Memorial Box Monday

It's been several weeks since I shared a Memorial Box Monday story with you-- life has been very full for Team Newsom and wonderfully overflowing with blessings, friendships, work and play!

If you are wondering WHAT a Memorial Box is, feel free to visit Linny and learn more about it. I've been inspired by Linny's life testimony at A Place Called Simplicity. I believe it is important to REMEMBER and SHARE with our family about the AMAZING things God has done in our lives!

So here's a Newsom Memorial Box Story that I want to share with you today......

Several years ago, we were stationed at West Point, New York. It one of the most lovely places I have ever lived. Our home was amazing, Joel's job was wonderful, the family time was great, and our friendships there are treasured! We lived only 0.8 miles from Joel's office and the commute to work for Joel was sooooo easy. He could be at work in 4 minutes, come home to shower after PT and for lunch. The not-so-great thing about him driving the 0.8 miles to work was that the parking was NOT easy at his office! If he drove to work, he would usually end up parking nearly as far from his office as if he had just walked from our home. He started looking at bicycles as an alternative mode of transportation for him to get back and forth the 0.8 miles to work at this point. This happened to be a time when God had called our attention to our finances and and we had been really budgeting, trying to get out of debt, and working through The DAVE RAMSEY Financial Freedom program. (What a blessing his program was to us!) Anyway, Joel really wanted a nice mountain bike, but the price of those things, at that time, was way out of our budget! We were really committed to getting out of debt and living within a strict budget ( what is really stinkin' cool about this is that we didn't know that the money that we were able to save after we finally got out of debt would be the money God had for us to use to pay Joshua Nahome's Adoption Ransom! SO COOL!)

ANYWAY~~ back to the story.... Joel had located a used, very nice mountain bike in our area that was still more expensive than we needed to spend but he loved it and he had been praying about it. The day he needed to decide whether or not to purchase the bike, he came home for lunch, went to check the mail, and found a letter from an old friend. Folks, you guessed it....... inside that letter was a check from our friend for the EXACT amount of the bike that Joel wanted to purchase!! No kidding!! The note attached to the check said that this old friend had owed a debt to Joel that he had forgotten to pay back and he had just remembered it and wanted to make it right after 9 years! WOW.

Joel was amazed and blessed. We were both in awe that our God was so perfectly involved in the tiny details of our lives and finances that he would send a check for the exact amount of the bike, on the exact day Joel was planning to make a decision. Joel did buy the bike that day knowing that God's provision of the money was NO small coincidence, but a true gift and blessing from above! The bicycle was the right choice for his commute/parking issue during our time at West Point!

Right now, that same bicycle proudly occupies a spot in our garage, (not in a memorial box!) but every time I see it, I am reminded of God's provisions for us during that time at West Point! That's what Memorial Box Monday is all about......remembering and sharing what God has done in our lives to encourage and remind us that GOD IS GOOD. He is always faithful. He is always loving. He is always with us. God is the provider for our every need!

Deuteronomy 8:18-20 "And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God."

Many Blessings to you on this Memorial Box Monday!
Amy