Old friends are wonderful guests with whom to share Sunday dinner!  We were privileged to have former church members/ dear friends here for the morning service yesterday.  What sweet fellowship we’ve had with this couple in the past years.  It was wonderful to have them at church, and then at our dinner table! Their sweet little 9-month old was in our home for the first time, and we loved having her sweet smile at our table!  We also invited a dear couple who have had us in their home many times.  My spread was nothing like she has put out!

 Since Sunday was The first day of spring, I pulled out my spring linens and table decor. In the words of my daughter, they just make me happy!

Thank you, Lord for dear friends and for allowing us to fellowship with them; to share our simple meal together.  Thank you for the bond that we share that enables us to open our hearts so easily to bear their burdens, and share our own with them.  

Thank you for the provisions to feed not only our family, but also open our home to others.  It’s a blessing, and I am so grateful for your abundance.

Save money!  We’re all trying to do just that these days, aren’t we?  One of my readers asked me to share couponing tips and strategies.  I’m no pro at this, but I have learned my way around the coupon world to an extent, and have really seen a decrease in my grocery bill as a result.  Here are the few tips that I could give:

1. Buy a Sunday paper.  I don’t mean the little local paper – I mean the big-city one that carries LOTS of coupons.  We buy a Knoxville paper on our way to church each Sunday.  If you don’t get it early, you’ll miss out!  It’s worth the $2!
2. Use your .50 and less coupons at a store that will double their value.  Ingles and Krogers will both do just that. I wait until the items are on sale too, then I really get the value from the coupon.
3. Use sites like Southern Savers or Money Saving Mom to simplify your shopping and coupon use.  These sites will tell you what’s on sale at each local grocery store and will also let you know if there’s a coupon that goes with that item.  They are a huge blessing!  You can even make up a grocery shopping list for each store where you shop.  It will include the price of the items, and the coupon needed (if necessary), then will tell you the final cost!
4. You can even check the site above on Saturday night to see what coupons are in the Sunday paper.  If you see there will be some really good coupons, you’ll know to buy more than one paper.  I have kind friends that don’t coupon that share their coupon booklets with me.  Ask around; someone might be throwing the coupons you could use in the trash!
5. Cut out the coupons out and get them organized weekly.  I have found the best way to store them is in baseball card protectors that I’ve placed in a three-ring binder.  I put labels on the pages so I can quickly find “baking items” or “dairy products”. I get stopped in the grocery store all the time when people see my binder on my grocery cart.  It’s so much easier than the accordion folders!  They stay all bunched up and you have to flip through them all when they’re in one of those folders.  The baseball card sleeves allow you to see the whole page of coupons at a glance.

I think that hits the highlights of getting the most out of your coupons.  If this has created a question, please leave a comment and I’ll answer it for you.  Happy shopping!

See you in church Sunday!

With love,

If an earthly father loves his child, we must remember that God’s love for us is even greater.  We can trust Him with our lives.  Has your life stopped suddenly?  Realize that you are not in control after all – He is.  Feel the security of sitting in His lap and His arms around you gripping the steering wheel of your life.  He is a good God with good planned for you.  Trust Him and be thankful that He’s the One that’s really driving!

With love,

It was very early in ministry at our first pastorate when the Lord taught me some precious lessons about trusting Him for the very smallest of details. Our little girl was about eight or nine months old. She was beginning baby foods – creating a tightness in our already limited grocery budget. We did the best we could, scrimping and cutting back to create funds for what was necessary. However, even that couldn’t keep the checking account from dropping to a meager forty-nine cents! The cupboards were virtually bare, and our baby’s cereal was almost gone. 

What were we to do? 

My husband and I didn’t want our parents to know, though we knew they would help. We didn’t want our congregation to know; they were doing the best they could to provide for us. We knew we must do only one thing – pray!  That’s exactly what we did. We prayed together. We prayed separately.  In my quiet time I was praying specifically for certain things we needed such as Kleenex, milk, and Gerber’s Oatmeal for our little one. 

One evening after being out we pulled into our car port and noticed the door to our house propped open.  As we got out of the car and neared the door, we saw that the reason the door was open was due to the sack of groceries that were stacked on our steps! Many brown paper sacks (before plastic grocery bags!) greeted our astonished faces. Our hearts overflowed as we carried them inside and began taking the items out of the sacks and placing them on the counter. Milk, Kleenex, and yes, Gerber oatmeal were a part of the abundance now before us!

We cried with joy at God’s provision for His children.  We marveled at the specific needs He met, and we learned that we could trust our God to take care of us.

I thank the Lord for those early lessons. I’ve recalled that scene many times over in my mind. It has encouraged my heart for the needs that have arisen over the years. I did not doubt that they would be met! If my Father in heaven can hear the cry of a mother’s heart for her child, He will love me and provide for me all my life!