It's The Little Things

Poor as church mice.

Probably the most accurate description of our growing family in those early years in Portland. Fred's gross income was $1750 a month. Even in 1989 that couldn't possibly go far enough. I worked out a budget that seemed pretty impossible. After we paid the mortgage on our house, the utilities, and the insurances that left $17 a month to buy everything else. We needed more miracles. And the Lord sent them regularly. It is how we lived.

Not many days after we moved into our house a stranger showed up at our door.  He introduced himself as Arnie Borgersen. He and his sweet wife lived just down the street and they were leaving shortly on a mission for our church. He asked if I would be interested in taking care of his home while they were gone for which he would pay me. It gave me a little bit of grocery money.

Then I was assigned to visit teach Marva Price and soon I was babysitting her two youngest girls before and after school. That added a little more, not to mention brought us some very good friends.

We knew God was watching out for us and helping us. But He had much more to teach us using these circumstances as our schoolroom. God is the perfect schoolmaster. 

Because of my earlier experiences in prayer and our miracle house I was quickly developing great faith in the promises found in the scriptures. I knew I could pray and be heard. I knew I could ask and receive. And I learned to ask regularly and specifically.

A routine developed. Monday morning, look at the needs for the week. Did I need milk? Did anyone need shoes? Was there an unexpected bill? A school fee? Take those needs to the Lord. And then wait to see His Mighty Hand unfold.

I remember so clearly wanting $12 for school pictures when one of my kids started first grade. It was the cheapest picture available but I didn't have the needed $12. My heart yearned to preserve that precious moment in time with a picture. So I prayed. I had been searching the scriptures to know just what God's instructions were concerning prayer and I knew that they taught that we could ask for what we needed but also for things we simply wanted. I also knew that I could not ask flippantly but instead carefully, to "ask not amiss," and to be willing to submit to the Lord's will in all things. After all, He knows far better than I do just what is good for me to receive.

He sent the $12 and everything else I needed along the way. Just another of His many, many gifts to me because I learned to ask.

The most visible reminder I have of those early years and the lessons of asking is my rocking chair, a double rocker, perfect for a mother who always had a baby on her lap and toddlers at her sides.

I frequently stopped at garage sales, hoping to pick up things we needed for a low price. One day I stopped at a beautiful home where the entire block was having a sale. The homeowner was sitting in a double rocking chair while she tended her "store".  Hanging on the back was a tag, $300. I quickly looked through her other things and went home. But I couldn't get that double rocker out of my mind. In fact, my heart yearned for it.  And I was surprised by that.  "Stuff" has never meant much to me. I was most often quite content with the hand-me-down furniture we had and often hand-me-down clothes. I had what I really wanted in my husband and children. So I really was surprised to find an ache in my heart for a chair, and one so far out of my reach. Finally, though, I went back to the garage sale and looked at that rocker again. I told the owner that I couldn't afford the chair but wondered if she would consider selling it for less if it didn't sell by the end of the sale. She thought for a moment and then asked, "How much did you have in mind?" Well, I hadn't actually thought that far and I was a bit embarrassed anyway but I blurted out, "$150?" To my surprise she said that she would consider that and took my phone number.

Well, on Friday she called.  She still had the chair and said that I could have it for my offer of $150. I delayed by saying that I needed to talk to my husband and that I would call her back to let her know. What was I thinking?!! It might as well have been $1500! I didn't have $150 and no way to get it either. 

I called Fred to tell him about the chair, and then I asked him, "If I can come up with $150, can I buy that chair?" His response was, "You can have anything you want if you can find a way to pay for it!"

So, I took it to the Lord.  I remember that prayer as if it was yesterday. "I know there are people starving in the world and that in the grand scheme of things a chair doesn't matter at all. But You have also told us in the scriptures that we can pray not only for what we need but for what we want. My heart aches for that chair. I don't know why. You know that "things" just don't matter that much to me. But I am asking if You will send $150 to me so that I can buy that chair."

I laid it at His Feet and then I waited to see what His answer would be. 

It didn't take long.  Actually, that very day my prayer was answered. It doesn't always happen that way but this time it did. 

My phone rang and it was Marva. She always paid me on Friday. Ten dollars one week. Fifteen another.  She told me that she didn't want to keep writing little checks like that and wondered if she could just write me one big check and have me keep track of my daycare hours and then let her know when she owed me more. That was fine with me. No amount was discussed, just a new process.

Late in the afternoon Marva arrived and handed me a check. $150. I stared at it in amazement and then looked at her and asked, "How does it feel to be the answer to someone's prayer today?" Wow!

I called Fred and asked him to bring home the temple pickup so that we could go get my chair. I had my money.  He wanted to know if I had robbed a bank.

I brought that chair home with a deep gratitude in my heart. I felt so very loved by my Heavenly Father. He cared about the little things in my life as well as the big things. Whether it was a gallon of milk I needed for my children, a school picture, or a chair. Or a house. He knew. And He cared. He just waited for me to ask. 

Our $17 budget was increased just like those loaves and fishes in the Bible. Every bit as much of a miracle. (See Matthew 14:13-21)

And, you know, when it is just me, I sit across from that chair instead of in it so that I can look at it, that visible reminder that God hears me, He loves me, and He will help me.  You, too.