships, our health, our faith, our freedom, I could go on.

There are times in my life when I feel I could have achieved more in certain areas, and as a result I beat upon myself and take on a 'woe is me' attitude. Thankfully, I am soon reminded that less I be accused of being ungrateful, I do have many other things to be thankful for.

In my pursuit to become a more thankful and happier person, in general then, I am urged to add a new posting feature to my blog, a segment dedicated to being thankful, which I have decided to call ‘GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS', my gratitude journal, if you will, where I will, on Wednesdays of each week, post one thing in my life that I am thankful for, regardless of how small. 

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Today I am grateful for good sense. As I understand it, we have 5 senses and I guess under that umbrella, we have common sense and then there is good sense (I hope I am making sense here). A popular saying goes, ‘let good sense prevail.’

Sometimes things happen to us and instead of responding, we choose to keep quiet, not because we are simple, or we are good at self sabotaging - allowing people to walk over us, but just in an effort to maintain reasonably healthy relationships. As the saying goes, ‘we take the high road.’ This is where I would think that good sense prevails.

For this, I am indeed grateful.

'GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS' - Post 5 – “What is man without friends?”

As a people, we are very ambitious and this is good, there is however a downside to this. We can lose
our selves in pursuing self-advancement; a bigger degree for that bigger salary, a bigger house, a newer car, and find ourselves wondering, why am I not happy, why does my life feel so dull. The thing is, we forget to be thankful for the little things that we already have, without which, our lives would not mean much. Our relationships, our health, our faith, our freedom, I could go on.


There are times in my life when I feel I could have achieved more in certain areas, and as a result I beat upon myself and take on a 'woe is me' attitude. Thankfully, I am soon reminded that less I be accused of being ungrateful, I do have things to be thankful for. 


In my pursuit to become a more thankful and happier person, in general then, I am urged to add a new posting feature to my blog, a segment dedicated to being thankful, which I have decided to call ‘GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS', where I will post all the things in my life that I am thankful for, regardless of how small and especially those things which I have learnt the most from.

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I have very few friends. In fact there is a joke that my husband has on me, that he makes my friends for me and I take it, that it is because of my stutter why I have such a problem. One characteristic of a stutterer is that we do not readily open up ourselves to people, in case we be judged prematurely, because of the way we talk. As a result of this, we do not do so well socially.

Thanks to my husband then, among my few special friends are some that he indeed passed on to me. Today I want to use this space to say how grateful I am for my friends and their friendship. They lend not only their ears, when I need to talk, but their understanding that we all have and are entitled to our own unique view of things and we are also entitled to feel how we want to feel about issues in our lives and so they never judge me as a result.

It is my wish that they feel the same way about me too, if not though, I beg of them some time to become a better friend to them.

THANKS AND GOD BLESS YOU MY FRIENDS.