You of little faith!

Matthew 16:5 When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. 6 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7 And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” 8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? 9 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 11 How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.


Jesus JUST fed thousands of people from small amounts of food... HE JUST DID IT!  The disciples forgot to bring any food with them on their next journey??  

I can imagine Jesus at this moment... SMH moment.  Rolling his eyes, shaking his head.  Looking up to Heaven.. "Really Father?"  Oh you of little faith.  
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Two weeks ago, I was stressing about money.  How was I going to pay all my bills?  Can you believe the money all came just when it was supposed to?  My life long lesson, it seems, is to have faith and trust that God will always provide.

Here I am again... I literally need thousands of dollars to pay my bills and the insurance companies are still holding payments this month.  People owe me money for their co-pays and deductibles, but they are just not paying them. What is going on?

God is in charge of all the money.  He can prompt people to pay me.  He can open the doors to multiply the pennies into the money I need.  It will happen.

Since it is amazing to see how God provides every month, I'm going to tally what I need and what I have each day just to bring glory to God:

2/9/17
I  need $820 before the end of tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

7:00 am- auto bank deposit $59.32
10:25 am- $129.38 in the mail. 
5pm- $30 

2/10/17
Payments: $414.12
Still need  $186.88

2/13/17
$48.75  still need $138.13

I need $1,600 more by the 15th.

I need $6.769 more by the 24th.

All together, $9,189.

2/13/17
The Lord will provide.  I am leaving country for 11 days and will not be able to update any more income information.  I received mail today telling me I was getting paid for claims submitted at the beginning of January.   I am at the mercy of the insurance companies.  The Lord is in control of everything.  I need to continue to have peace in my heart and know that this company belongs to the Lord.  He always provides.

3/10/17
Quote from my mom/office manager: "It was amazing.  As soon as you left, all the money started rolling in."  Needless to say, God provided every need and more.  He always provides.

Every Need

Philippians 4:19  

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 

For an unknown reason, insurance companies decide to hold payment at the end/start of the year.  What does that mean for small business owners?  Difficult times.

A common theme in my life is, "God always provides."  It seems my faith has been building block by block over the years through this grueling process of trusting God to provide my needs. January was one of the hardest to exercises trust.

I needed $7,500 in one week.  Intense.  I was doubting everything.  Should I even still be open as business?  Should I move to Haiti and forget this adventure?  Does God even want me to be doing this?  Why am I so terrible with money?  Every negative thought I could think went through my head.

My dearest friends reminded me of my own words over and over that God would provide and that He always provides.  Confirmation that I needed to calm it down was when Liz was reminded of Philippians 4:19 and was supposed to tell me. *Sigh of relief*  It's going to be ok.

Would you believe it?  All of my bills have been paid except one final thing that is due on the 15th.  Shew.  God does always provide. No late fees.  No overdrawn accounts.  Everything is just fine.... except maybe I have another grey hair.  

How many more times will I have to learn this lesson? 
 

Loving Well

Hi went to a conference about Loving Well last weekend. It was a Beth Moore DVD conference where we watched her sessions and then a group of us talked about it. I went with a church I'd never been to, but with an amazing new friend. What a great time to put loving well in to practice! I didn't know anyone else, so I had a chance to just love them all for who they were without any background knowledge.

One of the main points of the weekend was about loving others from the overflow of God's love for us. If we don't allow God to love us, we can't love others. I was just reading in Matthew and came across a verse that really impacted me a few months ago, but I forgot about it.

Matthew 12:34 For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.

Whatever is in our hearts is how we are going to speak to others. If we are low on our love from God and start thinking negatively about other people, we're going to say negative things to those people. If we are full of God and can then think and feel good things for people, positive love will come out of our mouths.

Just a thought. God is unbelievably amazing for loving us.

Life huh?

God has put me through an intense period of growth lately. That's how I am going to look at it. God is helping me to zoom in on the areas of my professional life that are lacking and wants me to improve them in 30 days!

One life lesson God has quickly pointed out to me is about judging. I was reading Matthew 7:3

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

I am so excited that God blessed me and is continuing to push me on toward the purpose He has for my life. I can't let life and circumstances hold me down. They will always point me away from this narrow path I'm on.

God is amazing.

Multiplication

I've recently been reading the book The Blessed Life by Robert Morris. What a great read! I highly recommend it. I've learned so much about managing my money and how God wants us to use His money!

I experienced something amazing recently though that I have to share. This book explains how your tithe is the first fruits of your labor. If we don't tithe, we are robbing God. Malachai 3. I don't want to do that! Also, it's the first fruits of our labor that we are to give to God. In Romans 11:16 it says that when we give our first fruits, the rest of the lump of money is blessed and holy. I was the rest of my money to be holy!

After this, I learned about my offerings being what I give away after I have tithed. Tithing is just returning to God what is His and then our offerings are in addition to the tithe. The offerings are the part God works with in our hearts. I had no idea how hard it would be to give just a little bit more away!! I did it though. I gave $20 over my tithe. That doesn't seem like a lot, but it sure was hard to let go of. After that, I gave a dollar and some change once and then a dollar and forty something cents another time. That's about $22.42 right? God works with our offerings right? Later that week, I got my tax refund. It was exactly 10 times that amount. $2,242. Amazing.

I love it! I'm growing so much. God is so good. I am excited.

Cherry Blossom 2010

The Cherry Blossom Festival!!!! I wait ALL year for it! I love it so much. There is so much diversity in one small compact spot. :) The traffic. The beautiful trees. Spring finally arriving. Tourists! Cameras. Paddle boats. Illegal crossings of the street. Bike riders. Dogs. Indians. Spanish speakers. Asians. African Americans. Caucasians. Strollers. Couples in love. Angry police officers. Yelling. Honking. Laughing. Frisbees. Kites.




Well, I just love it. In my opinion, hands down, the best time of the year in Washington, DC.




This year, I experienced the beautiful adventure with my friends Sherman and Samantha. What wonderful people!

While we were walking, avoiding branches hitting our heads and being snapped in an unavoidable picture, I had this overwhelming desire to become friends with every Indian person I saw!!!! There were so many of them! I was amazed! They were so beautiful with their sarees. The little children had pierced ears with gold jewelry. A lot of them had red and sparkly dots on their foreheads. Some younger women had red down the parts in their hair. The older men had a special way of walking with their hands behind their backs. The older women were serious and looked like they had been through a lot. They were definitely demanding of respect. The younger women dressed in Western clothing and looked happy and so pretty. I am inspired to seriously surround myself with Indians! The amount I saw today tells me there is a serious population in the city. I have to meet them!

How many Indian people can you spot in this photo?

How can they hear?

My life verses:

Romans 10:14-15

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"