Gratituesday- God's Provision

Every December my husband goes out into the woods and comes home with a deer. He skins it, butchers, and I cook it. One deer provides somewhere around a meal a week for our family. The cost of the hunting license is more than worth it for the amount of meat we get. The loss of my husband most nights for a month is still debateable :)

This year, was a crazy year. We had two major snowstorms (dare I say blizzards) in December. Plus, we had a baby. He was out a lot less often, the deer were hiding more, and he didn't get one this year. I was a little bummed, but knew that with my improved deal hunting skills from this past year the added cost of buying beef (gasp!) could be handled in our current budget. I had been looking forward to a little flexibility, but thought that maybe god had led me to these couponing sites for such a time as this.

What the Lord did next to provide for us has truly blown me away. Nebraska has a program for hunters to find people and give their meat to them. We did not sign up for it, but a guy Greg works with did. Apparently he had lots of calls and the last one (for a whole deer) was more than he needed. He wants people to call him next year, so he said he would take it. And then he gave it to us.

I was super excited that my husband was able to get us meat for a year even without shooting it himself. I was excited that God blessed our budget, figuring it was because I didn't freak about it. And I also found out that Greg thought it was great because he could improve his relationship with this co-worker through conversations and the taking of this deer. God has used this one situation to in both of our lives to teach us the things He's working on in our lives.

As I think about that, I'm more than amazed by how the Lord does that each and every second the whole world over. In Romans, it says that God works all things out for good for those who love Him. I got a small picture this week of how amazing that is.

And oh yeah- the Nebraska Deer Exchange Program is a great tool for families looking to stretch their food budgeting dollars. Is there anything you're thankful for today? Visit Heavenly Homemakers and see what others are sharing about.