You know that feeling, when something that excites you is just around the corner? Normally, at the turn of February, my birthday is on my mind, but this month there's something even bigger happening in our family during my favorite month: This month, we're starting a business.
Over a year ago, my steady husband announced that after five years in corporate window cleaning, he knew our next step was to begin our own window cleaning company. Since then we've been learning and waiting, fulfilling a non-compete clause that Matt signed when he left his last corporate window cleaning job.
We read in Proverbs many "best business practices" for handling money, and there is great relief in knowing that God blesses integrity, honesty and hard work (Proverbs 10:4, Proverbs 11:28, Proverbs 12:2, Proverbs 13:11 etc.). Still though, while we're being honest, there's a mist of fear surrounding the idea of leaving a 9-5 "steady paycheck" and wearing the weight of finding clients, doing jobs, and collecting money. It seems, absurdly, more volatile.
If there's one thing God has proven to us in the last seven years, it's that He has cared for us in every step. Not just that he loves us, but that He has provided actual, physical care for us at every turn. Our first married winter, Matt's seasonal lawn care job didn't pan into the winter painting job that had been assured us. He worked for Chickfila and UPS (seasonally), and God met all of our wants and needs, even in that rocky interim. That's a good God. There was no precedence for the window cleaning job that was offered to him at that point. Someone who I grew up with "happened" to live in Knoxville at the same time as us, and he offered Matt a job out of the blue, and changed the course of our lives. That's a good God. This job was a franchise, and so, over a year later, we were able to transfer home to Virginia without missing a beat. That's a good God. When Matt left window cleaning to serve out his non-compete clause in preparation for our business start up, the job he worked in the gap year was the best paying job he's ever had, and helped us to save for the business, another baby, and put money towards paying off our mortgage: a goal God handed us the month Matt started the new job. That's a good God.
The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
We've experienced both the joy of receiving something from God's generous hand and the pain of loss, and we're standing here at the beginning of something new, beautiful with possibilities and opportunities, while shining fresh with the shimmer of unknown, able to clearly say, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want."
I'm thankful for a husband who is easy to follow, because he follows Jesus.
If there's one thing God has proven to us in the last seven years, it's that He has cared for us in every step. Not just that he loves us, but that He has provided actual, physical care for us at every turn. Our first married winter, Matt's seasonal lawn care job didn't pan into the winter painting job that had been assured us. He worked for Chickfila and UPS (seasonally), and God met all of our wants and needs, even in that rocky interim. That's a good God. There was no precedence for the window cleaning job that was offered to him at that point. Someone who I grew up with "happened" to live in Knoxville at the same time as us, and he offered Matt a job out of the blue, and changed the course of our lives. That's a good God. This job was a franchise, and so, over a year later, we were able to transfer home to Virginia without missing a beat. That's a good God. When Matt left window cleaning to serve out his non-compete clause in preparation for our business start up, the job he worked in the gap year was the best paying job he's ever had, and helped us to save for the business, another baby, and put money towards paying off our mortgage: a goal God handed us the month Matt started the new job. That's a good God.
The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
We've experienced both the joy of receiving something from God's generous hand and the pain of loss, and we're standing here at the beginning of something new, beautiful with possibilities and opportunities, while shining fresh with the shimmer of unknown, able to clearly say, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want."
I'm thankful for a husband who is easy to follow, because he follows Jesus.
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