God is good all the time, and all the time God is good!

I am constantly reminded of God's grace. I have been a Christ follower for over 10 years now but I am always amazed by his workings in my life. Why is this? I sometimes forget that despite the amount of children God has, it doesn't mean that he doesn't want to treat us like his only child. He is so focused, patient, loving and generous with each of us. He honors his promises and Drew and I have seen this evident in our financial lives this past year.

Last June, after Drew and I got hitched, he (excel spreadsheet extraordinaire) sat down and budgeted out our finances. He found, based on the current numbers in our checking and savings account, that we would be completely out of money by the end of our first year of marriage. We looked at these factual numbers and despite our humanly fears, trusted that God would provide. Boy did he ever! A year later, Drew reevaluated our finances and found that we in fact had more money in our bank account than we did a year ago! GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME.


Many factors contributed to our ability to stay afloat, all of which I attribute the faithfulness and generosity of my heavenly father. Both of our families presented multiple opportunities for us to make extra money including cleaning jobs, babysitting, and sewing projects; my gracious in-laws supplied us with countless gift cards so that Drew and I could get away for date nights. Drew and I feel so blessed to have such loving families who care about us as individuals, but also support and cheer on our marriage.

Drew and I decided early on that we were going to be faithful in tithing every paycheck and God blessed us as a result.  Never have I felt so parallel to a character in the Bible as the woman who gave only two coins; we didn't have much, but we gave it all and trusted that it was more than enough in God's eyes. In addition to the money we received through jobs and gifts, God provided me with an ongoing scholarship through UNT that has allowed Drew and I to breath every time my tuition is due.


After college, Drew took a job at Baylor Hospital in Dallas where he worked the evening shift as an anesthesiologist technician for a year. He took this job in hopes that it would build his resume for medical school. Our schedules were crazy- many mornings I would wake up and make dinner in my pajamas so that he could have a home cooked meal at work. It was an odd schedule but we coped with it, made the most of it, and as a result have many fond memories of living in our little one bedroom apartment with a kitchen the size of our current closet. We both learned how to let go of the control in our lives and wait patiently for direction from the Lord.


Almost to the day a year later, while working, a man from Edwards Lifesciences approached Drew during his evening shift. The man was there doing a hospital conversion to one of their products and had been working closely with Drew. He noticed something about Drew's work ethic, something about his personality that was different than most workers he typically had interaction with. I know what he saw, it is one of my favorite qualities about my husband- he is extremely positive, upbeat, and is wonderful with people. The man sat Drew down and told him that they had a job opportunity opening up with their company and asked if Drew would be interested in sitting down for an interview with him later on that week. This offer came as a complete shock to us; we had been wrestling with the idea of Drew attending medical school. The logistics of moving, transferring schools, and being away from our families just wasn't making much sense to us. We prayed and prayed and prayed for direction. God put this offer right in our laps and we took it.


Not only are we much more financially stable with Drew's new job, but he is able to use all of the skills that he has gained both in college (he has a bachelor's degree in business entrepreneurship and a minor in premedical studies) and through his job as an anesthesiologist technician. God gently guides us down pathways for a reason, and I absolutely love when we are able to look back and say, "So that's why I went through ______". ALL THE TIME GOD IS GOOD!


I hope this is an encouraging testimony for anyone who feels like you are in a weird stage of life, or that you won't make it financially. Remember that you are a child of God, and he wants so badly to treat you and bless you like his ONLY child- you just have to TRUST in him, always!