What My Husband Taught Me

(Second post for today - don't miss the first one- it's an important lesson as well)

As you all know at the end of December - I lost my job. I had worked for my Mother in Law at her store/bakery. I loved my job. Most of the year I only had to work 2 -3 days a week. Around holidays I worked a lot more. So basically I was just on an as needed basis on top of my normal responsibilities.
Since I have lost my job - I have struggled a bit with the pressure that I guess the world puts on me or maybe it is something that some how I was taught growing up, or maybe the media. The pressure that I am feeling is like in order to be of value- I must work.

Well right now it is best that I don't work - there are several reasons but the biggest of those is that some time during the summer(probably the month of July) my son will have his daughter for the month and I will need to take care of my sweet granddaughter. It is a great privilege to be able to be available to help my family out when needed. And I am so very grateful.

So now we get to how my husband taught me about Salvation. He does not realize how much of a lesson I learned from him but I really needed to understand this lesson. As I have shared in the past - that I have always felt like I had to be "good enough" to be loved, to be accepted...you get the idea. Well this deficiency in character ran even deeper and caused other negative side effects you could say.

I'll give you an example. Way back in 1997 when my boys were 5 and 7 a wonderful thing happened for my family! Something that had I not have this defect of character I could have fully appreciated and enjoyed. It was a free trip to Disney World. We had to pay for food and souvenirs but other than that everything was paid for. How did we get so lucky? Well as you know my MIL owned a convenience  store and Star Telegram was doing a special promotion - they had several customers that won these packages and then they did a contest for their business - what ever businesses that had the biggest increase in sales during a certain time period would win this trip to Disney World. Well my MIL won a set of 4 free tickets. What a wonderful unexpected surprise or my family. We were poor - there is no way we could have ever afforded a trip like that - but Praise the Lord!! He worked this out and I should have been thrilled. Oh I was thrilled but I felt guilty. It was like I was afraid to tell of this blessing because I did not deserve it. Tears come to my eyes now as I tell you about this - just like tears were coming to my eyes earlier this week when my husband taught me (in a round about way) about salvation and how it is a free gift.

A couple of weeks ago - we got an advertisement in the mail from Chevrolet- basically we would get a $50.00 gift card if we were to go to a local Chevy place and test drive a 2014 Impala and a 2013 Malibu. Well the beginning of last week we went and did the test drive. The sales guy was wonderful and we had a great time. My husband and I had talked about after about December of this year we would probably be looking into buying a new vehicle. Well since our test drive - we started investigating a few things and after finding ways to save money - by changing insurance companies and getting a new credit card(our old one had Capital One take over and they proceeded to (pardon my language but screw us over- so we got with our credit union and got a new credit card with lower interest rate and therefore saving us money now and in the future).  Well after we did all of this my husband decided he wanted to get more serious about looking for a car and he got on the internet and found some really good deals. So we started doing more test drives. Then my husband told me that it was going to be my car and that I got to decide what I wanted. Well I told him that I just felt like since I did not work that I did not deserve a new car- and he said there are many women out there that don't work that have gotten new cars. He said it was something he liked being able to do for me. That just melted my heart and I just was overwhelmed with emotion and a deeper understanding of God's love for me(us as people) He loved us so much He was willing to lay down His life for us - not because we deserved it but because of His awesome love for us!!

After we figured out the other ways of saving money - we also decided we would keep my Malibu when we got a new vehicle and that way my husband can start driving it to work instead of his big dodge truck- saving us a good amount of money in gas- at least $30- if not a whole lot more per week. He drives a pretty big Dodge truck - 2500. And so it uses quite a bit of gas. So it will be great to have him using a more fuel efficient car. The fill up each week will be less painful. And that is great since this is the part of the year when our electric bill is higher and that makes things pretty tight around here.

So just like I had to learn(and still have to learn) that God's love is unconditional and that I don't have to earn it - I have learned that His salvation is free - and ALL I have to do is accept it and allow Him into my heart and give Him control of my life. He then guides and directs me in the way I should go and as I allow Him to mold me and shape me - I begin to resemble Him more and more... Praise the Lord for loving me so much and giving me the gift of salvation - even though I don't deserve either. I am blessed.

And this is what he brought home:

We love it! Praising God for the blessings of the wisdom of checking into the information that we checked into that made this purchase possible! And so thankful for the lesson it taught me. I won't forget it- in fact, I think that every time I look at this car or get into it - I will remember how much God loves me and about His free gift. He knew I needed to learn this lesson. During the last year, there have been things going on that have caused me to question if God even loved me. And know because of this lesson - I know. Praise the Lord!!

Sorry it took me so long to get this photo fixed - I got side tracked with a phone call and totally forgot about it until I happen to be working in the room with this computer. Anyway here is a better photo. -not the teaser that it ended up being earlier. lol :O)

Thanks Susan for this verse - it is a great one for this post! :O)

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!   

Matthew 7:11