Dec
3
2007
I just love being a part of the little things that God does for us. It continues to amaze me that He chose to use us to be a blessing and a testimony of His amazing grace, mercy and provision. We experienced His hand of provision in a mighty way involving our problem couches. I decided to have a garage sale on the spur of the moment two weeks ago and pulled it together in one day. It ended up being quite a success. Our couch and love seat were sold before they were even set down on the drive way along with a lot of other "treasures". When Jonathan came home he was a bit surprised to see that we no longer had anything to sit on in the family room. Oops... Needless to say we started praying about how to go about replacing at least one of the couches. Should we use the funds from the garage sale to buy a couch or wait and use those funds for other needs.
On Saturday night I took the girls to Nebraska Furniture Mart to look for fun at the couches available in their clearance section - mainly to give Jonathan a break from the noise. I really did not think there would be anything there for the amount we made at the garage sale. Well, let me tell you my surprise when I found this beautiful chocolate brown Broyhill couch for $330 when the regular price was $1300. I quickly called Jonathan and asked him if it would be a wise purchase. We both felt like it was a great price and something that we actually needed; so I puchased it. We made a few phone calls to see if one of the guys in our church could deliver it for us. One of the couples in our church were able to and would be delivering it on Tuesday. Yippee!!! On Sunday morning, after praying about it we could not get peace about our purchase. So, I took the receipt and all three kids back to Neberaska Furniter Mart and prayed that they would accept the return. Praise the Lord, they did accept it and gave me a check back for the full amount. I was praying all the way to the store that they would accept the return since they have posted in severel locations in the clearance section that all purchases are final and if they do return it, they assess a 10% restocking fee. It was such a huge answer to prayer for us.
Now the exciting time came, waiting on God to see what He was going to do. We didn't have long to wait. On Monday night, I was talking with another friend and she had heard that we were getting a new couch. I told her the story and conveyed our excitement about waiting to see how God was going to work. She told me that her Dad's couch was in perfect condition and since he was moving to a nursing home it would be available if we were interested. By the end of the week we had a couch - given to meet our need. The same guy that was going to bring us our brand new one was able to deliver the second couch. He was so excited to be a blessing to us and even more excited about how God worked in our hearts. The whole thing was such a blessing. Now, every time I look at our couch, I am reminded of the incredible blessings we receive when we submit to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and wait on His perfect timing. I may not always choose to follow His leading but the rewads are amazing when I do. Even if we had gone months without a couch, there still would have been a great reward in the peace of knowing that we did what God wanted us to do. The first couch was beautiful and a great price, but I kept thinking if we ended up not being able to return it, what blessing would we miss out on because it was too good a deal to pass up. It was a great deal, but the blessing far outnumbered the price.
I must say I love the couch the Lord provided for us. It looks perfect in our family room, and it even reclines on each end. It was so much more than I dreamed of getting and the best part was how God worked.