Saturday, February 20, 2010

Reading through the Bible, a new frugal attempt, AND I need some advice

1 Kings 17 talks about the widow at Zarephath and her son.  Elijah is told to go to her as she will take care of him.  Not only does this woman have to have faith that AFTER feeding this strange man the little food she has left, there will be enough to feed her and her son and it will not be used up, but she also has to have faith that, when her son falls deathly ill, he is able to call out to the Lord to bring life back to him.  I am sad to say, I do not think I have ever faced faith at this level and in the face of it, I do not know what I would feel or do!  When our children are involved, how easy is it to come by faith?  She asks if he showed up to remind her of her sin and kill her son.  Our life group (small group) from church did a small video study which asked us about those times where we stood, throwing a temper tantrum to God, wondering why we got what we got or why he didn't give us what we wanted.  When if we had hung on just a little while longer, we would see the answers.  It was compared by someone in our group to the song "Unanswered Prayers" by Garth Brooks.  He mentioned that they aren't really unanswered.  They just aren't answered the how and when we wanted them to be.  The ability to hang on to see what happens next is difficult when you are speaking of the ones you love.  I would certainly put my own life above that of my child or my husband.  The test of faith continues with the people of Israel at Mt Carmel.  He challenged them in a massive way.  Some might say "all-out"!  18:21 says "How long will you waver between two opinions?  If the Lord is God, follow him, but if Baal is God, follow him."  He even taunts them when their god doesn't answer their sacrifice.  The confidence he has to stand in front of a nation of people and say, "You idiots!"  (In modern speak!)  It reminds me of Paul, as we will read in coming weeks.  I suppose I would expect them to pick up stones and start throwing them.  They learn how right he is in the end.  When he thinks himself too weak, God steps in and takes over. 

Just a thought...We are challenged often.  I am beginning to believe that the more we are challenged, the more of Christ is in us.  If he didn't believe we could stand up for him, he wouldn't let us be put to the test.  Take it as a compliment the more your faith is tested.  (Or at least, that's what I believe!)

In other news...

Madi has been selling girl scout cookies and has so far come out at the top of her troop!!!  Thank you to anyone who supported her!  You are awesome friends.  She studied all week, not knowing that tonight we are taking her to the conservatory to look at the planets, the moon and the stars.  It is a date night for Mike, Madi and I thanks to some amazing friends, willing to take Mackenzie for the evening.  Mattingly's...We love you!

We are praying that on Monday, Mackenzie gets checked out with clear ears so we do not have to even look into anything like tunes in her ears as they are starting to talk about that now.  Not something we really want to do. 

I also wanted to add, on another frugal living note...we found some other stuff to sell.  I am getting a little braver.  I went to a local thrift store and did a "fill a bag for a buck" thing of clothes.  Then I took them home and listed them on ebay.  You get 3 (I think) free listings in a month.  I made a few bucks on that and an audio book we had.  As I get a little better at it, that could be grocery money! 

I also stumbled upon cash4books.  You submit the ISBN# of books you want to sell.  Seems like a lot of text (type) books.  They tell you how much they would buy it from you for and then they give you the shipping label so you don't even pay for shipping.  I have not had a chance to really go through my books but it is legit and I know people who have done it.  It is super simple.

I also wanted to ask if anyone is getting any other good tips on buying meat.  I have had a hard time lately with decently priced meat.  I know Target marks their meat down as it gets close to the "sell by" date.  Any other good ideas??  I think we are on the brink of exhausting our "meatless" nights.


POST PLEASE!!!  your good ideas on saving money on meat.  We don't ever plan on being vegetarian so that is not an option! 

Any other great frugal things or money making ideas you have come across?

4 comments:

  1. Hi Christina! The only suggestion I have regarding saving on meat would be to buy in bulk. Sometimes that kills the weekly budget so maybe there is someone who would go to BJ's or Sam's and split the cost of the purchase with you and you can divide up the meat to freeze in portions. Good luck! And congratulations to Madi on being the top Girl Scout cookie seller!

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  2. Christina, great post about accepting the testing of our faith as a positive regarding God must have given us the ability to endure and overcome the obstacle. Indeed, we are to hold on and not faint. Thank God for family and friends who encourage us when we are weary.

    I appreciate your ministry.

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  3. Thank you Karen. I am looking into BJ's as an option. And thanks James. I am learning so much that it feels like the ministry is to me!

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  4. About the meat: we buy locally from a person who raises their own cattle and the price is good. You can buy anywhere from a whole cow down to small family sized packages. We were just given 1/8 of a cow and this will last us many weeks (we also have many meatless nights!) I like this way of buying meat because we can get meat that was raised sustainably and grew up happily, eating grass rather than grain that it was never supposed to eat. Healthy cow, healthy meat, healthy us! Good luck! ps, my dad lives in plant city and gets his meat locally around there somewhere.

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