No News is Good News, Literally

I don't read the news very much. I will watch it about once a week or so with my husband when he is home on the weekends over a cup of coffee. All of us know that it would be more appropriately entitled "the Bad News" said with a smile by plastic Ken and Barbie wannabes. I think if you had someone like Mama from Mama's Family (a/k/a Vicki Lawrence - not to steal any of Keet's Carol Burnett thunder) delivering the news it would be as you expected, but we have the beautiful people telling us that the world is going to hell in a handbasket and smiling at us through perfect teeth, just to make you wonder if your feelings of doom and gloom are accurate.

I read this horrific story on my Google homepage this morning about a woman who died on a flight from Haiti because the two oxygen tanks that they brought to her were empty. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you instructed that in the event of an emergency the little face masks will drop from above your seat and administer oxygen to every passenger on the plane??? Why could they not get oxygen to this woman? The worst part to me is that the flight attendant denied her oxygen twice before even attempting to help this obviously very ill woman. All of this comes from living in a world where everything anyone says is suspect, and the human element is removed. We don't have compassion for one another. My compassion is affected when I watch horror story after horror story on the evening news, which is why this post will end as it started with…I don't read the news very much.

Torture or a Godly Shove

Travis called me this morning. "I have bad news" he says. In my wisdom, I know that nothing following this line can be good - however, there are varying degrees of bad. In the past he has said this cause he got a ticket, or needs to buy new tires, or the price of gas went up. Today, the bad news was at the highest degree of bad.
He. got. laid. off.
I didn't see this coming - and that made the bad news even worse.
Our financial situation is already suffocating, having depleted what we had saved as he has made less than what was anticipated when we moved.
But, God is indeed in control.
Travis is the kind of guy that likes his comfort zone, more than most. He hates change. He has a long list of things he doesn't want to do. He has been talking for a couple of months now about going back into welding, but Mr. Comfort Zone often needs a huge shove to go from point A to point B.
I am trying to look at this situation as a godly shove.
In fact it can be a blessing in disguise. I have questioned the Lord before during times of unemployment and what on earth He was doing - when I had been so faithfully praying that He would give Travis a better job - and clearly heard His voice speak into my spirit "how did you expect Me to give him another job when he still had one?"
So I'm holding onto that.
And I'm thankful for the lessons my kids have learned during this time. When a lot of kids would be wheezing and whining about how this might effect their Christmas - my amazing kids were wrapping their arms around us, praying with us, and encouraging their parents. Kullen did wonder how we're going to eat which I think is quite practical. Suddenly an AK47 Airsoft Gun that was at the top of his list is not a major priority. Good kids. Lots of blessings. I'm counting them instead of the digits in my bank balance today.