“Daily Bread”

Just The Right Amount

“I remember when I used to eat sardines for dinner…I was dead broke and I couldn’t picture this… Now we drink champagne when we’re thirsty” -Biggie

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Sitting with ‘How Great Thou Art’ and ‘Killing In The Name Of’, ‘Juicy’ holds a permanent top three spot on my all-time favourite songs list.

The rags to riches real life lyrical story that Christopher George Latore Wallace (aka The Notorious B.I.G) presents in his song Juicy is enough to get just about anyone pumped-up and groovin’ when it comes on.

(now you all are going to Google it (clean version of course) aren’t ya?)

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In this life, I’ve had much and I’ve had very little to almost nothing.

I’ve had the fancy new leased Lexus and I now drive my dream car Cynthia…the paid off 2008 Toyota Corolla.

Now, neither of the above are inherently better to have than the other. Depending on your financial situation, however, one could prove to be a detrimental liability to your bank account.

Vehicles are rarely assets…unless it’s a Ferrari -which appreciates like a CHANEL purse year after year..go figure. These days you can have a car payment for up to seven years. That’s a lot time to be tied to a payment that doesn’t give you anything in return. It’s ridiculous and crazy.

And there are other things which require money to sustain life. There are things like; bills, rent, mortgages, food, clothes, medicine, household items, recreation, hobbies and in our current case…braces, flying lessons, weekly crickets for Toby the bearded dragon and extra golf balls for Jeff to take to Men’s Night on Thursdays.

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Today I got a cheque in the mail.

It was a small government cheque but it was random nonetheless and we had no clue it was coming our way.

Opening the envelope I took a moment, like any good and annoying Mom does, to use the cheque situation as a learning lesson/partial lecture to my oldest son Braden who was there at the time.

“See bud”, I said, “Even though we thankfully aren’t in need these days, God always shows up and He always provides just enough of what we require in just the right time”.

Like Biggie said, I “couldn’t picture” my life being good when it was so bad at times in my youth and young adulthood. There were very dark times, broke times, homeless times and times when I had bills due and had red minus signs in my overdraft with nothing left to withdraw.

In our younger years as a small family, there were times when Jeff and I had to borrow from parents, times when we had to say no to a lot of things and times when had credit people after us when we were trying so hard to stay afloat.

Still, at just the right time…while never giving up…a cheque would be delivered, a meal showed up, friends blessed us or I got a promotion at work.

I’ve mentioned this before but one of the most significant ‘God showed up’ moments was when a business job went very wrong and we were out a lot of money…money we were counting on for bills, money that we needed for food.

After tears, anger, and feelings of defeat life continued for a while. Still, we were stretched so thin and when it became unbearable and we were ‘done’, Jeff-while cleaning out a side pocket of his suitcase that he hadn’t checked in months-maybe years…found an envelope. The envelope had the EXACT amount that we had lost on that job that went sideways. No more and no less.

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This morning a few passages popped out at me and it was a humbling and welcomed reminder.

Deuteronomy 8:11–17 (paraphrasingly) says,

“Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the LORD…that is the time to be careful. Do not become proud…Do not forget He led you through the wilderness…He fed you just enough manna that you needed for each day (bread). He did this to humble you and test you for your own good. He did it so you would never think that is was your own strength and energy that made you wealthy”.

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I have never been without. At times it may have seemed that way and there have indeed been time of deep despair. But, always always always has God shown up. That is the promise given and that is what I was gratefully able to remind Braden of today.

His time may be immediate but often is it longer and more frustrating than we want it to be. Always though, God has our backs and we will always be provided with our 'daily bread'...in the just the right amount we need.

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If you’re in a ‘rags’ time of life right now, remember the words of The Byrds song ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’ (or Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 ;) that reminds us that everything happens in their rightful seasons and your time is coming…just keep putting one foot in front of the other and never give up. If you’re in a ‘riches’ time of life, remember the responsibility we have to others and this world and keep rocking that humble heart.

-Becky