Cycles....

Cycles...

My husband used to say that mining was cyclical...and it is as well as other industries ...for mining is was almost a ten year cycle. 10 years up,and then ten down...

In the early 1970's, he had few jobs, then that turned and we had the largest geologist office in the state with 27 employees. By the early 80's there was a definite downturn and we were down to himself again....and so it went...back and forth...God always supplied what we needed and sometimes more but never less...

We were only called about an overdue bill once, but still made the payment quickly...and didn't go into arrears...there were a couple of years that we actually ate "garbage".   That was a fun and humbling adventure...and we had some of the best food in town ....we knew the produce manager for one of the local grocery stores...and we got all of the outdated produce for our animals..but, I was able to sort through and use what was usable for our family first...we ate the most expensive veggies and fruits because their dates were expired...plus there was lots left for the animals...so each week we loaded up the whole back end of our truck, sorted, and even gave some away...

The next year as our income increased, health laws were passed that people couldn't do what we had done anymore...we felt like God had just opened that door for us...

Other years, our garden produced so much that we took our  truck to church and shared off the back end with others... Or another time, we found an abandoned homestead with apple trees loaded with fruit that supplied apples and apple sauce for the winter...other years, we were able pick berries by the bushel for berry pie filling, jellies or canned berries ....we never knew what the supply would be from year to year, but we were always so grateful as we harvested garden produce or whatever came along...thankful...

As one of my grandsons read to me yesterday about the Pilgrims and their hardships, as well as the Indians who helped them with their crops, I was reminded of the gratefulness we had in common...years apart...God is the giver...the supplier...the provider...thank YOU...

At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.”
2 Corinthians 8:14-15

26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:26-31,33-34

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge —that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:16-19