Character Building

Life has been hectic the past few days. This verse, along with another I'll share, has been with my recently.

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV

Thursday morning I woke up to my power going out. Having this happen once before due to work going on in the complex, I went back to sleep. After 2hrs pass, and I've had my breakfast, I decide to investigate. A notice is on our door! 

The summary, we've faithfully paid our bills, but the former tenant was no longer paying hers (because we now live there). They turned it off, not realizing we lived there and have been paying.

John is at work so I text him. And wait. And wait. Because he is a good person who doesn't text on the job. I go outside with my book and continue to wait. As I sit there under the tree, I spotted a quarter. This may not seem like much, but it was almost buried completely. 

Picking it up, I'm reminded that God will provide. Even if we have no power for the time being, God will provide.

And He did! 

John texted back that he and his mom were going to start looking into it. After an extremely long day of phone calls and faxing on their end, everything was sent in! We had dinner with his mom & sister, deciding we would rough it with a flashlight the next night. 

I don't think I slept. Usually my lovely sweet dear husband's snoring is blocked by noise. Nope. It was dead silent. Having no power the next morning, we got the food from our fridge and freezer (mournfully tossing ice cream away), and took it to her house.

And here we've been since. I'm so thankful for her help through this all. And for God's continual encouragement to John and I. During my devotions the first night we were here, I read this:

I thought it summed up this trial quite well. It has been character building for us. We've learned a lot, grown in a few ways, and have been able to spend time with family. And cats. Although they ignore me, which is annoying. 

So tomorrow our prayer is that our power will be back on. It's been so nice to spend the weekend with his family, but I'm sure they'd like their house back as we've taken some of it over. 😉 And someday we will look back and laugh on it all! But to be honest, I already have! It's wildly funny (and if it had been last week, could have been disastrous with our vacation)!

All in all, it's another step of faith, some character building, endurance, and hope. And where would we be without the latter?