Of Provision and Irons And Dark, Boring Boxes

Tom's sister and her husband gave us an iron and an ironing board as wedding gifts over thirty years ago (far away in California) and I still have the ironing board. 

But wow, that iron! The best iron I ever had, it lasted around 22 years and I'd probably still have it if I hadn't dropped it a ton of times (oh, those wiggly ironing boards. Heh.). I've owned three (modern, wimpy) irons since replacing that faithful old original just nine years ago.

I iron Tom's clothes and the occasional curtain or damask dinner napkin around twice monthly and earlier this year I wished I had an iron as efficient and downright smooth as the wedding gift one. I may have prayed to find such an iron, I can't recall, but I certainly do remember pining for the old, faithful baby and wondering if I'd have to settle for another flaky new one (you realize, don't you, that nowadays they make stuff to purposely fall apart so you'll have to replace it, right?).

Well. This past June while I wandered around a multi-family yard sale in the hot sun, guess what I found? Not just a heavy-duty, lovely iron, no. But my exact wedding iron's twin sister! New and still inside her (opened) 31-year-old box, even. And just $3.

Can you believe it? Even in the sunshine, I shivered to hold it and I was reminded that God "can do exceedingly, abundantly above all we can dare ask, hope or think." Really He can and He does.

All the decades that I've been a simple homemaker, people have told me that--nowadays--families cannot survive on one income. And you know? It's a weird feeling to be told you are doing something that cannot be done. 

Yet for over 30 years I've watched God provide for us outside of the box labeled "You Must Do And Believe Like Everyone Else." He's cared for us in wild, mind-boggling ways because we expected Him to keep His word and to make up the difference in areas where we fell short, even after doing our best. (And of course, He's been awfully merciful when we just foolishly used money sometimes.)

And that's the way I like to live--trying to use wisdom and depending on God, not on myself, or Tom's job, nor our Country's economy. 

It's like when one Christian blogger wrote that she and her family would not be participating in America's recession. I loved that! It's amazing when people reach-out beyond believing what they've been told they believe. And I enjoy reading stories of other families who escaped the box and don't even remember marching single-file in the dark bottom, surrounded by all those stifling walls and corners.



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"I have been young, and now I am old, but I have never seen a righteous person abandoned or his descendants begging for food." ... Psalm 37:25


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Oh, how I love my new iron! Perfectly pressured and all hot and steamy and I'll say it--dreamy. (Happy sigh.)


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