Or something like that. The DJIA fell more than 500 points, gold (which you can't eat) is being sold for $1,700 an ounce, and oil prices have fallen but we won't wind up paying any less for gasoline.
Meantime, I published a book. Just saying in passing, at $2.99 it's sure cheaper than a movie ticket...
Okay, got the message? I knew you would, and probably long before my dang pantry pictures were done. But now that you have strengthened yourself in the Lord, take a peek at your bank account and see whether you can't go and get yourself $50-$100 in extra, non-perishable groceries. Get stuff you like and will eat anyway. (Mandarin oranges are always a big hit here, and canned carrots for some reason.) Don't buy a lot of frozen stuff--it's summer here and we have power outages anyway because of people needing the AC on all the time. Don't buy things in huge sacks that will just get weevils, unless you have the right containers to store it. Don't. Panic. You're not in charge, remember? And God loves you.
You might--since I'm just a writer I don't know the future--be happy one day that you bought $100 worth of groceries when it was $100, instead of $500 because of inflation. It has happened all over the world, and America is not immune. Don't. Panic. People have lived through this a lot ever since Roman times, and God is in charge.
Get food, some multivitamins (I like the gummies) and stuff you'd hate to be without like toilet paper and toothpaste. See my sidebar for links to handy lists, but really you're not trying for a 3-month supply here, just a cushion.
If you have more than $100, expand your list. But don't be foolish: remember, God is in charge of your provision. You are just being wise with what He's given you.
Remember, you're not going to be afraid. You're not going to buy gold, cigarettes, and booze because you think we're going to go all Mad Max. We're not. (The booze might be nice for other reasons, but prioritize your spending.) You can't eat gold.
Now, go shopping. Be smart. Trust God.
Cheers,
Breanna
Meantime, I published a book. Just saying in passing, at $2.99 it's sure cheaper than a movie ticket...
With publishing one, of course I had to instantly start getting ready for the next, which will be a novel.
A fantasy novel, but writing about kind-of medieval settings requires research, or you end up doing stupid things, like giving peasants glass dishes.
Besides, the Gies are just good writers.
Hm, and now I have to figure out the sanitation for my big fantasy city. Sure it has floating lights above its spires, but what do they do with the sewage? These are the questions you may not know a writer has to tackle. And the sick thing is I probably won't even include this in the book, but I have to know.
Happily ignorant of jumping executives, the price of gasoline, and the fact that their Mama is getting paid for writing fiction, the boys are figuring out leg wrestling.
I AM being gentle, Mama. I swear.
My feet? On the baby? How did those get there?
My first instinct, when I saw the stock market plunging and heard that the US Government now can't finance a car, was to take some cash out of the bank to have in the safe at the house in case of bank failures. Then I thought to myself, remembering what's happened in the past to marks and rubles, "forget cash, I'm buying some extra beans". Because, yeah. I'm weird like that.
So have some pantry pictures, both to prove to you that I do not have a perfect pantry and to distract you while I talk to you about the sovereignty of God. As in, He was not surprised by what the stock market is doing.
He's always the One who provides for us, anyway. Having a stable or an unstable stock market does not affect His ability to provide, nor does it indicate that He doesn't love us, is less than good, or is less than powerful. Everything you know to be true about Him is still true, you just have to think about it now.
Because I mean, this is a full pantry, but how long would it really last if things went kerfulffle and the Husband couldn't get paid for a while? Not too long, Bub. But God says that He'll handle that for me. So I do the best I can to be wise with the resources He gives me--and advance warning, pantry space, and fluid cash to buy canned goods count as resources--and then I trust Him. Because He knows what He's doing.
In the end it's much easier to trust Him. In the ironic, yes-and-no way that doing what He asks is always easier--it's easier because it's what we're designed to do. It's harder because we really, really want to think that we're in charge of things, that we control our own destiny. So we, in a perverse way, actually LIKE working ourselves into a foam trying to bend reality to be the way we want it to be. Trusting God for our weight, our happiness, and our provision seems too easy.
It's also too hard. It makes us think in ways we don't want to. Trusting God for our happiness means that we see the temptation to dwell on hurts and grievances, or simply discomforts, as what it is: a temptation. That means we don't have the luxury of just randomly wallowing around in our thoughts. We have to decide "I'm not going to think that way"
and think about something else, instead. Trusting God for our provision means that we don't have the luxury of letting ourselves worry about money, or whether we'll eat, or whether we'll keep our jobs. We have to decide
"God is big enough for that"
and think about something else. And, incidentally, keep tithing.
Trusting God means trusting God. Not trusting Him AND our safety net, not trusting Him AND our good steady job, not trusting Him AND our pantry full of food. Trusting Him.
See what I mean? Easy and hard.
Be responsible, but don't get the illusion that this is what makes you okay.
Because it isn't.
Okay, got the message? I knew you would, and probably long before my dang pantry pictures were done. But now that you have strengthened yourself in the Lord, take a peek at your bank account and see whether you can't go and get yourself $50-$100 in extra, non-perishable groceries. Get stuff you like and will eat anyway. (Mandarin oranges are always a big hit here, and canned carrots for some reason.) Don't buy a lot of frozen stuff--it's summer here and we have power outages anyway because of people needing the AC on all the time. Don't buy things in huge sacks that will just get weevils, unless you have the right containers to store it. Don't. Panic. You're not in charge, remember? And God loves you.
You might--since I'm just a writer I don't know the future--be happy one day that you bought $100 worth of groceries when it was $100, instead of $500 because of inflation. It has happened all over the world, and America is not immune. Don't. Panic. People have lived through this a lot ever since Roman times, and God is in charge.
Get food, some multivitamins (I like the gummies) and stuff you'd hate to be without like toilet paper and toothpaste. See my sidebar for links to handy lists, but really you're not trying for a 3-month supply here, just a cushion.
If you have more than $100, expand your list. But don't be foolish: remember, God is in charge of your provision. You are just being wise with what He's given you.
Remember, you're not going to be afraid. You're not going to buy gold, cigarettes, and booze because you think we're going to go all Mad Max. We're not. (The booze might be nice for other reasons, but prioritize your spending.) You can't eat gold.
Now, go shopping. Be smart. Trust God.
Cheers,
Breanna
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