Walgreens Pharmacy Savings Club

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walgreens for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Have you heard about the latest prescription savings club to hit the streets? It is actually at your local Walgreens store!

The Prescription Savings Club at Walgreens offers discounts on over 8 thousand brand name and all generic medications. It also offers discounts on diabetic supplies, nebulizers, pet prescriptions, and even on your flu shots. There are also bonuses for when you purchase Walgreens brand products and even on photo finishing services. You can learn about this program and also find out about new sales by liking Walgreens on Facebook or following Walgreens on Twitter.

Walgreens is currently offering a discount on this program. So sign up today before the price goes up! If you are an individual it is only $20 for the whole year. If you have a family it is not much more money. You can cover yourself, your spouse, any dependents under the age of 22 and even your pets for only $35 for the whole year.

If you pay for more than one prescription in the year this is likely a very good decision on your part to sign up for this plan. Especially if you have kids who both need flu shots and bring home every cold that runs through their school.

Pimp your Cube!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Contest Factory for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

The Pimp My Cube Contest is looking for the worst, most horrible workspace in the US. All you have to do is make a quick video showing your cubicle / work area and explaining why it is deserving of a makeover and of the Contest Factory to come and improve your circumstances.

Once you have entered your video you will want to get your friends, family, and coworkers to vote on your video to help you win the contest. The prizes include:

1. a new high end computer system
2. a new desk, chair, and decorations
3. a new entertainment package with high end stereo, espresso machine, and more

As of right now no one has uploaded a video so the chances of winning are very good. It is really easy to upload a video to the site using your phone or webcam. The video should be fun and witty - but anything goes. The better the story, the funnier the video, the better your chances are of winning. A second prize of a $200 gift card will be awarded to a registered user chosen by random drawing after the contest period.

The contest is open from 12/5/11 to 1/31/12 at midnight. So get your video in asap.

Support Walgreens Now!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walgreens for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

 

 

On December 31 the contract expired between Walgreens and Express Scripts. This means that those who have insurance that deals with Express Scripts will no longer be able to use Walgreens to fill their scripts. So if you currently pick up your scripts at Walgreens, you may want to confirm that your insurance has not removed their coverage of Walgreen's services. This is enraging customers because they will not have to possibly drive further and use pharmacies with less convenient hours, and certainly without the discountsWalgreen always offers it's customers.

 

Walgreen's attempts to renegotiate this contract involved an attempt to help support military and military families by negotiating a better contract for Tricare, which serves the military. This was a failed attempt onWalgreen's part as Express Script would not allow WG to put a lock on rates so prescription rates could not increase further.

 

In the meantime, Walgreen's is trying to help the affected customers by offering a special discount on annual membership for its Prescription Savings Club at Walgreens. If you are effected or enraged by the situation feel free to contact your local media to let them know what is going on and that you aren't happy about it. Support Walgreens in their fight against riding medical costs by following Walgreens on Twitter or by liking Walgreens on Facebook.

Is what you are getting straight talk?

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Straight Talk for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I love the idea of not being on a contract with my cell phone company. I have had so many problems over the past 10+ years of having a cellphone, where I couldn't get them to resolve something and their answer turned into a nice way to put "youre on a contract anyway, youre not going anywhere, we have you where we want you". But really, everything you need is available without contracts, hidden and inflated fees.

Just imagine the money you would save switching to Straight Talk and cutting your bill in half? What would you do with that money? If it were me, I would probably take the money I would be saving and put it towards redoing the floors in my house. Or maybe put it towards a new car for my husband, or even better to sponsor a child overseas. mom knows best, Straight Talk offers great connectivity, without breaking the bank and only deals quality phones like Kyocera, LG, Samsung, Nokia, & Motorola. Unlimited service offers unlimited data, text, mms, talk all for only $45 per month. Not only are there no activation fees, cancellation fees, or surprise fees, but 411 calls are included free of charge. Straight Talk International is an affordable way to make international calls with a flexible prepaid calling service.

Reconditioned phones are offered from $10 with cameras, mp3 players, mobile web access and even bluetooth capability. These phones are great for young users who aren't ready to make a commitment but still want to call a friend. They have got me Hook, line and sinker since they really do offer everything you need. If you don't believe me check out a real Straight Talk customer testimonial below:

Youth Worker Resources

• Games
• http://www.christiancrafters.com/page10.html
• http://www.egadideas.com/
• http://www.youthpastor.com/games/index.cfm?frompage=1&StartRow=181&fuseaction=ResultsNew&maxrows=20
• http://www.youthwork.com/activitiesinit.html
• Neat things to share
• http://www.thebricktestament.com/
• http://www.jrsbible.info/bible.htm
• http://www.sermonspice.com/search?topic=all&q=Evangelism+Linebacker&x=8&y=10&gclid=CP_oj5C4xo8CFRGCGgodOSI2Xw
• http://carm.org/
• http://jesus-withyoualways.com/index.htm
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvDDc5RB6FQ
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF6NrQuup80
• Teachings
• http://open.lifechurch.tv/youth/4111
• http://www.iamsecond.com
• http://open.lifechurch.tv/youth/4005
• http://open.lifechurch.tv/youth/13-to-18-year-olds
• http://www.renovare.org/
• http://www.100prophecies.org/page8.htm
• Organizations
• http://www.thesource4ym.com/
• http://www.interlinc-online.com/

Daily Verse - scripture brought to you every day

Daily Verse - scripture brought to you every day

feel free to grab this blogger widget i just made to put a rotating scripture on your page :)

But you are to hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have until now.

Joshua 23:8

Not one of all the LORD's good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.

Joshua 21:45

The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still

Exodus 14:14

The Monopoly Money

I was reading Good to be Crazy and something hit me right in the face. She quoted Amy Carmichael who said: “Satan is so much more in earnest than we are–he buys up the opportunity while we are wondering how much it will cost.”

I immediately thought of Monopoly. When I play monopoly I win. The minute the game starts I buy every single piece of property I have until I am just about out of cash. This strategy always gives me a leg up on gaining monopolies of everything and having more properties to trade to complete my monopolies. While my husband is usually more conservative with what he buys targeting specific areas and making sure he has enough to pay for things that come up. While I am flagrantly throwing my cash down to gain every advantage that I can, knowing that the future can worry about the future and I can always mortgage/sell a property off if I run into trouble. To me - gaining ground is the most important strategy and I don't even look at the cost of purchases until I am told I can't afford one.

Fortunately I am not quite this irresponsible with money in real life. And since Bry handles the books the net result is nothing like how I play Monopoly. But maybe it should be. Maybe we should be putting every single penny we have into advancing the cause of Christ. Desire of comfort and the American way is not how we want to be, so why is that not reflected in our budget as much as it should be? The enemy is certainly not worrying about saving for a rainy day - he is putting every penny down because he knows his time is limited. Well our time is also limited in the earthly sense, shouldn't we be putting every penny down too?

Well, Bryan won't play much Monopoly with me anymore. Maybe its the real estate agents in my blood, or my buy em all up strategy, but my continuous winning makes the game less fun for him - not sure why... So basically I go all out, always win, and he gives up. Hmmm - sounds like a good strategy for life too?

"Insecurity stems from a feeling of unworthiness while humility stems from a knowledge of unworthiness." - me

The Obedient

I think at this point of following my blog you have recognized that my biggest struggle in life is fear. I have always been a fraidy cat but only in the past 10 years has it really tried to reign in my life.  You may have also read about the Lord trying to break me from that fear here and maybe here. But this weekend the Lord gave me a really cool picture about it. And I feel more broken from the chains of fear than I have ever felt.

At the beginning of the Created for Care retreat they asked us to ask the Lord what he would show us that weekend. And when we closed our eyes to pray the two things that popped in my head right away was 1) fears and then 2) the breakup of my family. Well fears made sense its what I am always praying about. Break my fears. Break my fear of flying. Take away my anxiety Lord.

But the family breakup thing... Gosh. My parents divorced like 12 years ago when I was 19. Why would that come up now? Yes it is a constant struggle in my life to feel torn between them, but its been a while and I thought I had handled this. So as soon as it came in my head I remember thinking "really?" and then as quick as it came it left and I focused on dealing with my fears.

After the Friday night talk my friends and I went to talk to the speaker Dr Susan Hillis about some things she had said and because my russian born biffle wanted to compliment her russian fluency. Dr Hillis at some point was explaining something to my other biffle and at one point said something that echoed in my ears like someone had bullhorned it. If I am being honest it is still bouncing around the walls of my ears. Dr Hillis said "its not about courage. its about obedience." Whoaaa. My whole world stopped at that sentence and I started playing it around over and over and over. More on this later....

Well one thing you should know about me is that certain things are not comfortable to me. I was raised in a Roman Catholic family and church. Since becoming a follower of Christ I have experienced many things and my eyes have been open in many ways to the reality of a present living Christ. But I am an introvert and a conservative in many ways. So with the exception of an intervening peace from Christ I am rarely comfortable with the more charismatic side of the faith. Also with praying with strangers. I can pray unceasing in my heart, in my room, with my family and friends. But it is such an intimate thing to me that praying with a perfect stranger tends to be awkward to me. Its as if having a stranger cuddle with my husband and I. Awkward right? I do it when I have to but always avoid it. Also, forced quiet time in the company of others equally awkward for me. Real creative things like painting and crafty things as a communication with God also not natural to me. I can sit in front of a computer and program a web application feeling that the Lord is guiding my fingers and that is natural to me, but thats because that is my gift and its naturally how He made me to be. I am an awkward person in general so most things with strangers are not easy for me. Stranger danger you know? hehe

Anyhow - knowing that about me would explain why when they said we were going to have a "date with God" at the retreat I was less than ecstatic. I figured it would be some highly charismatic group prayer time that would make me feel on the spot and awkward and forced. When my biffles and I walked into the room (late to make it worse when they were already talking) it was very much the case. About 50+ women crammed in sitting on the floor and stations around the room for quiet prayer, prayer with someone (stranger danger), painting, clay, drawing, etc. My heart raced in anxiety of what we would need to do and how uncomfortable it would be for me. But that was only for a moment.

They explained the stations and rotations and encouraged us each to visit each station. So my first plan was to quickly make my way through the room and maybe even duck out early if that wasnt awkward. Both of my biffles headed to where their heart led them and I started at what I considered the least awkward - quiet time. There was a tent set up with soft worship music playing meant for quiet time. I sat down and started praying.

Immediately the Lord grabbed my heart and drew me in. He started to explain things in my heart that I had never put together before. It was like a story unraveling in my heart. When you are young you aren't afraid. You have loving parents that you trust and you do what they say. If you trust your parents you are obedient to them. And when they tell you to get on a plane you just do it knowing that they will protect you and wouldn't have you do anything dangerous. The Lord showed me that as a child I had been obedient to my parents and didn't need to be brave, just obedient. Then He showed me that when my parents divorced and the family split I felt like I had no home, no family, no stability, and noone to lean on. I felt like an orphan. My parents hadn't gone anywhere but things were different. I saw broken hurting people that I felt needed my support not my burdens. This was the year that I developed panic disorder, high anxiety, and stopped doing things that scared me. This was also the last year I got on a plane.

The Lord showed me this and how I had trouble submitting to my parents that I now saw in a new light. Not that I was disobedient to them (I lived on my own at this point) but that I no longer looked to them for where to step next because I did not agree with decisions they had made. Then it was like I was jerked awake and had trouble getting back to this place with Him to see how I fix it. But knowing how Jesus Christ taught in the gospels I know that sometimes the obvious answers are the obvious answers. The night before Dr Hillis had proclaimed that I don't actually need to be brave I just need to be obedient to the Lord. And here the Lord has showed me where that disconnect between obedience and fear happened before. So I am praying the prayer for obedience instead of courage now. And I am hoping this leads me to where the Lord would have me.

Keep my struggles with fear (apparently obedience) in your prayers and they will carry me across the oceans. thank you.

I am putting my retreat nametag into my memorial box :)

The Rain

I have to say one of my favorite things is walking in the rain. In fact, rain was a struggle my husband and I had to get through early in our relationship.

When he sees rain he either goes inside or gets an umbrella. When I see rain I want to run outside and stomp in puddles. He would exclaim that rain is dirty and gross, and I would say it was refreshing and clean. Needless to say, my husband will now walk in the rain with me and even enjoy it, though he does still think it is dirty.

Rain to me used to signify cold ugly weather where you couldn't do fun things. Rain has a completely different meaning to me now and I find it beautiful, cleansing, refreshing, renewing, happy, and even loving. When did this transition happen? On a hot sticky humid grey day in Sarasota Florida about 8 years ago.

On this particular day I was sitting in church, that was at that time renting a classroom at the local red cross. I felt like I should go outside and pray. I had been feeling lackluster in my faith for some time and felt like I was going through the motions, and though I was continuously learning and reading my bible I wasn't feeling a real connection with the Lord. So as I walked the parking lot praying aloud to the Lord. I prayed specifically for renewal. I prayed the Lord would wash me of the burdens that I carried and that I would be refreshed with a passionate relationship with Christ.

When all of a sudden I became aware of an intense feeling of love and then boom it happened. It poured rain down over me. And I started to laugh out loud to myself. I had been asking the Lord specifically to wash me and renew me and pour his love on me and boom rain pouring all over me. I continued to laugh and pray and walk around for a few minutes more enjoying the cold rain falling down my face, drenching me. Coincidence? That would be naive to believe it was a coincidence. And trust me, my burdens were lifted that day, my passion was renewed, and I felt the Lord's love in a very real way. This was one of those times in my life that pushed me into a deeper love and relationship with Christ.

Since that day I think back to those moments often. Yes, I was always a puddle splasher but I never ever appreciated rain like I do now. Now when I see rain, I notice things. I see the sun-cracked dry light brown earth filling with moisture and life-source. I see the withered green leaves puff up with energy. I see the dirt pour off my driveway down into the gutters. I see my car shining a little more (well when its waxed real good). I feel the appreciative exhale of a Floridian about to explode from heat and humidity when the rain starts coming and we get a few brief moments of coldness, well when the rain isn't near boiling temperature and scalding our scalps. I see the birds huddled up together on power lines waiting for it to pass.

I really do love the refreshing rejuvenating effect that rain has on us. And I think living in Florida in the summer has an exaggerated vision of what rain does. Not even considering the droughts and water restrictions that we've had in recent years... When I leave for work in the morning I go out and drench the soil in my plants. When I come home the soil is so dry that there are cracks in the soil and it looks like someone literally took a food dehydrator to it. And the leaves on my plants are curled in and browning. So when it rains just then and the soil expands and turns a darker brown and the leaves puff back up, I can just see how the rain gives new life to things.

The Lord has a similar effect on us. The Lord can bring us life when our bodies and souls are light brown and cracked dry. When the scorching heat of life has made us feel like we can't breath or move, the Lord can fill our spirits with himself and rejuvenate us. Without rain a plant can only live a very limited life. Without the Lord we are only breathing and following the motions. So if you see a silly young woman drenched and laughing splashing through puddles in central Florida - shoot me a wave :)

I pray for you today that you ask the Lord to rain his spirit on you. Maybe it won't be in a literal way, maybe it will. I pray you ask him to take up greater residence in your heart and that you would love him in even a small portion of the manner that He loves you. I pray that you know today that you have a father in heaven who is watching and waiting for the tiniest of times with you, and is deserving of so much more.

Psalm 42
1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?

The Smoke-Out

"Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world"

I am not sure what it was that started me smoking cigarettes. When I was young my grandparents smoked and I hated it. I knew smoking could give diseases and I would beg my granny to quit smoking. [prepare yourself for a big admission] I sucked my thumb much longer than most kids. I am pretty sure I was almost 10 before I completely stopped. As I aged it came out only when I was scared but well... anyhow... I recall asking my granny when she encouraged me to quit sucking my thumb if she would consider a deal. I offered to quit sucking my thumb if she would quit smoking. Well she took the deal, I quit sucking my thumb, but she didn't quit smoking until she came down with leukemia when I was about 13.

But somehow - I have vague memories of sneaking cigarettes we found at the beach with my sister as teens and trying them out. Then I started working at a local grocery store as a bagger and all my coworkers seemed to smoke. I wasn't a full out smoker until after 18, but in my teen years I would smoke a cigarette when they were available to me. I smoked in my late teens to my early twenties and it was not long before I wanted to quit. Between watching smokers drop like flies in my life, watching my nephew struggle with childhood cancer, and coughing until my lungs hurt - I feared a painful disease and what smoking was doing to me. I began to despise smoking and the hold it had on me. But all my friends smoked, and every time I quit I was smoking again before long.

Early in my twenties I also found the Lord. I didn't feel a huge conflict of interest with smoking cigarettes and my faith, though it did change the way I drank alcohol and my desire to participate in other activities. But the best part about my new faith, and then my new church, was that I did find some friends who didn't smoke. And instead of being part of a crowd who goes outside every five minutes for a smoke I became the one outside rushing through a cigarette before I could go back in to everyone. I also found my friend Anna who also expressed a strong desire to quit smoking.

So anyhow, my friends had come to find my continuous smoking quitting humorous. I saw their raised eyebrows and smirks every time I claimed that I had just finished my last cigarette. February 13, 2003 I was sitting with my friends Erin, Kyle, Clayton, Julie, and Richie in Erin and Kyle's house. I told them that I had decided right then that I was going to quit smoking. Clayton started laughing and said "sure you are Kim", and the rest laughed. Recalling the line on the back of my tshirt I snapped back "greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world".

Whoa - I just brought God into the equation. Whether the almighty creator of the universe wanted to be drawn into my battle with Nicotene or not here it was. When I told my friend Anna that night she said she would also quit that night. I am not going to tell you that God instantly quenched my desire for a cigarette and that it magically was no longer an addiction. But I am going to tell you that the Lord quit smoking for me. After time and time and time of declaring and attempting a quit I finally quit for real. My friends helped me. We kept my hands busy with video games and my mouth busy with cough drops (from the inevitable ick we all get from quitting smoking). But we did it. The Lord literally carried me through. I recall hiding a couple cigarettes in my drawer just in case, and eventually threw them out.

Anna and I quit smoking on February 13 and our bodies began to heal. When it was all said and done I no longer had a taste or even slight desire for cigarettes (which I am told is rare). Very soon after quitting the smell became disgusting and unbearable to me. I guess thats what happens when you get what you ask for. Years later I can honestly say the Lord healed me of that and I will never again smoke another cigarette. And though Anna has struggled quite a bit more than me (still dealing with the desire for smoking and even having dreams about it) she is currently in smoking remission. So join me in praying for her that God would grant her the freedom that He granted me from nicotene and all that goes with it.

I will be putting a pack of matches into my memorial box to remind me of what the Lord took away.

  

Day of Prayer And Fasting

A Place Called Simplicity: Please Share Your Prayer Needs.....

Im captivated by Stellan's story!

scroll down and keep clicking previous posts to get to the beginning - and read backwords

The Storming of Ninevah

I love the book of Jonah. I love the idea of the whale and the boy. I love the prayers. I love the inspiration and courage. I love the fear and rebellion. I don't really care if the fish was a fish or a whale. I don't really care if it was an actual historical event or just a story to explain a concept. I just love the heck out of it.

 A part of me All of me really identifies with Jonah. Sometimes when God comes a calling I want to crawl under a rock and stick my fingers in my ears and sing out loud "la la la la la la la - I cant hear you". Sometimes I want to turn the radio up real loud and pretend I didn't hear him. Sometimes I want to use logic to convince myself why what He wants couldn't really be what is best for me. And sometimes, just sometimes, I want to hop on a boat and go in the other direction. I think most people probably feel this way sometimes. I know for me - my enemy is fear. Fear is what tries to yank me away from God's best for me. Fear of man. Fear of fear. Fear of possibilities. Fear of loneliness. Fear of God.

For a long time I wasn't just a tourist under that rock - I lived there. I was the rock girl. I didn't care that there wasn't any sun there - because the sun was too bright. I stayed under that rock and stuck my fingers in my ears and let fear take complete control of my steps. I am not saying I was happy under that rock, but it was my rock and it was comfortable.

Somewhere after my first missions trip fear started to lose grip on me. The love of Christ started to burn it away. I suddenly became filled with a new courage. I had this picture in my head. It was me being catapulted off the tongue of a whale, like a slingshot almost, flying in a somersault with my fist raised - storming Ninevah. I didn't want to run and hide from the word Ninevah anymore. I wanted to storm Ninevah. I wanted to raise my fist in triumph and speak forth the word of God.

I have told you about my bff anna and how we are tight. We also like to do projects together. We have done most things, from modgepodge to building homemade didgerydoos, to electrical diy projects and pranks.... paintings, clay... sewing... everything. Now one of the things we did at one time was we made some techno worship songs, and named ourselves "storming ninevah". They are kind of lame - anna is amazing but i am not. If you have a jrock account you can listen to them here http://www.jrockboom.com/userinfo.php?user=stormingninevah

So when fear starts to creep up and put its hands around my throat, I try to think about Storming Ninevah. Because as that story showed us, and as experience has shown me, God will do the impossible, all we have to do is show up.

I am putting a picture of jonah and the whale into my memorial box :)

  

The Starfish

Once upon a time, there was a wise old man,
who went to the sea to contemplate.

One day, while walking along the shore,
the wise old man looked down the beach,
and saw a gracefully dancing human figure.
The wise old man wondered out loud,

“Who would be dancing all alone on the beach?”
He began to walk faster to catch up.
Getting closer, the wise man saw that the dancer
was a child, who was not dancing at all.
The child was reaching down to the sand to pick up
something, and was very gently throwing it into the sea.

The man called out to the child,
“Good Morning! What are you doing?”
The child paused, looked up and replied,
“Throwing Starfish into the sea.”
Surprised, the man said,
“Yes, I see that, but WHY are you throwing Starfish into the sea?”

The child smiled brightly, pointed upward and
with perfect simplicity replied,
“The sun is up, and the tide is going out.
If I don’t throw them in, they will die.”
“But, don’t you realize, “asked the man,
“that there are miles and miles of beach and Starfish all along it?
You can’t possibly make a difference!”

The child listened politely.
Then bent down, picked up another Starfish,
threw it gently into the sea, just beyond the breaking waves,
and joyfully declared,
“It made a difference for that one.”



Want to throw a starfish back?

The Thick and Thin Friend

Memorial Box Monday Edition

When I first became a Christian I was missing a big piece of my walk. I was missing friends. I had a couple friends. At that time, not too many real friends, but I had friends. What I was missing were real friends. Friends who understood my faith. Friends who supported, encouraged, and challenged me. Friends like I read about in books. I have two sisters who didn't live near me at the time, and though one knew my faith, only had so much time for me via the phone. I was struggling with panic disorder at the time and there were many things I prayed about. The thing I prayed the most about at the time was friends. I prayed long and hard for friends that I could experience this life as a Christian with.

At the time I had nothing in sight. I was going to a church with an awesome teaching pastor but where no one seemed to notice I was there. I would linger a little before and after service but after a year and a half not a single person acknowledged me there or invited me to anything. I wanted a Christian friend more than anything, but it didn't seem like it was going to happen to me, and as shy as I was it was even more distant. Those days were tough for me, trying to teach myself and encourage myself. Lets just say my understandings and decisions weren't always the best. I would lay and pray and ask the Lord "Lord please could I have a friend who was a Christian".

Through a series of events, about 4 years later I started going to a particular church, and after a series of events started spending time with a woman named Arlene. Arlene was a tad older than me but we always had so much fun that I loved spending time with her.

I can't begin to explain how important she is to me. How she has encouraged me. How she has sharpened me, like iron on iron. How she has challenged me. How she has loved me. How she has taught me. How she has encouraged me. How she has supported me. How she has helped me in my walk.

At different times we have talked about wondering if our friends were the type that stick through hard times, through thick and thin. She always told me she would expect me to leave her in tough times. And I too had never had a friend who would go through the really tough times with me. Arlene and I have been through THE RINGER. Going through numerous people drama, church breakups, deaths, fights, attacks, accusations, and all kinds of hell she has stuck by me. When people have attacked her and when people have attacked me and when we fought even with each other, we always got through it together.

There were plenty of times it would be easy for her to walk away from me. But she didn't. She is the type of friend that tells me when I am wrong. She is the type of friend that protects me when people come against me. She is the type of friend that I can know will go through the fires with me in this life.

When I prayed for a friend - I was really praying for Arlene. I am amazed that the Lord had something so special in mind for me. Someone to teach me to be a friend, to teach me to be a wife, to teach me to be a child of God and sit at the foot of Christ. I have some very special and amazing people in my life, but I would not be who I am and where I am without Arlene - that is for sure. Paul said "follow me as I follow Christ". In the meantime I have been following Arlajean as she follows Christ. She is my real life Linny.

Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of one's friend springs from his earnest counsel.? - Proverbs 27:9

This week I am putting a picture of Arl and I in my memorial box.

  

The Tip

Memorial Box Monday Edition

So for a period of time I was working for a cable provider as a field technician and really struggling to pay my way. It seemed as if every single week I would run out of money a couple days before pay day and really have to get creative. I would find ways to make groceries stretch, I would find ways to make the bills get paid a month early so that when I was late I was never really late, but could go a couple extra days since I was in actuality a month ahead. I would do things like this because I was in a situation where that was my only choice. Perhaps my eyes were bigger than my wallet as far as choosing housing and all, but for whatever the reason I was low on dough in those days.

So, God used these times to show me in mighty ways how tangible and real He was. I remember many times where I did not have money for gas to get home from work and God would just bring it out of thin air. I would be in my truck driving around and praying. "Please God - help me make my gas last for just one more day". Then I would moments later walk into a client who would hand me just enough money to put gas in my car as a tip. Now, tips were not the norm in my job. Sometimes you would go months without a tip. And I have to say I have never thought to tip the cable man when he came to my house. But every now again, without rhyme or reason, a client would shove money in my hand/pocket/toolbag and insist that I take it. The part that made it so very beautiful to me was when I hadn't had a tip in months, and not necessarily asking for it, just praying God would find a way to provide, and out of nowhere a tip of $10 or $20 to go into my gas tank and get me home and back to work the next day.

God made sure He did this in very obvious ways to me. And often now people think I am insensitive and careless about money. And perhaps sometimes I am (thank the Lord I have a husband who is the exact opposite with money), but it is just something the Lord has taught me not to worry about. The God of the universe has the ability to provide more money than I need, and He has proven to me that he will always take care of me much more than I deserve. So on this memorial box monday I want to make sure that I remember all those times God took care of the little things for me.

²⁵"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? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life^[b]? - Matthew 6

This week I am putting a bean in my memorial box. Because God was my provider of gas!