taking the good with the bad

You know that saying you have to take the good with the bad? Some times I wonder if I understand it. Times right now are bad and they are going to get worse. Am I saying we are doomed or that the world is coming to an end? NO, I am just wondering if maybe we need to change our perspective or atleast attitude about how the world is rapidly deteriorating around us.
I get so wrapped up in all of the bad stuff that is going to happen, if Justin gets layed off again. I wonder how we will get through it. We have a huge house payment now and we have a new truck payment as well and I can't imagine the burden Justin must feel. The weight of it must be overwhelming. When I think about this I think of all of my friends that are facing very similar situations, with little to no work on the horizon. My heart is Heavy.....

Justin and I have been through this before, "it was the best of times and the worst of times".
It was right after Christmas 2001. He was layed off and we were new to the whole world of unemployment, and everything that goes with it. We had a 2 year old and 4 year old at the time. With Justin being home, I ended up doing some substitute teaching, and Justin got a few little jobs but there were so many people out of work.

At that time Justin and I had not been attending any church and we were asked by Justin's brother to go to church and Justin was asked to join the praise team as a bass player. We never understood God's provision for us at the time but this was the beginning of a hundred blessings. In this church we found a family, so many of them showed us love in incredibly generous ways. There was a gentleman there who would often walk up to Justin out of the blue and give him money. It was generally done in a secret handshake sort of way. Then there were all of the people who offered him a job of some sort. And Ruth's Kitchen was always a blessing, Justin woould go to the church to see what food was available. There was even a time when we were out of dog food and I was so worried. When Justin got to ruth's kitchen there was a bag of dog food the same brand our dog ate and no one else wanted it. So many times I only had to think God what are we going to do? And Every single time the need was provided for.

Justin went through about 3 years of lay offs with little work inbetween. At one point he worked at Dugway for 6 months then he was layed off again and when that happened it was like a serious depression descended upon us for a couple of weeks. How could this be happening again we thought.

I want to let you know I would not have traded that time for anything. Justin was able to see first hand what it was like to have the kids around 24/7 and have to deal with all of the things that come up in any given day. He started doing the dishes and laundry and generally helping around the house. His relationship with the kids really deepened in a way that I don't believe was possible if he had been working. We were able to grow closer by spending quality time together. There were so many days where we did not have anything else to do but enjoy each others company. We did alot of things on the cheap. Suddenly going to the park was not such a bad option. we always wanted to do something more fun but what became important was us having fun with out spending any money. We found creative ways to entertain ourselves. We did not rent movies we made due with the video games we had or what was on free tv. Life in a way seemed so much simpler......

Undoubtably that was the hardest time financially for us but it gave us so many things to be thankful for that we would have otherwise taken for granted.

I want to let you know that we are praying for you, we are worried about you and we love you.
Let us know if there is anything that we can help you with..... ANYTHING!!!! Sometimes we live in a season of giving and other times we live in a season of receiving. By far I think the Season of Receiving is the hardest to accept... Justin and I are praying hard that we can stay working, But we give that to God and let him be in control. In the mean time let us help you if we can.... Jeremiah 29:11 Bears repeating, as does
Luke 12:22-29.