The day was ordinary. Down the hall, I could hear the buzz of children happily playing and the hum of the washing machine busily making things clean. There was no reason to expect any hint of turmoil until I stepped in it. Purple goo oozed between my toes and onto my pant legs. A million scenarios flashed before my mind. Then I saw it. The laundry soap container had plummeted into a dismal sea of purple.
The bottle itself had just come home from the store. And now I found myself mopping up what seemed like gallons of soap. Tears invaded and hysteria settled in my heart. There was no way to salvage the disaster and the $14 to buy a new one would be costly to say the least. Tired hands pressed and mopped at the goo which easily made it’s way into the deepest crevices of the carpet. After what seemed like hours of useless pressing, I gave up. The pressures of the day mounted and I fell into a heap of despair.
Somewhere in-between the brokenness and the crying out, His words seeped through. Baby, I’ve got this. I think I made Him say it again. Or maybe He just did. Baby, I’ve got this. I knew it was true. But it seemed so silly. It’s just laundry soap. It really shouldn’t be such a big deal. But sometimes my lot hardly seems fair and today was one of those days.
Left was a not-even-full cup of laundry soap and a rather damaged vessel.
That was nearly 9 months ago. Days would pass and laundry would pile up. I would empty the tiny cup into the machine with each new load of laundry. And somehow every time I came back, the cup was full again. I would find myself wondering. Didn’t I empty it all? How is this cup full again? But it was full again. Load after load would wash clean. Fall became winter. Winter began to bloom and still the cup did not grow empty. At first it seemed a little funny, but by the time the air grew warm, I knew it wasn’t an accident.
The cup never ran out because He provided.
Friend, this simple story is one of many. The miracle of provision isn’t always in the big things. He might not always drop $1000 check on your doorstep (although He has done that for me), but He will always provide. Even in the seemingly small and mundane things, like laundry soap. His provision is beyond what we can imagine. Do you need to believe that God will provide in your circumstances?
Look up these verses…
Philippians 4:19
Gen 22:14
Deut 8:4
Share…How has God provided for you? Think back to some of the worst things in your life and consider how God provided. Please share with us!
Kim Sorgius
Kim is just a girl, crazy in love with Jesus. She's a single mother of 4, a passionate homeschooler and life-long student. After teaching 8 years in public school, she traded her M.A. in Early Childhood for sippy cups and homeschool co-ops. Kim is the owner and editor of The Homeschool Village and Not Consumed where she encourages others to rest victoriously in the hands of God, rather than allowing life's difficult circumstances to consume.
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LOVE this post, Kim! He is our Provider and I have experienced it many times before but never tire of hearing stories from other people. Thank you for sharing yours!
I will never forget the time when we had just gotten married. We were so poor and didn’t have 2 nickles to rub together. We couldn’t afford groceries and I sat at home in a dark apartment all day because I couldn’t afford to waste gas by driving anywhere in the car. The problem was I was raised to believe I HAD to send thank you notes for gifts received and it was a huge emotional burden to me that I had written about 47 thank you notes for wedding gifts but couldn’t mail them. They were written, sealed, and addressed, but I couldn’t justify money for stamps that could otherwise be used for groceries or gas for my husband to get to work.
I heard God gently remind me that He cares about even the small things in our life, so I got on my knees and prayed. I told Him I felt silly asking for Him to provide stamps when there were so many greater needs in the world, but reminded Him that He had said He would provide for my needs and that nothing was too small for Him to care about.
That very night my husband came home and after work, and he casually asked, “Oh, you don’t need any stamps, do you?”. I hadn’t told him my need. A client he had visited that afternoon at work was sending out a mailing for his business and after stamping the envelopes, changed his mind and decided not to send the mailing. My husband was there just as they were throwing the stamped envelopes in the trash and they asked him if he wanted them. Guess how many stamped envelopes there were? About 47. Exactly the number of stamps I needed to mail my thank you notes.
Oh, I love that story! How beautifully God provides for us. I often wish that I had grasped this truth much earlier in life.
Thank you for sharing this – our God is the Lord of all things, big and small, and He promises to provide. Yet we are still amazed when He does just that. I needed this reminder today!
I recall a time when my husband and I went to the altar at the end of a worship service to pray. Our finances were incredibly tight, and that was one of the things we prayed about. When we got out to the parking lot after the service, we found an envelope on the windshield of our vehicle… containing $100 from an anonymous “angel.”
Another time, we were once again scraping the bottom of the barrel. It was a Saturday afternoon and although I had checked the mailbox once, I felt the need to do it again. Inside I found a thank-you card from a friend, along with $50. I had sung at her wedding – about 4 months earlier – and she had just remembered that day to stop by and stick the card in my box.
When we honor God with our first-fruits (money, time, energy, talents) He is always faithful to bless us!
I love those mailbox “angels.” God has met so many needs that way!
Oh my word! I got chills reading this (and am sharing it on my FB page). This reminds me of my childhood…when we saw God provide like this for us. What an incredible story! Hopping over from Hear It On Sunday…Blessings from Zagreb. – A Little R & R http://jukiczr.blogspot.com
Thanks for stopping by and for sharing!
Praise God!! Praise God! Praise God!
He is the same yesterday, today, and forever…..while reading my mind immediately went to the widow woman and her neverending supply.
Thanks so much for sharing!
Yes! That story takes on a while new meaning now!
My heart went out to you. God is an awesome provider but lately He’s outdone Himself. I decided a couple of years ago to make a change in my life.
I wanted to run hard after God. Best case, He’d meet me and produce the desires I had nestled in my heart. Worse case, I’d be right where I was…but in His love. It was a win-win scenario.
However, along the way I dropped the ball. I let my hangups overshadow His love for me.
Long story short. I stopped worrying and gave it all to Him. I told Him I’d be where He needed to whom He says.
I haven’t regretted it one bit.
Yet another wonderful post. You are making my morning a joy. Thank you!
That’s so sweet, Dana. I am thrilled that God would allow me to share with you all.
Kim, you are such a gifted writer. The more I read, the more I love your work.
I have had this experience time and time again. And right now we are waiting — again– for God to move in a Big way. Amen, let it be.
(And I’m curious about your name. Is the G hard or soft? And I read the ?s people ask you about having 4 children. My daughter was horrified. Rightly so.)
My last name rhymes with gorgeous. :-) Ha. Thanks for your sweet words and for stopping by! Praying for your situation. While waiting is hard, seeing God move is always worth the wait!
My husbands new job had taken us about 6 hours from our old home. Just 2 weeks after arriving the company was restructured and my husband’s pay was cut in half. I had not found job and money was running really thin. There was one time we knew our electric was going to be cut off. We knew it would be off for 3 days before we could pay the bill to have it turned back on. We accepted this and prepared our 2 kids. There was nothing we could do about it, so we planned on making the best of it by having an ‘in house camp-out.’ The night before it was to be turned off we went to small group. We barely knew these people, it was only our 3rd time going to the group. One of the men there handed my husband an envelope and told him to open it after we left. Inside the envelope was a note that simply said, “God told me to give this to you.” and the exact amount of our electric bill.
Our youngest one (our baby girl) was deathly ill (I am not exaggerating, she was vomiting everything up, diarrhea and her gums were turning black) and she had to be taken to the ER twice for rehydration and antibiotics.
We had no insurance at the time. Insurance through my husband’s work would have cost us an extra $400/month we didn’t have. And we made too much for qualifying through the state for insurance.
Anyway, our daughter finally got better. Thank you Lord! And we nervously awaited the hospital bill.
It finally arrived. And it might as well have been a million dollars, because we could not afford to pay it. I wondered if I would have to get a job outside of my home to pay for it.
Then at church that weekend (and I was so happy to be going with my daughter healthy and strong!), at the brand new church we had only been going to for a couple of months, God moved on the pastor’s heart to take up an offering for us.
He started off by saying there was this young family in the congregation who had come up against some health issues and now they were challenged financially. ( At this point , he had not named names and my husband and I were not thinking it was us!) He said that he wanted to take up an offering to bless this family and help pay for their bill. My husband and I looked at each other and asked each other what we could give. We settled on writing a check for $20. And then before we could write it out, the pastor called US up to the front.
We were shocked as people we didn’t even know flocked to the front to fill the offering buckets that had been laid at our feet. I cried and cried and hugged as many people as I could.
At the end of the giving, they handed us the buckets and we went home.
We gathered our young sons at the table when we got home and we said to them, ”We want you to remember and see that God provides for us,” and then we poured out the checks, cash and coins. We started counting and weeping. It totaled more than $2200. More than enough to cover the bill.
He truly is El-Shaddai..the God Who is More Than Enough!
Thank you to all who have shared their beautiful stories of His provision!
Many blessings!