I’ve been praying the Jabez prayer over the kids, Ryan, and myself. Familiarize yourself with this prayer! It’s life changing. The book, The Prayer of Jabez, is at every Goodwill for 50 cents. Promise. 😉
Here is the Jabez prayer straight up:
“Oh that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from the evil one. And that I would not cause pain.”
Here is how I’ve put my own word into this prayer for our family right now:
“Oh, that You would bless us indeed! And enlarge our territory! And that You’re hand would be with us to guide and direct us! And that You would guide our words! And that You would guard us and keep us safe! And fight our spiritual battles for us! And that when we make good decisions that follow Your will for our lives, Your blessings would spill over us abundantly and bless everyone around us! The end part in particular changed a lot over time.
I started with: “And that I would not cause pain”
and now I pray, “And that when we make good decisions that follow Your will for our lives, Your blessings would spill over us abundantly and bless everyone around us!”This part is important to me.
The Tiny House is an incredible blessing. But it oddly feels kind of selfish. Like, we’re not deserving of this great opportunity. It’s only by God’s grace that we’re in this position! So I’m asking God to somehow use this to bless other people because I don’t know how on my own. *Obviously, it’s not the kinda home that I can use to start housing people… the first thought that comes to mind when thinking of blessing people with your house. 🙂
***This is where it gets good!***
I had gone into this day asking facebook friends for prayer support. Our norm thus far had been to go to every shoot as a family and I’d been asked to come to this one alone. I was really nervous about representing us on my own and not having Ryan by my side to fall back on. My experience had been that once I was alone (he’d gone to class once) they really dug in with the personal questions.
I arrived at build site and I’m being introduced to this guy who is (ach! I really can’t say! No spoilers allowed!) okay, he’s providing something really beautiful that is needed for the build. He starts by asking me why we’re planning to live in a tiny house; he’s never even heard of them before.
So I share that Ryan’s been going to grad school for 7 years and that the student loans total more than our mortgage so in order to continue to live out our values of being a one income household, homeschooling, and steadily pursue the goal of financial freedom we’re dropping the mortgage and living tiny!
He totally gets it.
He is getting all revved up and tells me all about his family and their smaller than average home. And how he is self sufficient in being the sole proprietor of his business and shares his hope that this exposure on the reality show episode and contribution to our tiny house episode will boost his business and he can provide for his family so his wife doesn’t have to work and can stay home with their kids.
The happiest tears well up (just for a sec!) as I tell him that that! is exactly what I’ve been praying for! That we’ve wanted for our tiny house blessing to somehow be a blessing for others. That I’m so happy that he is here. That I share his hope for his business and family. That I’ll proudly spread the word on his, truthfully, super cool business.
(I promise I’ll link and share when I can spill on the supersecret stuff!)
So there it is. God has a mega plan. To wildly spill blessings all over everyone!
Today God brought me there just to show me how He has been guiding all along.
My friends’ prayers make this experience even better! I’m so thankful that every time I ask, they jump on it. I can feel it.
Confirmation that this is GOOD!
The tiny house is already proving to be amazing for our family.
It promises to also greatly effect so many people in such a positive way!
I’m proud to be a little piece of this plan! I’m proud to share in this joy!
God! God, thank you for this gift! Thank You for placing us here, right now. Thank you for the adventures You’re sending us on! Bless this man, his family, and his business! Show us how You’ll follow through on all of this goodness for Your purpose! And help us to glorify You through it all. AMEN!
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