Job!!!!!

Glory be to God on Highest.........I have a permanent job! I start at a major retailers distribution center (can't say the name on a public blog as I saw an article that people have been fired for such) and start on August 22nd! My starting pay is more than I left Verizon at. How cool is that! God delivered big time! What I learned through my many months of unemployment:

1) Matthew 6:25 is what life is ALL about! "

I emailed this to my Daily Verse email group last Thursday, Aug 4th:

This is the meaning of my life. All the problems of being unemployed or underemployed in my case, mean NOTHING compared to what is to come. I am
redirecting my focus to what is eternal for everything in this life is just for a moment. Money, bills, problems really don't mean anything. Like the country song says "I never saw a hearse with a luggage rack." So with or without the means to pay my bills I will praise my God and ALL He has done for me. I hope you can find the joy in your heart that ONLY comes from putting ALL your trust and faith in Him. It says in Matt 6:25 "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?". This is one of the hardest verses to live by because our nature causes us to worry about what we will eat and if we can pay the light bill so we don't have to sit in the dark. But that's not what is important, What matters is our life and that we live it to bring glory to God in all we do. It is my prayer to love Him in all I do, not just when I am on my knees in prayer! I want to love Him when someone cuts me off in traffic. I want to love Him when I get a bill I can't pay. I want to love Him when my life seems to be in the toilet. In His Love, Lora

2) NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER be in debt again! I am going to pay off my credit cards, my car, and work on the mortgage. I am going to be a cash only woman from here on out! I am also going to have 3 savings accounts; 1. retirement, 2. emergencies 3. rainy days! Struggling to pay the bills sucks!

I never in a million years dreamed it would take me thins long to find a job. I thought I'd graduate and start work within a month at the longest. Well guess what? That didn't even come close to happening! I will be prepared from here on out, as best I can be, so that if David or I are unemployed ever again we won't be desperate again. It is NOT fun to be on the brink of bankruptcy for months on end. It is a miracle we didn't lose everything we own. God kept us treading water all these months!

So I am a very happy girl right now! We can afford to keep Isaiah, we can keep our house, our vehicles, and get out of debt.

The icing on the cake is that there is another DC in Indianapolis and my company likes to transfer people.....so I could end up going home too!

PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Job Status

Still no permanent job......but......I had an interview with a major retailers Distribution Center in Midlothian, TX last Wednesday. It was a "cattle call" type interview with lots of other potential employees there. It took 4 hours! Six other potential employees and I were taken on a tour of the DC and then we were interview individually. My first one was with 3 people, the second with 2 others, and the third with 2 more. I was the last one there from my original group. They had back-to-back groups all day. I hope that is a good sign as they were either interested in me or I talk too much! Saturday I received an email with a personality/intelligence test. My sister said I have both so maybe I did well. It took me 90 minutes to complete the test on the internet so hopefuly I did well.

I REEAALLLY want to be a teacher but I know that Moses REEAALLLY wanted to go to the Promised Land too and didn't make it. So I'll be patient and see what happens. If God wants me at the job I interviewed for for a while then that's where I will go! If He wants me to stay where I'm at now, then I'll do that too! I am not going to worry about money any more. Matthew 6:25 says "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?" Some of the hardest verses to live by but I am going to try!

Enemy Attack

It seems the harder I try to be what God wants me to be the madder the devil gets and attacks me full force. No one ever said it was easy to live a Christian life, not even God. It is very hard because we live in a carnal body. We are to be "Christ like" but even Paul said he did the very things that he didn't want to do. It is a daily fight, hourly sometimes, to keep my flesh under control. The Bible says in Galatians 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." That self-control one is hard! I want to get mad and cuss and throw things. All that would do is make me feel better in the moment! Sometimes it's necessary as Jesus did that in the Temple when he turned over the money changers tables. But I'm not Jesus and I don't suppose it's OK to do that when someone in Wal-mart won't move their cart and I've said "excuse me" to them twice! :)

My Pastor told me last night that the way to have God's will in your life once He has already shown you what it is, is it to speak it in prayer. Not "God if it's your will for me to be a teacher...." I am to say "God, you told me it's Your will for me to teach. I claim a teaching position in Your name." Now that's speaking POWER into your life! I know it is what I am to do. The Bible says to speak with your mouth and I plan to do it.

I know that Satan knows I am near my Promised Land and he is doing everything he can to destroy me before I get there but I won't let him! No way, no how! He knows that I am prone to depression so he attacks me relationally so I have a spirit of despair. But according to Isaiah 61:3 "...and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor." The only way to defeat the enemy is to know how he works. It's a "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" kind of thing. You can't trick me if I know you are coming and am prepared. We have already defeated the devil through the blood of Christ so the devil is fighting a losing battle anyway. Go, Jesus!!!

So, I'll put on a garment of praise and go along my merry way! We can't manifest the joy God placed in our bellies at creation if we are constantly depressed. Let's get ready to rumble, Devil! You are going down!

Mother Again

Isaiah moved in with us officially again last night at 3:00 a.m. In many ways I am not ready for this. I did my time. I raised my boys. They were cute and tiny and had my blood in their veins. They were mine. Now I have a 182 pound boy of a different race. He is big and smelly and talks too much and moves too slow and has a mother somewhere else. But for some reason God wants me to be Isaiah's other mother. I know he needs me. He needs me to teach him so many things. Like how important education is. How to have manners. How to treat a home so that the furniture stays nice. How to be clean. How to act like you "got some sense". How to cut a pork chop with a knife and fork. But I need him too. To teach me that people are more important than furniture. That sometimes God likes you so much and thinks you did such a good job that He had another kid for you. That I am needed when so very many time I don't feel I am at all. That even though I have one son who won't speak to me that I am a good mother or I wouldn't get to raise another one.

I love Isaiah so much. It broke me into tiny pieces that still haven't ever gotten back in their original places when his mother took him from us. Having him back is bitter sweet. He is so messed up now. He is on 4 different psych drugs, he is grossly overweight, he is weaker than a new born baby, he has no clue about table manners. This is going to be so much work. It's going to wear me out, it's going to be hard on my marriage, it's going to cost me a fortune, it's going to take so much time that I don't want to spend. But I can't not do it because I love Isaiah so much.

I picture us talking, baking cookies, going to the library and having long conversations over books. He loves books, I love books, how cool is that! I have so much to teach him and so much to learn from him. This is going to be an adventure and I am ready for it.

The saddest part of this is that the reason we are getting him is that Cynthia, his mother, may be nearing the end. No one else will take him. She was going to put him in foster care if we didn't take him. We can't let that happen. Cynthia is very sick and in the hospital right now. To look at the fear and helplessness in my husbands eyes is more than I can bear. I can't imagine what it would be like to outlive one of my children. It's not supposed to be like that. Cynthia is only 33 years-old. Too young to die. To know there is nothing I can do to help my husband is awful. He is a good man. It tears me apart to see him hurt. I've never seen that look on his face before. I can't put it into words. He is scared and he knows he can't help his baby girl. It's a horrible thing.

So I'll be there for Isaiah and my husband and we'll do this the best way we can!