My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

I love reading the bible. I will go through periods where I won't even pick it up because I get caught up in the craziness of life but it has so many wonderful things that speak to me and teach and encourage me. Lately I have been struggling with not having all the material things I want... a house that we own, not being able to just buy all the toys my kids could ever dream of, clothes that are new and not from D.I., gifts for Pete, etc. Just struggling at times with money. Today I was reading in Ecclesiastes 4-6 as well as 2 Corinthians 12 and it really spoke to this. In Ecclesiastes he was saying basically the richest man is not always the happiest. When we die nothing of this world goes with us. We can't bring to heaven anything that we carry or have worked so hard for...material things, status, anything but a humble heart. As Beth says it all ends up in the landfill anyway. And it does! How amazing and profound that is. It is so easy to get caught up in the things we don't have but when you take a step back and look at all the blessings we have been given life is completely beautiful! Even the trials are blessings. My needs are taken care of. We have a roof over our head, food to eat, clothes to wear, cars to get around town, diapers for our sweet girl, an amazing daughter and family, everything we need has been provided for us. We came up here knowing it was God's plan but having no idea how we were going to support ourselves and low and behold Pete was offered a job that asked him how much he needed to make to support us. Amazing!!! When we needed a bigger car for all the little munchkins God provided a way for that to happen. Even in San Diego when we first got married money was extremely tight. Pete was working as a barista at Starbucks and I was an assistant manager. We could barely cover our bills. One month it came down to paying rent or paying out tithe. Hard decision. After much thought and prayer we decided to pay our tithe not knowing how rent would be payed but confident that somehow we would be taken care of. The next day I received my bonus from work two weeks early and it was just enough to cover the last part of rent that we were missing. Wow!!! My point is we don't need a ton of things to be happy. God is faithful and will always provide. The happiest people in life don't always have the nicest newest things but make the most of what they do have and use the trials to become stronger. Thank you Lord for all that you do and all that you have blessed us with.