God doesn’t need us to help Him look good.

With the opening of our safe house and school there is much need.  I hear several times a day, “we need to buy ____ and we need to do___ and we need to find___.”  I get tired and overwhelmed and last month, after about thirty such requests, when Katherine said to me, “we need to buy hair gel.”  I snapped and asked her to get a notebook.  I told her to make a list of all the needs-- every time she hears someone say to me, “you need to____”, she was to write it down.  I told her that it was impossible for me to meet all the needs because I’m sure she had noticed that while many come with needs none come with funds to supply those needs. I promised her that while I would surely fail in providing for the girls, God would not.  So, inspired by the idea a friend gave me to make a paper prayer chain, we began to write all those needs on paper strips.  We pray over them each day and as those needs are met we add paper strips to the chain.  That way God gets the glory for perfect gifts that only He can give.

This has become a favorite time with the girls as we sit together to paste the strips and grow the chain of answered prayers.  Now the pressure is off!  All eyes are off me and focused on the one that can provide our every need, but I get impatient.  Monday as I read the list I began to make plans to get a loan to provide for some of the most pressing items like a refrigerator.  The list was long and as I was adding up the estimated costs I heard God say to me, “Owe no man anything.”  Really?  Another month without a frig?  But, I decided to return my to-get list back into a prayer list and listen to that small voice within. 

The next morning I received a phone call from an enthusiastic Dominican gentleman that I have met only one time in person.  He was at the appliance store and was calling just to confirm one thing—“would we prefer a washing machine or a refrigerator.” I chuckled to myself as if to say to God, “Ok, there you go again--taking me to my breaking point so that I may learn to one day not fret, but rest.”

God is good…all the time!