Stocking Up in God's Time

"Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer." Proverbs 30:25

"When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet." Proverbs 31:21

I know I probably talk about this a lot. But you know how when you know something, and then you see it confirmed, you just can't stop talking about it? Every day as I go to make dinner, I think about how it's a miracle that this food is even in my house. And as I pull something out of the freezer to defrost, I look at everything else that's still in there, and I wonder how it's even possible that the freezer is still full! And then I'll have a day or two like this week, where I make applesauce and process brussels sprouts and put far more in than what I've taken out.

I swear to you, it wasn't that long ago, it was mid-summer, and I was looking at the empty pantry and empty freezer and thinking that I really needed to do some serious grocery shopping to stock up. And every week, I'd go shopping, thinking that I wish I had just a little extra money so I could pickup extra for the freezer. And I didn't. Then we had a few gifts given to us. A gift card to the grocery store bought a lot of meat for the freezer. An extra $20 bought some canned goods and some dry goods. And of course, there was the gardening. We put by so many pear products as a result of picking pears from my parents trees. And there is all the zucchini that's in the freezer, and the few other vegetables we managed to save. It's a true bounty.

More recently, I started finding a few things in the fridge that needed to be used up. So I discovered the process of once-a-month cooking. Not something I want to do for everyday, but when you find a dish that uses something that's about to expire, you can make it up, put it in the freezer, and then you have a ready-made dinner for a busy night. I now also have a few weeks worth of ready-made meals in the freezer as well.

All this to say, that God has been preparing us, and I didn't even notice it while it was going on. We have been experiencing quite a bit of a drought financially, and I have not been grocery shopping in over a month now. I'm not kidding. I go once a week to pick up eggs and milk and a few vegetables we may need- but that's it. We've been eating out of the pantry and the freezer, and eating very well. We've also not been depleting the stock either. As strange as it may sound, we still have a full freezer and a full pantry.

The Lord has truly blessed us, and I know he will continue to do so. And even better, I've also been going through a learning process that I hope I'll be able to share with others. A process of cooking with what's on hand, and a process of not wasting even one morsel of food. I thought I could stretch a grocery dollar before, but now I know how to make it go even farther. And this isn't something I would have learned had Andy been bringing home a lot of bacon, so to speak. I have no doubt, that God will be using this learning process to benefit others. Oddly enough, that makes me grateful for the process. Yet, I am ready for this process to be over. I know it will be over in God's time. In the meantime, I can continue to pray for perseverance and strength. And I can also remember to give prayers of thanks, for all things are from God.

" But as for me, how good it is to be near God!
I have made the Sovereign Lord my shelter,
and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do." Psalm 73:28

Edited at 9:45 am to add:

Tee-hee! Further proof today of God's provision! What arrived in the mail today? A gift check for our Thanksgiving turkey. I can take this check to the grocery store and recieve our turkey for absolutely nothing! God even sees fit to provide us with our Thanksgiving turkey. How great is our God!!