Jim came home from helping our best friends out on Saturday. He told me that their parents were getting a new dryer and were going to give us their old one. "Oh nice." I said.
In my head I was screaming.
God, what are you doing?! We were just given a dryer a few months ago. Yes, it is old, and yes it makes a horrible screeching noise, but it works. I really would rather you provided us with groceries this week. After all, this is our tightest week of the month with most of our big bills due!
Jim and I have been praying that God would provide for our needs this month. We have also been praying that as impossible as it seems we would be able to survive this month of February sans paychecks without using any of our emergency fund that we set up when we started our Dave Ramsey plan. It's a huge thing to ask, but we serve a huge God. I was really hopeful....until Saturday.
I haven't been feeling well all weekend and Scotty woke up with a really yucky runny nose on Sunday, so I decided to keep him home from church. After Jim and Cadi left for Sunday School and Scotty went down for his nap, I decided to throw a load of laundry in. After about ten minutes of a load tumbling in the dryer I hear a really loud shrill noise coming from the dryer and then it stops. After several repeated attempts to get it working I gave up, and then I was overcome with the realization of what had happened - God had provided for our needs. Our dryer was broken, and He provided before we even knew it was a need! In that moment I could almost hear His gentle discipline.
Oh, daughter, your faith is so small. Why would you ever doubt My love for you? My ways are higher than your ways. Trust in Me with all of your heart, and don't lean on your own understanding. All you have to do is look around. You should have seen me in your dryer - of course I will provide for you. You just need to open your eyes and humble your heart.
The groceries seem a little less significant now. It would have been much harder for us to scrape together money for a dryer this month than it will be for us to scrape together some inexpensive meals. I am humbled.
Where have you seen God lately? Sometimes He can be seen in the most unpredictable ways.
"Cast all your anxiety on Him because he cares for you." I Peter 5:7
(This is the second time recently that God has used a dryer to teach me a lesson! Ashamedly the lesson was very much the same. I think I've got it this time. To read about my other lesson click here.)
Addis Ababa Time