God Provides

When Ken first started talking of leaving and divorce amongst the many reactions that I had one of the concerns was financial. Ken has been the main bread winner all the years of our marriage (22+) and though I have most all of those years done something to earn some money (music lessons, babysitting and my wedding floral business primarily) that has been a very small percentage. For the most part that has been "fun" money. The money we used for things like vacations and home improvement projects. I absolutely knew that God would provide but I still struggled a bit with trust and worry. That has been a spiritual growth time for me as I learn to trust God even when I don't understand and I don't see myself how everything is going to work out.

  But in this post I just wanted to share some of the ways that God has proved to me this year that He is watching out for us and is going to provide for us.  We have tried to live debt free except for our mortgage so we are blessed that way but our mortgage is a pretty hefty payment as we have a nice home and in my quest to be debt free soon we put it on a 15 year mortgage. We also have very expensive property taxes since we live on the river and then all the normal home expenses. We also have to pay for health insurance out of pocket since I am self-employed. So even though I live quite frugally the costs add up. I was going to need to make nearly 4 times as much as I made last year and nearly triple the amount of a normal year. 

1. Because of COVID19 and just life circumstances I had gotten to the place that I was only teaching 2 students this fall. Since that time I have added 15 more students (4 of them had taken previously but not for over a year before). 3 have currently stopped again but one is planning on starting up soon. But currently I have 14 students compared to the 2 I had. I have a student on a waiting list as well and others that have expressed interest. I also have students that want to take through the summer where generally mine didn't in the past. So that is helping tremendously financially. The only new thing that I did to advertise was to make a google listing which gained me one of my new students. The gain in students I can only attribute to God.

2. Usually my wedding floral business gets a complete break in the winter. Winter weddings just aren't that common in Northern Minnesota and if people had them they generally got their flowers some place else. This year I had 5 weddings in January and February - months I had never done wedding flowers in before. That just seemed like another sign from God saying "I am going to take care of you". I have 20 weddings scheduled for this summer with more consultations for both this year and next also scheduled. God is so good!

3. I decided that I probably would also need to get another part time job so I started looking a bit. I really want a job where I could do something that wasn't behind a desk especially spending hours looking at a computer. I also was hoping for something that could be fun and challenging. I know, I was being a little picky. I did apply at Hobby Lobby and Northwoods Caregivers (a place that does homecare for elderly). Either one of those would have been fine jobs but wouldn't have paid super well and also would have been super fun for me either. I didn't hear back from either of them very soon. Meanwhile a friend told me that a florist in town was hiring for a part time position. I wasn't sure if they would want to hire me because of the conflict of interest because I have my own business. I decided to stop in anyway and check it out. I talked to the owner who knew of me already because of my business. She said that she would need to think over the conflict of interest issue but knew that I was a good designer. She called a couple of days later and hired me. Interestingly to me was that the day after she called Northwoods Caregivers called and wanted to hire me after silence for weeks. I believe God works with perfect timing and is providing what is best. So I have been working 18-20 (more on Holiday weeks) hours a week at Netzer's Floral on 3 different days.

4. When I asked my neighbor if I could use her as a reference she said "yes" and then called later to tell me of a friend of hers that needed help caring for her husband who was elderly and lost his leg. I have been doing that overnight 2 nights a week. It is nice because I do also get to sleep (it just is interrupted sleep as I generally have to get up fairly frequently to care for him during the night) and I make money while my kids are sleeping so I don't miss time with them. It has been a big financial blessing. I am wondering if it is one I should continue with very long term as I have been tired a lot and I think that contributes to that in a big way. So we are praying about that right now.

5. The day that Ken moved out a friend called and said that someone else wanted to give me an anonymous gift. She sent it over PayPal. It was a generous gift that proved to me yet again that God is taking care of us and I have no need to worry.

6. I found out that the money that was getting paid for Ken's business for 10 years (that he sold last September) would be split between us. So that is a blessing.

7. Ken has not been stingy with the money for Child Support and Alimony so that is a blessing as well.

There have been many other things that have happened between gifts, good deals found and other ways I have found to save. God cares for his people so very abundantly!

I would love to hear stories of how God has provided for you!