No Worries

If you are looking for Company Girl Coffee, you can just scroll down to the next post. After posting that nothing of great significance happened in my life this week, I had some pretty major stuff happen yesterday...thus the reason for this post! : )

Two quotes from last week's sermon on money:
"It's only money!" "It's all God's anyway!"

It seems like every time I hear a good message in church these days, there's always a life lesson that follows. Last week our Associate Pastor spoke on Luke 12. He focused on 2 Money LandMINES and how to defuse them.

LandMINE number 1: GREED. The Bible says to guard ourselves against greed. Greed is not just something rich people experience. In today's economy, it is easy for any of us to experience greed when we think only of ourselves. Two ways we can defuse greed are to think beyond ourselves, and to see beyond eternity. Sure I struggle to meet my budget, but there are other ways to give. I can serve at the local food pantry. I can donate clothes that my children have grown out of that are in good condition. I can even offer to babysit for a friend or neighbor for free once in a while so that she can get out with her husband, or just spend some time in peace and quiet. All of those things not only see beyond my own life, but can have eternal value.

LandMINE number 2: WORRY.
Luke 12:22-26 Then turning to his disciples Jesus said "That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life-whether you will have enough food to eat or enough clothes to wear. For life is more than food and your body more than clothing. Look at the ravens. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for God feeds them. And you are far more valuable to Him than any birds! Can all of your worries add a single moment to your life? And if worry can't accomplish a little thing like that, what's the use of worrying over the bigger things?"

The cure for worry? Remember who your Provider is. Here's the part I was really tested on this week! It is easy to trust God when everything is running smoothly, and bills are getting paid, and there is food on the table. Worrying about the bigger things is a different matter!

Yesterday we took two very big blows to our finances. Part of it was planned as a part of our budget. The other part was NOT. First, my DH went to the dentist to find out what was causing his jaw pain. He's been to our doctor, who thinks he has TMJ. The dentist confirmed that, and he was fitted for a night guard. That, we were prepared for. What we weren't prepared for was a chipped tooth, 3 missing caps, and 4 new cavities! Wow! Now I would normally worry about how we're going to pay for all that, but thankfully the dentist we chose was referred through a friend and gave us a "Pastor's rate." Plus he split the work into phases that will be a little less straining on our budget. No worries here! Thank you Lord for your provision!

The other major thing had to do with our furnace. Back in the fall we had someone come out to look at our AC and he thought he noticed a crack in our furnace when he was in our basement. We didn't have it in our budget to have a furnace tech come out at the time so we just tabled it since we weren't using the furnace at the time anyway. More recently we thought we smelled gas coming from the furnace. That was enough reason to call a repair man and get him out here as soon as possible. Yesterday he came out only to "condemn" our furnace and say that it needed to be replaced as soon as possible. OUCH! He even suggested that we might shut it down and go find other means of lodging until we could replace it.

Now I'm not an expert on this, but CO2 poisoning is a pretty serious thing, right? I immediately began to panic about the safety of my family. Luckily, upon further investigation, the tech. determined that we were ok to stay here as long as we bought a CO2 alarm. So out we go to get the alarm. He still condemned our furnace and we got a quote right away of $2500 for a new one. We get a partial rebate from our local power company and have family willing to let us borrow the money to get the job done. Within an hour of the first bad news and my initial worries, my mind was set at ease, and my family will be taken care of.

I have to ask myself and anyone who reads this that same question that Jesus asked His disciples. "Can worries add a single moment to your life?" Nope. If anything, they take away from precious time that we could spend doing something else. What a hard lesson to learn. Maybe next time, I won't be so quick to worry.

"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done." -Phillipians 4:6 (NLT)