UnEmployed Faith

This week I read UnEmployed Faith by ChrstianSuprMom, Rosann Cunningham. A few years ago, my husband was unemployed quite frequently and it seemed that he was out of a job more than he was working. Well, it didn't just seem. It was the honest truth. 

Where was this book when I needed it?

If you are the wife of an unemployed man, you know the struggles and challenges that come along with this difficult situation. While the focus is on your husband and his job searching successes or failures, you are suffering some pretty intense emotions. Those emotions can have you on one heck of a roller coaster ride. You can go from support to anger to depression to fear in one hot minute. You are trying to be supportive to your man, but often you are left with wide eyes open on your pillow at night, not knowing what in the world you are supposed to do. 

UnEmployed Faith has just the answers that you are searching for. Writing in simple, uncomplicated, honest words, Rosann Cunningham has been experiencing the unemployment of her husband for three years. She is feeling just what you are feeling today and has decided to turn lemons into lemonade by sharing what God has taught her through this grueling circumstance. 

Hear Rosann's own words:

"Please understand, this book is not a step by step guide to get your man a job, nor is it written about how to live more frugal during unemployment. There are plenty of resources out there for those topics. What you don't see very often are books on how to cope with the emotional impact of unemployment in your home. 

That's what you'll get with this book. It was written with your heart in mind. I really wanted to share with you some encouraging and hopefully inspiring ways to cope and love on yourself, particularly when you're feeling all alone in this awful storm." 

With chapters like "Activating A Life of Faith", "Your Circle of Support", "Finding Joy In The Storm", and "The Good Wife", Rosann speaks to the physical, emotional, and spiritual practices that can guide you safely through the storm of your man's unemployment. 

My absolute favorite thing about UnEmployed Faith is the challenges at the end of each chapter. Talk about being practical! We often read books that give us concepts on how to cope with a situation, but then we're left trying to figure out how to walk those concepts out on the pavement of our reality. Rosann doesn't leave you guessing. She gives practical, no nonsense suggestions that you can put into practice each and every day. When you're feeling helpless and hopeless, you can take action! 

UnEmployed Faith is written from a Christian perspective and Rosann's faith and devotion to her Savior is clear throughout. That being said, I recommend this book to any wife who has an unemployed man, regardless of her belief. It is easy reading and only $4.99 for your Kindle.

Don't waste this season of difficulty you are going through, my friend. Make every ounce of pain and every ounce of weakness count for something. Turn it into faith and peace and strength. The road is hard, but it won't last forever. You can be forever changed in the midst of it for the good and for God's glory.  

I love Rosann's words:

"Let God turn this pain you feel into something beautiful and good. Grow, dear friend. Be like the caterpillar coming out of its chrysalis. Spread your wings and learn to fly. Let the world see how breathtakingly beautiful you are when you're surrounded by God's light."

Are you ready to clothe yourself in strength and perseverance through his season of unemployment? Are you ready to do something for you? If so, click here.

~See you on Tuesday!

A Christmas Story in a Chinese Restaurant

Merry Christmas friends!

I'll start by explaining what we were doing in a Chinese restaurant on Christmas Day. Twenty-four years ago, I was pregnant with my fourth child, Kyle. My three oldest were gone for the first time ever on a holiday, spending the day with their Dad. Chuck and I were alone. All of our holiday celebrating had taken place on Christmas Eve. We decided to go out for dinner, quickly finding out that this was not going to be as easy as it sounded. Who knew that there wasn't one restaurant open on Christmas Day? Don't people have to eat on Christmas too?

After driving all over the proverbial half-acre, lo and behold we found a place to eat. Much to our delight we learned that there ARE establishments open on Christmas Day...Chinese restaurants! I remember feeling a little like a loser. As I looked around the room at the other patrons, I remember wondering what their stories were. How does one find them self in a Chinese restaurant on Christmas Day? No family? Family doesn't want anything to do with you? Or, like Chuck and I, maybe they had celebrated the day before. Whatever the story, there were a lot of folk in that restaurant, on that Christmas day, nineteen years ago. And every Christmas Day since then.

We decided to make this a Christmas tradition. We haven't missed a Christmas Day dinner at Wong's Garden .. not once. I remember the first year we took Kyle. He was only nine months old and I'm putting it nicely when I say that his behavior was abominable. Most years it was just the three of us. There was one year when my daughter Kelly joined us because she and I had spent the afternoon in the ER with strep throat, and she didn't go to her dad's house. My brother joined us one year, our son Brian another. But Chuck and Kyle and I have faithfully taken our egg drop soup together at Wong's for nineteen years. Last night was no exception.

The scene was the same. In the far corner was a large family, adults and little ones. Many tables were full with couples and foursomes. There was a line for carry-outs. The Christmas tree was up. It's been the same tree every year. A large statue of Buddha sat in the same corner as always. Kyle remarked that he couldn't understand how anyone would worship Buddha. Good question. Christmas music was playing overhead. WNIC...100.3. Waiters and waitresses bustled about and seemed particularly busy and disorganized this year. The owner was helping out and took our order.

A couple of tables away sat an elderly women with gray hair, at a table for four, all alone. She caught Chuck's eye first, and he said that he would really like to pay for her dinner. I asked him if he was sure that she was alone. He was sure. He had checked it out. She was actually done eating and getting her traditional carry-out containers to take home. Our hearts were touched by the sight of her, alone for dinner on Christmas Day. Now I can vividly recall years when we were counting our last dimes to make sure we had some money to carry on our tradition. In those days we would be cut short until the next pay day for sure, but we weren't going to miss this dinner. And there were years we barely had enough. Yesterday, to God be the glory, He is so faithful...we had enough to buy this women's dinner and ours. So it wasn't about sacrificial giving. But it was definitely about something.

When the owner took our order Chuck explained to her that we would like to pay for the elderly women's dinner. No problem. We watched from a couple of tables away when she explained to her that her bill was taken care of, but we couldn't see her face. Here's where it gets good. She bundled up her coat,taking her carryout containers in hand, and proceeded to go out the door. One of the waitresses started screaming for her to come back! She thought the lady was skipping out on her bill! The table next to her started yelling, "No, No, the boss lady said that someone paid her bill!" Whew! Out the door she went.

Once she was gone, "boss lady" came to our table to ask if we were a relative of the woman. Now if we were, don't you think we would've been sitting with her? Anyway, she told us that the lady had begun to cry when she found out that someone had paid her bill. It turns out that her husband passed away two weeks ago, and her son was a no-show for this very Christmas dinner. Sweet Lord Jesus!

I mean that! Sweet Lord Jesus!! Over two thousand years ago, God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, Jesus. Jesus ... Immanuel...God with us. Over two thousand years later, on a cold Christmas night in Michigan, He is still God with us. He was God with that elderly woman. And He showed her, up close and personal, how much He cares for her. What I didn't tell you is that we almost didn't go to dinner last night. We almost got carryout. But something inside of me was saying that we should go and not break the tradition. Oh, thank you for the promptings of your Holy Spirit!

Do you see how our God cares so deeply and personally for each and every one of us? He knows how many hairs are on that grieving woman's head. Her name is engraved on the palms of His hands. His voice spoke from Heaven. He chose to come to her intimately, in the middle of a Chinese restaurant filled with strangers, and tell her... "I love you daughter. You are not alone. I am with you." And I'm humbled and so intensely grateful that He chose to use our little family to bring His message.

When all was said and done, "boss lady" told us that she had told the woman that God was looking down on her. I don't know if "boss lady" is a believer, if she just said the word "God", if she's a Buddhist, or what. But she gave "God" the glory and so do I. She also told us this, "I have never before seen people like you."

Oh, boss lady, I have never before seen anyone like my Jesus!

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests."

Christmas Greetings

From Our House

To Your House...

From Our Hearts 

To Yours...

Merry Christmas

and A Blessed New Year!

"You can never truly enjoy Christmas until you can look up into the Father's face and tell him you have received his Christmas gift."
--John R. Rice

"Tuesdays with Jesus" will return in January
 

#224 Good News Bad News

Has anyone ever come to you with the question, "What do you want first? The good news or the bad news?" Me? I choose to hear the bad news first, thinking that when I hear the good, it will take the sting out of the bad.

Around 700 B.C., the prophet Isaiah couldn't wait to share good news. 

Characteristically, people ran from Isaiah, because if he didn't have bad news, he'd have no news at all. In sharp contrast to warning words of coming judgment and doom, the prophet had news that when it came to pass, would change the course of history forever.

"A child has been born for us.

We have been given a son

who will be our ruler.

His names will be

Wonderful Advisor

and Mighty God,

Eternal Father

and Prince of Peace."

Isaiah 9:6 CEV

Fast forward about 700 years. In Bethlehem Ephrathah, small among the clans of Judah, in the fullness of time, wrapped in cloths and placed in a manger, the child, the son, the ruler, the One of whom the prophets spoke, was come into our world.

That's the good news.

"He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him."

John 1: 10-11 

That, my friend, is the bad news.

I don't know if reading those words had any effect on you, but they never fail to take my breath away, no matter how many times I've read them. To me, they are the saddest words in all of holy Scripture.

The long awaited, the One to whom every small letter and stroke of pen pointed, the vision of every prophet's dream and sound of voice, the light, the life, came into the world flesh, tabernacled among men, and they neither recognized nor received Him.  

Fast forward again. A little over two thousand years.

Do we recognize Christ in Christmas?

Do we recognize Him at all?

Do we recognize Him in every rising and setting of the sun? Hear Him in a child's laughter? Smell His fragrance on a newborn baby's skin? Behold Him in the strength of a widow, wife of 50 years, her first Christmas without? 

Do we recognize Him in a drop of rain that yields yellow and pink and purple springs? Do we see Him in the snowflake, uniquely different from every other? Do we bow to the Giver when we see breath in cold winter air? 

Does the bell peal for Him? Do the carols sing of Him?

He is the face of hunger, the parch of thirst. He is the stranger and the naked. He is the sick. He is the lonely. He is the imprisoned. 

Do you recognize Him?

Are you even looking?

Bows and boxes. Malls and madness. Debt and delirium. 

Do we know it's Christmas time at all?

He is in the world. A world that doesn't recognize Him.

That which is His own, doesn't receive Him.

Bad news for certain.

But...

"Behold, I am coming soon."

(Revelation 22: 7, 12, 20)

Then, Kyrios, the name above every name, will fell every knee to the ground, in heaven, on earth and under the earth. Every tongue will confess that Jesus, the  Christ is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

That is Good News!