Our pastor's message in worship today centered on the fact that the story of how God has and is working in our lives can often involve the hurts we've encountered along the way in life and how He has been able to help us heal from them. It was pointed out that these hurts can take a variety of forms (physical, mental/emotional, etc.), including losing something we hold dear, whether it be a loved one, an ability we used to have, or a dream, etc. As I reflected on what our pastor was saying, I thought about two areas of my life in particular that God has helped me to heal. My marriage, although short-lived, was both somewhat physically and mentally/emotionally abusive, and had the potential for being quite debilitating and scarring in more ways than one; however, God worked nothing short of a miracle through the support of my faith, family and friends, allowing me to get out of the situation without any long-lingering effects, and giving me a determination that it wasn't going to cast a shadow over the rest of my life.
The second area that came to mind was the dream most everyone has of becoming a parent, which will most likely never be a reality for me in any form. God's healing has also been truly amazing in this situation as well; He has given me a niece and nephew, both of whom are becoming wonderful Christian adults (can you tell I'm a proud aunt or what?!). Also, He has provided plenty of opportunities for me to work with children as I've mentioned previously, which has always been fulfilling. Similarly to my marriage as described above, God has given me an attitude of acceptance and a resolve to not let my circumstances define who I am, because life is too short for that! So, whether it's a more temporary hurt, or one that we deal with over the course of our lifetime, we can trust in God's healing, and that is good news we should all be willing to share!
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Christmas Chaos/Craziness and a Car
Well, part of the reason I haven't posted here in a while is because the Advent/Christmas season makes my schedule absolutely crazy, which of course is to be expected when you work at a church! However, the Christmas just passed was particularly chaotic for me, because on top of everything going on at work (complete with the usual case of Advent Exhaustion!), there have been several issues in my personal life that cropped up at the same time, all of which had a monetary component to them. First of all, we were told that our group medical insurance was going to roughly double in price, so I decided to go through the somewhat arduous process of arranging to purchase my own through the new government healthcare exchanges. Then, when I was home for Thanksgiving, I let my dad take my car for an oil change, and when they took a closer look, several problems were identified that although were not all that critical, eventually would need to be addressed and cost more than the car was worth. Finally, I had been given a heads-up that my hours/pay were probably going to be cut, which has now become a reality as of the first of the year. As a result, I am in the process of trying to refinance my mortgage at a lower interest rate and thus bring my monthly payment down, so that my budget can at least partially absorb the impact of the hours/pay cut. God has been teaching me some tough lessons about His provision and sufficiency through these financial challenges.
As far as the insurance goes, I was actually able to purchase both a medical and dental plan that are similar in nature to the group coverage we had and saved about $15/month overall, even though that means I'm no longer eligible for payroll deduction. Also, I've recently had a cold that turned into a sinus infection, and knew I needed to see the doctor for an antibiotic, but had not received my new insurance card yet. I made up my mind to go ahead and see if they could somehow confirm my coverage without a card anyway, but then it finally came in the mail that day, right before we had a weather-related office closure for a total of 2 days, which was just enough time to rest and start letting the medicine do its job (talk about God's timing!).
In addition, my parents and I had been talking for a while about the best use of a stock portfolio my grandmother had left my mom (and will be eventually be mine) that is being managed by a local financial advisor. My mom had mentioned that there was probably enough in the account (but not by much) to actually pay off my condo, which was a tempting scenario because it would mean I could start socking away more in my 403b for retirement, beef up my savings account for emergencies, etc., and eventually take on a car payment, not to mention increase my giving at church. After discovering what shape my 10-year-old, 100,000+-mile car was in as mentioned earlier, my mom insisted on cashing some of my grandmother's stock to buy a new car outright (no car payment). I would have been willing to drive my old car until the wheels fell off, but it was probably the best decision in the end, because the rest of the stock is still there in case my parents were to somehow need the money first. God may not have seen fit to bless me with a husband to share financial responsibilities, but He is still allowing my parents to help me when needed, although they shouldn't have to at this point in their lives. Having a new car I'm not paying for has also brought to mind a parallel to the gift of God's grace and salvation; there's really nothing we can do to earn it, and it's given in love, even when we don't deserve it.
Refinancing my mortgage has been a real odyssey; I first tried about a year ago and ended up having to pay for an appraisal anyway when it fell through at the last minute. When I restarted the process with a different lender, I was first told that I would need another appraisal, and that I probably wouldn't be able to escrow all the closing costs into the loan amount. As it turns out, we should be able to close very soon, without a second appraisal and not having to pay any money up front!
At times this Christmas, I wondered if/how I was going to be able to purchase gifts for my family, and I'm still not totally sure about the effect my new budget realities are going to have, but I count my blessings every day that I do have a job I love, and even if my pay gets cut again, I can fully trust that God is going to somehow provide for me, although it may not necessarily be in the way(s) I expect!
As far as the insurance goes, I was actually able to purchase both a medical and dental plan that are similar in nature to the group coverage we had and saved about $15/month overall, even though that means I'm no longer eligible for payroll deduction. Also, I've recently had a cold that turned into a sinus infection, and knew I needed to see the doctor for an antibiotic, but had not received my new insurance card yet. I made up my mind to go ahead and see if they could somehow confirm my coverage without a card anyway, but then it finally came in the mail that day, right before we had a weather-related office closure for a total of 2 days, which was just enough time to rest and start letting the medicine do its job (talk about God's timing!).
In addition, my parents and I had been talking for a while about the best use of a stock portfolio my grandmother had left my mom (and will be eventually be mine) that is being managed by a local financial advisor. My mom had mentioned that there was probably enough in the account (but not by much) to actually pay off my condo, which was a tempting scenario because it would mean I could start socking away more in my 403b for retirement, beef up my savings account for emergencies, etc., and eventually take on a car payment, not to mention increase my giving at church. After discovering what shape my 10-year-old, 100,000+-mile car was in as mentioned earlier, my mom insisted on cashing some of my grandmother's stock to buy a new car outright (no car payment). I would have been willing to drive my old car until the wheels fell off, but it was probably the best decision in the end, because the rest of the stock is still there in case my parents were to somehow need the money first. God may not have seen fit to bless me with a husband to share financial responsibilities, but He is still allowing my parents to help me when needed, although they shouldn't have to at this point in their lives. Having a new car I'm not paying for has also brought to mind a parallel to the gift of God's grace and salvation; there's really nothing we can do to earn it, and it's given in love, even when we don't deserve it.
Refinancing my mortgage has been a real odyssey; I first tried about a year ago and ended up having to pay for an appraisal anyway when it fell through at the last minute. When I restarted the process with a different lender, I was first told that I would need another appraisal, and that I probably wouldn't be able to escrow all the closing costs into the loan amount. As it turns out, we should be able to close very soon, without a second appraisal and not having to pay any money up front!
At times this Christmas, I wondered if/how I was going to be able to purchase gifts for my family, and I'm still not totally sure about the effect my new budget realities are going to have, but I count my blessings every day that I do have a job I love, and even if my pay gets cut again, I can fully trust that God is going to somehow provide for me, although it may not necessarily be in the way(s) I expect!
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