Beyond Measure

"Everything that I have has been given so unselfishly and shown that even when I don't deserve you always show the fullness of your love......I know that I've been given more than beyond measure". These are the lyrics to a Jeremy Camp song "Beyond Measure" off his latest CD. I just had to start with them, because I (We) have been truly blessed WAY Beyond Measure. As most of you know, Chris and I attended the "Weekend To Remember" Marriage Conference this weekend and we had a wonderful time. The speakers were fabulous and we learned some really helpful things to apply to our marriage. #1 thing we took away "Your Spouse is not your enemy!!", there are outside forces that are at work here trying to destroy your marriage (Ephesians 6:12). #2 "We must choose to receive our spouse as God's perfect provision for us". #3 "Receiving your spouse is NOT based on our spouse's performance". There were many good points and a lot of information that we hope to apply in our marriage. We were able to talk and spend quality time together which is always needed and we were able to focus on us! It was truly a blessing. But, I need to bring you back to before we left on Friday and let you know about another amazing way God blessed us. We have been struggling for awhile now with our finances, without going in to detail we were way behind in our bills. The cable had just been turned off on Wednesday, our Electric bill was a week past the shut off date (and it was still on - thank you God),our car insurance had just expired, our rent was overdue and we were supposed to go away this weekend and we had no money for gas or food.............that can kind of get you down :(. Chris and I were both down about that all week and we really could not think or figure out a way to get any money to take care of these bills. Chris has money owed to him from customers, but they have 90 days to pay so you never know when that is going to come in. Well, we both were just kind of on edge, praying and trying to trust God, but really discouraged. Friday morning I woke up and I just started my morning prayer and I said "Lord, I don't know how you are going to do it, but I believe you are going to make a way for us to go to this conference" , I believed it when I prayed and just went about my day. I got off work at 12:30, went to pick Chris up at work, and came home to get ready to leave (how we were going to eat over the weekend, I didn't know), Chris went to the garage to get his clothes out of the dryer, I grabbed the mail and came upstairs. I passed through the junk mail, and the overdue bills, and then a letter addressed to Chris was there. I opened it (of course, because I'm nosy) and it was a Check for the amount of exactly what we needed to pay for all our past due bills, with a little extra to spend this weekend. I could not believe it, I kept checking it over & over to see if it was real, I called Chris on his cell phone and said you have to come up here right now! It was real!! We had gotten a letter a few months back about someone suing a company that we had previously worked with and they needed us to be on the name for the lawsuit, we didn't have to do anything but if they won we would get a settlement. Well, this was a settlement check for that!! We were able to pay all our past due bills before we left for our weekend. And, we were able to go away this weekend and focus on us, God, and our marriage without the weight of 'how are we going to pay the bills'.....I know that I've been given more than Beyond Measure!!!! I love you all.