Nov 14th. Wow. Where do I start? Laying here this morning...I am in awe at how many angels we have. Earthly and Heavenly. I am wondering how we made it through so many years without a job, with low income, or even no income! Six of the last ten years Jack was out of work! I mean....How did we barely make it through the past two years with Jack almost losing his life and nearly his foot several times? While paying for two missionaries!? Barely! But angels made the hard months somehow stretch. Jack Loveless is still not fully healed. He still probably needs one more surgery. I do not know how we managed... Honestly. It would not work out on paper. Bank accounts would never match needs met. Some of the accounts were closed for lack of funds...and usage. We dont talk about this enough. But I think it is important that we share with each other, that it is okay to make things stretch. To reuse and recycle. I have used the annual free clothing exchange we do at the church for years to keep my kids dressed. It has been such a blessing! Sometimes when I teach people about Preparedness.... I am sure they think we are rich or have it made: but what I really should say more often is No, We didnt prepare because we had the money to do it.... We prepared because we were POOR and Vulnerable way too often, with a lot of kids and mouths to feed and we didnt want to ever let them go hungry. I believe Saratoga Jacks has only been blessed to make preparedness tools...like the thermal cookers....because we PUT others education and needs and understanding WAY WAY ahead of any products. People and time always were more important to us. Even with our kids. I am not sure if I tell people we lived without a TV and Cable for almost 18 years of our marriage...if they would believe us...or believe that the extra time and money we saved from not having that bill or distraction when moat our kids were being raised....allowed us over the years to have just enough extra to take the kids to the movies on their birthdays, or to save and pay cash for that couch, etc. (I worry now that my little kids watch Netflix and videos way too much...if they will miss out on skills their older siblings developed like work ethic) How did I get all this STUFF in my house!? Where did it come from over the past 20 years? Maybe because it is a taboo subject to admit how we scraped things together we dont talk about it.....but I HAD to USE every talent that God blessed us with to make things look as nice and comfy and beautiful as I could in our home. KSL, Fee Cycle, DI, Facebook Gagrage Sale pages. I sometimes think my greatest talent has been able to turn one mans Junk into Treasure. Every ounce of poverty we went through drove us to develop talents to compensate. I never thought I would be grateful for not having enough, but looking back it shaped everything about me, and about us. I know how to do so much on my own I would have not learned if I could have just bought or paid for everything. I wanted to travel...I have always thought you had to be rich...to do it...but I didnt think rich was an option for us, not at least in this life... so I became a travel agent to learn everything I could to help others go on the trips of their dreams at cheaper rates, and eventually...after I helped enough of others dreams come true, we were given many great, super cheap or even free trips. What goes around really comes around. The more I helped others, the more people helped us back. I have a hard time saying NO to people who come to our door asking to borrow things ...and suddenly people are offering to allow us to borrow what we have needed...in return. If I teach a food storage class.... And help people get started... Somehow we always managed to get a couple bags of grain out of the deal for ourselves. I learned a long time ago, people mattered more then stuff or money. So I focused on just their needs...and somehow...we never have not had out basic needs met. I cant tell you over the years how many people we have taken their family photos when they couldnt afford to hire photographers... We would take our camera and go to the lake...and Bailey edited them and friends walls are filled with those pics... Or how many weddings, flowers, hair up dos, etc... We have done for free to help our friends on a shoes string. And how amazing it has been to have all that come back ten fold. People have been dumping off hay bales and pumpkins and offering to help us with Baileys wedding....in similiar ways. Friends offering to help do things at a discount or free for Baileys reception have been JUST huge blessings now. If I told people... How BLESSED I am to have great friends and neighbors who have looked out for us... Or made all the difference... They would think their own neighbors sucked by comparison. I have the kind of neighbors that would get up in the middle of the night and watch my kids in an emergency. Etc. I cannot even count all my blessings. I realized yesterday when I was inventorying what stuff I had for a new baby or not... And seeing where we were at with being ready to bring a new baby home, I had discovered my neighbor Jenni Crockett-loveless had given me enough baby shoes to get through the first six months! I can garden and landscape pretty well because of other neighbors. I wanted to have nice flowers and a garden....but couldnt always afford the plants and trees, so I learned to divide plants...neighbors like Lynn Burt shared their over grown herbs. And I shared them again with others. I learned to only buy things that would come back year after year, and multiple and replenish and reseed itself. When I look back at what was in our yard from pics ten years ago versus today....I cant believe the blessings of having neighbors like Lynn who shared. My goodness. Everywhere I look this morning my life is filled to overflowing blessings... In part because of remaining open and vulnerable and service. I also know because we paid tithing that somehow by the grace of God we have always had what we needed... Not just What we needed, but when we needed it, and it would always seem to go on sale right when I had to finally buy it. How do you explain away years of proof that angels seen and unseen seem to open doors of blessings? Everywhere. How do you teach others faith? How do I explain...that Everytime Doors Didnt open...and things looked desperate....that It taught me to be Still and Patient...and to just wait...for the hand of God...because everytime....eventually...in the end it was because a better door I had NOT even CONSIDERED or known about...would eventually OPEN wide as the BEST long term solution for us. Whenever God closes a door...eventually a new window opens. As Bailey and Taylor plan their marriage and are worried about what it means to be young, and vulnerable, and to scrape by. I see them stress about what everything costs and suddenly Baileys minimum wage seems small. How can I say enough, I KNOW if you are patient and listen to that inner voice .... And do not freak out...and just be still, and follow your heart and a trail of peaceful.... Spirit led decisions.... That you will ALSO be okay. Not perfect...not always prosperous....but BLESSED! And that if you do have some times you are poor....well just think of the skills you will learn!? Jack can now change oil, breaks, and spark plugs.... Because somehow....even our old Suburban that had gotten over 300,000 miles on it... Has been full of lifes lessons for us all! How do I say thank you for even those hidden blessings? The man has skills today that come from break downs :) So I guess...even crying and overwheming moments have eventually served us. Wow. I am so blessed! We are so blessed!
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 13:25:01 +0000
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