What is God’s timing?

I originally posted this to my fitness journey on Facebook.  (You can follow it here.)  I decided to add it to my blog because someone might stumble upon this story and be encouraged to keep going when things get tough.

To understand what God’s timing means to me, I need to tell you a story. A personal story…

My husband and I were enjoying our new stage in life—Empty Nest. Both our children are out on their own and making their way through life. Our focus was now on each other. We had a plan laid out that was working to pay off our debt. We got to have “dates” and enjoy each other.

My husband had settled into a new IT position at a local University. This job has less stress but the same pay and benefits of his previous position with the same University. He took this position to relieve the stress that was mounting in his previous department. He even offered to work for less pay because his pay was higher than others in the new department. His department head told him they were trying to evaluate salaries. His salary would actually help in this study and not to be concerned about it. Not much more thought was given to this study. He was happy to be in a solid department with solid leadership. Life was good!

Then on one Sunday this past August, it became very clear that some family members needed some extra care and attention. The kind of care and attention that would cause us to lose what had become comfortable. Empty Nest gone. Financial freedom postponed. There was no one else who could step in and help. My husband knew he had to have us step in to help. The stress that my husband had left in the previous IT job did not come close to his new stress--dealing not only with my emotions but his family’s emotions.

For me the biggest stress was found in finances.

Things got tight, really tight…really quick. Going from paying off credit cards to having to use them to help meet needs was very discouraging. Telling my grown children that there would not be a gift from mom and dad this year was very difficult. They both understood, but it hurt this momma.

Even with everything going in the opposite direction that we wanted to go, my husband and I did our best to stay focused on God and His love. We had had other rough times in our marriage. God pulled us through then and He would pull us through this. We just did not know how and when.

God’s timing…His timing of blessings started last Friday. A larger than expected insurance check heading our way from damage to our home during a hail storm. God is good.

Yesterday…Thursday, December 18th…God decided to bless us not once, not twice, but THREE times. First, an earlier than expected deposit into his mom’s account for a tax refund on a previous year of taxes. Second, a better than expected market analysis on his mother’s home that will need to be sold in the near future.

Before I tell you the third blessing from yesterday, I have a side note about the previous ones. We HAD knowledge about those items…we knew we were getting some insurance money, we knew mom had a refund coming but were told not to expect it until Mid-January, and the realtors had some positive remarks about mom’s home.

The last blessing, we had NO foreknowledge. But God did. He knew what our struggles would be on Thursday, December 18th. He knew that we would be claiming His promises in the midst of this storm. So three years ago in an IT department that my husband was NOT a part of yet, God saw a salary study was begun. About a year later, God guided my husband to apply for a job in this department. A job he would have taken with a cut in pay to just relieve stress, but was told why he would receive the same pay—a salary study.

A study that was all but forgotten about until yesterday at about 3:30 pm when my husband and his coworkers were invited to private 10 minute meetings. My husband had the first meeting. He was given a slip of paper listing his new salary based on that salary study. An increase that will help put us back on track.

This is God’s Timing…Can I get an AMEN?