Hello everyone,
I'm Tim, and to have a seemingly safe place to post my thoughts and meditations, I created this blog. I've done numerous over the years and never got past the first 2 or so. Sure I had a Xanga (don't remember that?), but who didn't? Besides that was simply ever used by anyone for 'well this happened today, and oh that girl I know from school, I like her.' type of stuff. I did it. I admit it freely.
Also, to let you all know, I am a follow of Christ or a Christian. I admit I have not been a very good one as I have been out of the Word and though I've gone to church, I have had a lot of trouble putting faith into practice. I have not been forthcoming with my beliefs and when the topic is brought up (sometimes around Christians even) I remained silent.
Well I don't want to be afraid to speak anymore. Even around those friends I have that do not believe. I hope anyone that reads this can lend an encouraging voice and also maybe find courage themselves.
In many of these posts I will have a Bible verse that I'll reflect on. Much of the time they'll be what I gleaned from it for my own personal life, but it may have other applications in others.
For my first post I flipped open to Hosea Chapter 13 Verse 4-6:
It reads in the NIV: 4But I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of Egypt.
You shall acknowledge no God but me,
no savior except me.
5I cared for you in the desert,
in the land of burning heat.
6When I fed them, they were satisfied;
when they were satisfied, they
became proud;
then they forgot me.
That's what inspired this blog. I had been out of the word for awhile and after opening to hopefully gain some wisdom for the coming weeks, I realized that was me. God cared for me.
Everything in the past 2 years (obviously longer) has been planned out with careful consideration by God himself. for example:
In the fall of 2009 I worked for Target stores as an overnight stocker. they called it the Flow Team. At this point my girlfriend and I had been together for 4 years. I had been planning to propose for quite some time at that point but lacked the funds for a ring. Once I had the money I bought it, and only a week or so later, did I lose my job. I'd been there for just under 3 months.
At first I thought of sending it back because I couldn't afford to have that pricey a ring and no job. (Oh! I should mention that I had started to pay back College loans at this point. I had graduated in April of 09 and due to very generous family members I had enough money given to me to put into monthly loan payments for almost 8 months.) Anyway, I heard a voice (not an actual one) telling me to propose anyway. I felt God pushing me towards that goal. Partly because I knew major changes were coming in my Girlfriend's family and my own and we needed to be ready together for them, but also it felt like a leap of faith.
I took that leap and proposed that new years. With no job and no idea of how much money we'd need, we planned for a January 2011 wedding. My next job did not come til June (right about the time the family's generous donations would run out for my loan payments). So I was able to make at least 2 months worth of payments with that job's money before that company closed down and I was laid off. A week later, a guy I know in Film offered me some Grip work(that's essentially an assistant who lugs around and sets up the heavy stuff) for some commercial work he was doing. It paid well enough to give me money for August's loan payment.
Shortly after that I got a job(with my fiancee) at a warehouse through a Temp service, at 40 hours a week. Adding our two weekly paychecks together we figured that if we stayed temps even through the wedding month and beyond we'd have enough to make bills (plus loan payments). Shortly before Christmas (about a month before the wedding and a week before signing an apartment lease[did not live in it together til after the wedding]) my fiancee was laid off and no other temp options were available at that time. With less than a week til we signed for the apartment I wasn't sure if we'd have the funds for the apartment, let alone a life together.
the following week (on my 26th birthday in fact) I was hired on by the company, which meant a pay raise and enough money to support the two of us with our necessary bills on my paycheck alone!
So long story short (too late) God provided everything I needed for a life beyond college and out of my mother's house. Life as a responsible adult. I had faith in the moments I needed to and he pulled through as he always does.
but after the wedding, I grew complacent and forgot about all he'd done. which brings me to now. I remembered that I forgot him and do not want to anymore.
Never forget the Lord when he does good things for you, and always strive to do anything and everything for Him as well!
well hope you weren't bored and were encouraged! this is Tim signing off for now.
-TimtheFirst412
