Our Provision - Our Provider

For the last 46 years of marriage, I have wanted to provide a life for Jan that would give her security and comfort. That meant going to work when I didn’t feel like it. Getting enough life insurance just in case I passed away before the kids were raised and our home was paid off.  It also meant saving for retirement and doing all the other things required of a faithful husband and father. It gave me great comfort to know Jan would have enough financial security to live comfortably in case I was no longer present. These are the things we expect a man to do who loves his wife and family. It’s part of leaving behind boyhood and engaging the responsibilities of manhood.

Every man should try to do these things to the best of their ability, but there is something more important that I discovered along the way as I tried to fulfill my commitments. I discovered it was God in His great faithfulness that carried us through the last 46 years when life did not work out as we had planned. Yes, I worked and continued to provide for my family, but it was God who carried us through the tough years when we didn’t have enough to live on, save or invest. It was God who was there when our best-laid plans failed miserably and left with us with little to show for our efforts. It was God who gave us hope when things seemed hopeless and beyond repair. 

In those painful moments, we discovered God had always been at work behind the scene of our failures, revealing a new way forward when all we saw was a brick wall of impossibility. When I failed and discovered the depths of my immaturity and ignorance, God in His mercy always came through, never allowing my limitations to restrict His expressions of love.

We should all try to be faithful in the life-roles we have, but it is God's faithfulness that carries us from the start of our journey until the end and in His great love, delivers us into places we never thought possible when we first started out. Do your best with what you have and then choose to trust God with the rest. Jan and I have learned from years of personal experience that God's never-ending faithfulness was always present and walking with us through each season of our journey. That understanding makes for the best kind of life and it is the only place where true security and comfort are experienced.