A Memorable Week… Got Some More, God?

This has been an extra memorable week for our family. It’s so good that I just can’t let it pass by without blogging about it. The events so far:

• A few days ago, my darling baby boy, who was walking with a glass of water, tripped while I was using this laptop. The water spilled all over my hubby’s keyboard. Gasp! We immediately turned it off and turned it over so the water can come out. Hubby then took it to the service center the next day for check up. After the diagnosis, the verdict: the laptop did not get wet inside, no need to do anything. Phew! Hubby took the laptop home. Yippeeee!!! He was not even charged for anything at the service center. Double Yippeee!!!!
• While hubby was on the way to the service center, he got the call that we have been waiting for. The call was for a job interview this Monday! Praise God! We’ve been looking forward to this because he’s been out of work since the start of the year.
• This morning, we brought Artsy Princess, Sunshine Girl and Flash Boy to our homeschool support group. All three had fun and the exercise that they needed. But the real good news to me is this: the directress of this group asked me to blog about our support group. She said that she’s been reading my blogs and she likes it. Here I thought that nobody reads my blogs.
• Upon coming home, I checked my email. Got an email from a fellow homeschooler thanking me for blogging about our homeschool experience. This is truly an encouragement for me and inspires me to keep on blogging.
• Hubby and I had a long discussion about our family and we saw how God’s hand is at work. We acknowledge that God is in control of our life and He knows what is best for us. Praise God!
• We attended our Worship Service at the Victory Christian Fellowship at Alabang. Preaching was by Pastor Jannsen Morados – he’s our hands-down favorite. He preached about Nehemiah, Rebuilding Our Nation and our role in it. Much of what he said is a confirmation of our prayer just before we attended the worship service. God is good!

The Lord is truly, truly good. He is the Giver of the good times and the bad. In both times and at all times, He is always there for us. All He asks is for us to trust Him and obey Him.

Musings on “How Can a Good God Let Bad Things Happen?”

Note: This is not yet my review of this book. However, I did receive this from NavPress for review. I have been reading it almost daily and I just can’t let the new insights I’m gaining to just pass by. Hence, I am blogging about the things I’ve learned from this book so far.

How Can A Good God Let Bad Things Happen? by Mark Tabb

God is good, isn’t it? I’ve lived most of my life believing this basic truth about our Lord God. I still believe it till now. That has not changed and this is not what the author, Mark Tabb, wanted to point out.

What he wanted his readers to see is that even though God is good, God can still let bad things happen to us.

From reading the first few chapters of the book, here is what I have learned:

• Sin is already in this world. Ever since Adam and Eve chose to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, sin came into this world. Along with sin are its curses, death, destruction, cruelty and the like. Therefore, sin being a part of our innate nature, bad things really just naturally happen.

 

• Satan is not responsible for all of the bad things happening to us. We, too, are responsible whenever we choose to make the wrong decisions. God, in His grace and wisdom, gave us the will to choose. He does not want to dictate to us as if we are just mere puppets. He loves us and respects that we can make our own decision. Therefore, bad things can also happen due to the wrong decisions that we make. Consequences will always be the result of our unwise decisions.

Mark Tabb uses the life of Job to point out these truths to us.  Job, who is righteous in God’s sight, was prospered greatly by the Lord. Satan then comes to God and challenges Him. He said that if Job were not blessed with so much, then he will probably start cursing God. So God tells Satan that he can do with him whatever he pleases, but Job’s life must be spared. And so Job loses everything, literally. He loses his children, his assets, and he loses his health. He was covered with sores from head to toe. Job’s wife challenges him to “Curse God and die!” And here is Job’s answer:

He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.                 Job 2:10

Now here is where it gets interesting. The author points out that God does not just allow bad things to happen to us. By saying that God allows bad things, we are also saying that God is not the One responsible for the bad things, somebody else is. Usually, that somebody is Satan. Instead, God, in His Sovereignty, gives us the bad things along with the good. He does this because He is the only One who knows what will  happen next.

It’s scary to think that, right? That God can and will choose to give us trouble in life. But thinking about it some more, I realized that this is really God’s Sovereignty. You see, if I will only keep thinking that God is only all good and nothing bad can come from Him, then I am limiting God. The truth is God is God. He can really do anything He wants to do with our lives. It’s hard to understand and even harder to accept, but if I don’t accept that truth, then I am just deceiving myself.

However, even if we experience troubles in our lives, the kind that is not caused by sin, we must learn to place our trust in the Lord with the assurance that He knows best what He is doing.

My husband has been job hunting since the end of January. He’s been to several interviews, seemingly with good results. Until now, though, he is still out of work. He is the best at what he does. Anywhere he goes abroad, he succeeds. Strangely enough, he’s not experiencing that success, so far, here in Manila. We’ve not had any stable source of income since he came home from New Zealand. Come March, our children got sick one after the other. We had to confine them several times and pay the bill in full each time. Why so much trouble? I don’t believe that this trouble resulted in any sin that we committed. I do believe that the hand of God is behind all that is happening right now, good and bad. And I can believe that because I know that He always has the best plans laid out for our family. He has a purpose for our family, and if it will take those bad, troubled times to accomplish His purpose, He will do it. So be it, then.

So far, I am challenged by this book. My knowledge of God is being added to. I understand more about the Sovereignty of God. What, then, does God expect from us? One word: TRUST. Trust Him no matter what. Trust Him in everything.

Yes! You Can Live on a Single Income.

Help For The Stay-At-Home Mom

Even as a young girl, I already knew that I wanted to be home for my children when the time comes. When I had my first child, though, I was working in my parent’s business and I was the only one helping them manage it. Leaving the business was almost out of the question. I struggled through our daughter’s first year, thinking that I’m missing out on so much. I would always call the nanny at home to find out what she’s doing, what words she can say, if she’s already crawling, walking or running. At night, my daughter preferred to sleep with her nanny over me.

Before the decision to stay at home to care for our child came about, my husband and I had to seriously consider how we would fare just living on his income alone. Considering that our lifestyle called for us to live on two incomes. we had to think of ways that we can pare down our expenses in order for me to stay at home. Staying at home meant living a simpler life for us. Though it overwhelmed me, the changes we had to implement in our lives were:

1. Limit our eating out. When the hubby and I were dating, and even till now, we loved to dine out. We especially loved to try out new restaurants and would consider a fine meal worth the high cost of it. Knowing that we are now living on a single income, we’ve had to limit the eating out only on special occasions, and even then, with a budget. One of the ways that we would save on our bill is to never order drinks like soda, juices, coffee, etc. We would ask for just a serving of water and this brought our bill down considerably.

2. Watch our use of electricity. In the past, I have to confess, we were quite wasteful. We would leave the light and fan on in a vacant room. The TV would be on when no one was watching. Since staying at home, we implemented an important rule with our children that lights will only be turned on if necessary. If daylight is still coming in, we don’t turn on the lights. We always, always turn the light off when we leave a room. Did you know that even the simple act of leaving the microwave plugged in will still add up your electricity? As long as the LED is lighted, electricity is still coming in. We were able to lower our electric bill this way.

3. Plan the Menu. I must admit that menu-planning is a challenge to me and it continues to be until now. I like things to be spontaneous. However, without a menu plan for the week, we’ve always had to go to the corner store and buy what we don’t have. Of course, this adds up to more expenses because corner stores are more expensive than buying it all in bulk in the grocery.

4. Make a Grocery List. One of the surefire ways to save your hard-earned money is to avoid going around in the grocery without a plan or a list on hand. Without a list, you can just wander around and pick up anything that catches your eye. But if you shop with your list, you’ll know what to go for and you can avoid all those fancy ads in the grocery. Of course, before you can make up a grocery list, you’ll need to plan your menu. Plus, with a grocery list, you can avoid the constant need to go to the grocery store for what you don’t have, thus saving you the gas money.

5. Do as many errands as you can in one day. Avoid going out often. This saves you on the cost of gasoline. Organize all your bills together and see what you can do in one day. Can you pay your utility bills at one time after doing your groceries? Achieving multiple errands in one day not only saves the gas, it saves you the cost of hiring a babysitter for several days if you did your errands on different days.

These are just a few of the ideas that we have implemented in our home in order for me to stay home with the children. Was it worth doing it? I’ll have to answer that with a resounding “YES!” In the years I have been home, I’ve seen my children grow. I’ve wiped most of their tears, answered thousands of questions, washed their scraped knees, picked them up when they fall and put them all to sleep. I’ve had dozens of hugs from big arms to small arms, lots of kisses mixed with sweat, mucus and saliva and sang so many lullabies until I’m numb in the head.

Staying at home to be with your children is indeed daunting and overwhelming if you’re not prepared for the changes. With an open mind, an open heart and a lot of creativity sprinkled in, staying home and living on one income is possible.

My Friend is Giving Away Three Books!

A TOS Crewmate is hosting a giveaway for THREE books on her blog. Visit her blog for more details.

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momof7kids/685805/