God's All Sufficient Power

I received an email this week about a young woman having problems with her food stamp card to pay for her groceries. When a man in the line behind her made a rude comment about the food stamps she fled in tears. When the man was told that at 21 she was raising her soldier brother's kids when he was killed he made a generous purchase of food to be delivered to the young woman's home. It brought back a memory of a season in my own life.

I was a single mother of 3 teaching school when Multiple Sclerosis forced me to go on Social Security Disability. It was really hard for me to feed my three kids even when I relented and got food stamps. One day I got a phone call from the grocery store around the corner. They said they had never had this happen before, but, something special had occurred. A person had come in and bought a bunch of groceries and asked if they could deliver it to me and my kids anonymously! I was stunned. This nice girl from the store delivered bags of groceries with all kinds of food to our house a few minutes later! I had mixed feelings but was mostly grateful to God for His provision. I had several ideas about who would be aware enough of our situation, but, to this day I don't know who our thoughtful, generous angel was.

I had been grieving over the loss of my teaching job and had been praying and questioning God.

I prayed, "Lord, you called me to be a teacher.

I don't understand how I can fulfill Your call now???"

Shortly after that I turned the daily devotional spiral on my desk and saw... "for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable." Romans 11:29. I really felt emotional and felt it was a confirmation of my prayer and prayed again but what happened next was amazing! The next day I got an email from a recruiter for eSylvan (now called Educate Online) to tutor reading and math online from home! This was a blessing in so many ways! Not only did it supplement my disability income but I could use my teaching skills to make expenses more manageable. The silver lining was that after the struggles of dawn to dusk demands in the classroom now I could be home for my kids during those challenging middle and high school years.

I taught online for that company for 5 years as a tutor, team leader, teacher monitor & prescription monitor, making it possible for me to supplement my disability check as my kids finished school. While my oldest son was in college he went to work for them too as an online computer technician.

I taught online for 2 more years with a different company as a History, English & Social Studies teacher. John

progressed with Educate Online and eventually he moved home and took over our house when I was unable to work anymore. He's now the online senior technical specialist.

The Lord demonstrated His Faithfulness So Powerfully. Since I became a single mom I have learned so much about this. One of my favorite books is 'To Know Him By Name' by Kay Arthur on the names of God. The chapter on El Shaddai really touched me all the way through especially with its definition of All Sufficient One and I have called upon the name El Shaddai in some form or another to guide me ever since. The Lord has surely been all sufficient in my life throughout all my challenges. 2 Corinthians 12:9 has become more meaningful as my life has changed in the passage of time. "But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me."