Providential Relationships

Our current sermon series at church is “5 Things That God Uses To Grow Your Faith”. We just finished week 3 out of 6 yesterday. Great series!!! (www.fivethingsgoduses.com) Basically, the pastor of our church & several others listened to hundreds of faith stories and they all fell into at least one of 5 categories: Practical Biblical Teaching, Providential Relationships, Pivotal Circumstances, Private Disciplines or Personal Ministry. Read the bible and you can see how God used those things even back in the Old Testament. AMAZING!!!

Anyway, yesterday’s sermon was on ‘Providential Relationships’. Even if you aren’t a Christian, chances are you can look back over your life & see how certain people were in your life for a very specific reason – either good OR bad. Those are examples of ‘Providential Relationships’. I, myself, can look back throughout my life and see how certain people affected my life. Just reading through my blog, you can see who some of those people were too (mainly the ‘bad’). But there have been PLENTY of GREAT people in my life that God used in a BIG way. I’ll write about them soon. I’d love for you to ‘meet’ them!

Enough about the past, this is about a current Providential Relationship; one that I never even saw coming – but do we ever?

I volunteer in UpStreet with a woman named Tricia. She’s older than I am. She has 2 children – a daughter, high school senior & a son, high school sophomore. They sound like the kind of kids I would want mine to grow up to be like.

Every Sunday we sit & chat during our down time & just get to know each other; our own little small group. It really has been. I’ve loved getting to know her & her story these past few weeks.
Lately, Craig & I have been thinking about Christmas. We’ve been wondering if we should pool the money that we would spend on the kids with any money that my dad & my in-laws would spend and get a Wii game system for the house. They’re expensive – can’t find one for less than $500.

Tricia & I were talking about it a few weeks ago. I guess I mentioned that we’ve taught our kids that WE give Santa the money to spend on Christmas presents – that Santa isn’t a never-ending gift machine.

Yesterday, Tricia came in with a gift for me. Her boss (who has more money than Oprah) gave it to her & since her family already has one, she wanted to give it to us. The only stipulation is that we have to wait for Christmas. I opened the package and in it was a brand new Wii system!!!

Of course, tears came flowing because I just couldn’t believe her kindness. Craig saw me crying & came over to see what was wrong. He was floored at the generosity of Tricia & her family.

God has put Tricia in our lives for a reason. Not quite sure what He has in store for us just yet, but I can’t wait to see what it is!!!!

Many blessings,
Allison