From Cathy Varner ... Member of body of Christ
Last year at the Ford plant where my husband works, there was a mass
lay-off, involving I think most, if not all, of the workers. This was
for about 4 or 5 weeks. Then the company was offering an extended
lay-off ( up to 6 months), that you could apply for. A certain number
of people would be accepted for this, I think based on number of years
worked there. I was shocked when I learned that my husband had applied
and been accepted. I didn't think he would have wanted to be off that
long. I thought this would be very difficult for me, that I'd lose much
of my quiet time, especially first thing in the morning when I like to
read blog and Bible....thinking he'd be waking up earlier than usual. I
turned strongly to God to help me through this. One thought I had, I
believe from Holy Spirit, was reminding me that God had helped me
through the initial lay-off time, it went by quickly with no problems.
And the same God who helped me with that would help me with this
additional lay-off.
And He really did. Amazingly, I had gotten
on a sleep pattern where I was going to bed around 7 pm and waking up
around 3 am. I hadn't tried to do this, it had just come about
naturally. This gave me plenty of morning quiet even though Joe was
getting up earlier than usual. And most days he was away doing things,
errands or what not, so I also had plenty of quiet during the day.
Even so, I was really wanting him to be working if he was able and I
began talking to God about that. Then Joe told me he had a dream that
they were called back to work. This gave me hope. And the very next
week it happened. He got a letter on a Friday telling him to start work
that Monday. This cut the lay-off time about in half, where it could
have gone for 6 months, it lasted only about 3.
Also during this
time Joe had talked about a couple different trips he was thinking of
taking. I was concerned about being alone for so long and turned to
God, committing it to Him. Neither trip happened. God took care of
each concern and it was a faith-building experience.