A Little Catch-up
Well, it's been quite a while since I had a significant post on here so I'll catch everyone (all 3 of you! ) up to speed on what's been going on with little old me.
God has certainly brough me and my family through a long, hard passage over the last 12 months. It has had high points and low points and we have learned a tremendous amount about ourselves and about our Lord in the midst of it all.
The first step on this road came with a job change last March. I left the title insurance company I'd been with for 7 years and went to manage the men's clothing store I'd been working at part-time. This worked out pretty well in the beginning. There were some tough challenges but the money was good. Then sales started sliding and I couldn't keep my staff on (because they work on commission and there was no traffic in the store.) After several months of declining sales numbers and working several extra shifts covering for those that had quit, I decided to step down from my management position and take a sales position at another location through Christmas.
This is when things started getting tight. But God is faithful. At one point we had received a notice from a medical facility that the $700+ we owed them had to be paid by the day before Thanksgiving or it would be sent to collections. My wife and I prayed that God would provide the money so that we could honor Him by paying this debt. The day before it was due we recieved an unexpected check in the mail for $1200. On another occasion we needed grocery money. We prayed with the kids that God would provide what we needed and we found another unexpected check for $80. We have had generous and thoughtful brothers and sisters in Christ help us in our need on more than one occasion and it has been very humbling to accept the help...but that is how God provides sometimes. We have seen His faithfulness over and over again.
After Christmas sales dropped dramatically and, as I was now the one in a position paying strictly commission, I had to look for other employment. I went back to the title company and they said I could start the next day. (Thank goodness I didn't burn any bridges there!) We're now in a period of transition going from making $150 to $200 a week to making a living again.
Yet, one of the most profound lessons we've learned in all this is how much we've learned to live without. We had been spending so much money on frivolous things that, in hindsight, it seems ridiculous. We have, through this ordeal, learned to be much better stewards of what the Lord has provided us with. It's still going to be a tough task catching back up with creditors (another issue entirely) but we're better able to say, along with Paul, that we've learned to be content with little and to be content with much.
The other big event now is our pending entrance into seminary! We had been waiting for a pre-payment penalty on our mortgage to expire, which it has. So now I've got my application process started for Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville for this fall. Pending acceptance there, my family and I will be putting our house on the market and moving to Kentucky. Everyone is looking forward and anticipating the move.
Well, that does it for now. It feels good to be writing again. Speaking of writing, I'll have to share some of my experiences in freelancing for the Kansas City Star newspaper this past year. I'll do that in subsequent posts, but for now...
gotta go!
God has certainly brough me and my family through a long, hard passage over the last 12 months. It has had high points and low points and we have learned a tremendous amount about ourselves and about our Lord in the midst of it all.
The first step on this road came with a job change last March. I left the title insurance company I'd been with for 7 years and went to manage the men's clothing store I'd been working at part-time. This worked out pretty well in the beginning. There were some tough challenges but the money was good. Then sales started sliding and I couldn't keep my staff on (because they work on commission and there was no traffic in the store.) After several months of declining sales numbers and working several extra shifts covering for those that had quit, I decided to step down from my management position and take a sales position at another location through Christmas.
This is when things started getting tight. But God is faithful. At one point we had received a notice from a medical facility that the $700+ we owed them had to be paid by the day before Thanksgiving or it would be sent to collections. My wife and I prayed that God would provide the money so that we could honor Him by paying this debt. The day before it was due we recieved an unexpected check in the mail for $1200. On another occasion we needed grocery money. We prayed with the kids that God would provide what we needed and we found another unexpected check for $80. We have had generous and thoughtful brothers and sisters in Christ help us in our need on more than one occasion and it has been very humbling to accept the help...but that is how God provides sometimes. We have seen His faithfulness over and over again.
After Christmas sales dropped dramatically and, as I was now the one in a position paying strictly commission, I had to look for other employment. I went back to the title company and they said I could start the next day. (Thank goodness I didn't burn any bridges there!) We're now in a period of transition going from making $150 to $200 a week to making a living again.
Yet, one of the most profound lessons we've learned in all this is how much we've learned to live without. We had been spending so much money on frivolous things that, in hindsight, it seems ridiculous. We have, through this ordeal, learned to be much better stewards of what the Lord has provided us with. It's still going to be a tough task catching back up with creditors (another issue entirely) but we're better able to say, along with Paul, that we've learned to be content with little and to be content with much.
The other big event now is our pending entrance into seminary! We had been waiting for a pre-payment penalty on our mortgage to expire, which it has. So now I've got my application process started for Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville for this fall. Pending acceptance there, my family and I will be putting our house on the market and moving to Kentucky. Everyone is looking forward and anticipating the move.
Well, that does it for now. It feels good to be writing again. Speaking of writing, I'll have to share some of my experiences in freelancing for the Kansas City Star newspaper this past year. I'll do that in subsequent posts, but for now...
gotta go!
posted by Jim V. | 10:25 AM
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