I love the Old Testament. It is filled with real people, real lives, real stories. It shows the good, the bad and the ugly. And in the middle of all these real stories, we see God loving His children. These are the stories of their spiritual heritage.
Are you telling your children your stories?
God shows His mighty deeds in big and small ways. It doesn’t have to move a mountain to be a mighty work of God. Often, the little things that happen in our lives show up in great supernatural ways. These stories are part of our spiritual heritage. We should be passing these stories on to our children to help them understand who God has been in our lives. It also gives them a heart of expectation to see the Lord work mightily in their own lives. This expectant hope is part of the faith we are called to live out every day.
Over the years I’ve told our children stories. Stories of provision. Stories of intervention. Stories of angels. Stories of healing. All the stories of the works of God in my life. Here is one of those stories. I pray it encourages you as it did us.
Diapers aren’t manna, but they are a blessing!
Many years ago, we lived in Married Student Housing while my husband was in grad school. We lived on $650/month, more than half of it going for rent. We couldn’t afford much of anything. To be frugal, we used cloth diapers for all of our children.
One of my dear friends sent us money to be able to drive to FL and visit my parents while she was down visiting hers, so she and I could get to spend time together. At the time, we had 2 in diapers and I really didn’t relish a 24 hour drive dealing with cloth diapers. So I began to pray for money to buy a large bag of diapers to tide us over for the trip.
The day before we were to leave, I pulled into our parking lot and was taking the children out of their car seats when a woman pulled her car in behind mine. She got out, and asked me if I could use the large bag of Huggies in her hands! She went on to explain that she was at the university doing a job fare for Kimberly Clark. She had given away all of her products except for this one bag of diapers and she didn’t to have to take it on the airplane. Apparently, in this very busy section of Married Student Housing, with hundreds of apartments with many children, our family was the only one she had seen in this very last parking lot before the airport entrance.
I just started to laugh uncontrollably! And then cry! I told her I had prayed for these diapers (a size that would fit both of my little ones). I think she thought I was kind of crazy. She handed them to me and quickly drove off.
We had a lovely (and carefree) 6 day vacation, coming home with 1 diaper to spare.
God loves our laughter!
This isn’t a big story. It’s really quite funny. But I’m convinced that God loves our laughter when we see His mighty deeds for us in the everydayness of life. My children always loved this story. They would say, “Mama, tell us the diaper story.” It was one more way to share the tender love of a loving Father for His children. Not just our needs, but our desires. Even our luxuries!
What are your stories of your spiritual heritage that you are telling your children?
I love this story! What a great inspiration : )