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Bucks…greenbacks…currency…cold, hard cash. In today’s increasingly digital world, these terms aren’t as as fitting as they once were. Still, whether our wallets hold paper money and coin or a plethora of plastic cards (or even digital cards in our phone wallets) it all gets back to the same thing – money!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is difficult to live without money. The barter system fell out of favor in the United States somewhere between the 1800’s and the 1930’s depression years, depending on which article I read on Google. We require food to live. We need clothing (running around naked is frowned upon in most places, and it’d be mighty cold during our Midwest winters). Reliable shelter is important as well. For those who don’t have these things, life is very difficult indeed and my heart goes out to them. They are the ones who truly need our help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the rest of us I ask these questions: How much is enough? Can we be content with less?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them…<\/p>\nMatthew 6:26<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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Sparrow – courtesy of pexels.com – David Atkins<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

How much is enough?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Don’t expect a concrete answer for those questions in this post. Everyone’s situation is different. My short answer is “what the Lord provides is enough”. I’m sharing observations here from my own life in the hope that it might encourage others. I feel my 50+ trips around the sun should earn me a little credibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And let’s just get this out here, too – I am NOT always content. I am still learning. There have been countless occasions where I thought I needed more. I deserved<\/em> more! (This applies not just to money and what it buys, but to relationships, health, and happiness in general.) I’m just thankful that God continues to work with me – that he doesn’t lose patience and just say, “I’m done now. She’s too difficult.” But that’s not who he is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back over my life I can see in hindsight that what my heavenly Father has provided has always been enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God’s provision – the early years<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I don’t know about you but I’m a black and white sort of person who doesn’t work well with fluffy words alone. I need proof…examples…to back them up. My background is in accounting and my life has been spent working with numbers. Numbers are solid. Two plus two is always four – if it’s not, it’s wrong. I’m also analytical. I slice and dice things to see how they work and if they make sense. Just as I analyze numbers, I also analyze situations in life. If someone says something but the evidence isn’t there to prove it…well, pffft! I don’t hear them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, here’s my story…the good and the not-so-good…to prove that the Lord provides enough:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Mom, Dad, my sis and me<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

I grew up on a farm in rural Iowa in the 1970’s-80’s sharing an 8’x9′ bedroom and its tiny closet with my younger sister. Our home’s one bathroom came with a trendy pink bathtub but no shower. (Whoa – that’s craziness! Sharing a tiny bedroom? No shower??) And check this out – our only telephone was connected by a cord to the wall and we were on a “party line” meaning you shared the line with neighbors. If they were using their phone, you weren’t using yours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mom was a homemaker. Dad farmed and later became our rural mail carrier. My parents were ordinary people but we were well provided for. There were farm-fresh meat and eggs. Mom hosted many slumber parties with our friends. We played outdoors on our jungle gym and tire swing. We made mud pies. There was a trunk filled with “dress-up” clothes in our basement that we used for imaginative fun. A high-school friend reminded me recently of how we taped bath beads to our walls and played Mom’s “Quiet Village” album our record player while pretending we were mermaids in the ocean. (For those too young to remember them – bath beads were these colored, scented oil-filled, round gelatin things that would dissolve in the bath and make the tub super slippery when you were finished.) We didn’t have a overabundance of material possessions but we had fun!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Mom and me<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

I left home shortly after turning eighteen (graduated at the semester) and moved to the city where I enrolled in a 2-year accounting program at the local community college. I married my high school sweetheart, landed a job with a solid company, gave birth to two children and bought my first house at the age of 22. It all sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n\n\n

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My babies!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

And truly, there were many blessings! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, children are a blessing – period! That blessing comes with fatigue and disappointment and sometimes even heartbreak, but children are ALWAYS a gift from God!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was able to work my way up at my first company over a nineteen-year period and then transfer to a department director position with a related company where I remained for 11 more years. I was making decent money and admittedly didn’t think much about the amount I spent. If a new pair of heels caught my eye, I bought them. Boom! Whether I needed them or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then life happened<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Of course, stuff happens:<\/p>\n\n\n\n