When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade
how to prosper in this lifetime
Sunday, February 7, 2010
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade
Welcome to my blog, hope you enjoy reading about our family's belief in a God who never fails.
My name is Denise and I am wife to the most amazing man Ray, stay at home mom and homeschool teacher to my adorable kids Caleb Rahoul 14 and Sele'ha Mikhaila 12. We are an average middle class family that believes in the simple things in life, like an immense love for the country and sea if that makes any sense at all. My friend once said I was strange, she said I either had a love for the country or a love for the sea, but I'm different and I don’t see why I or should I say we could'nt love both, which we do anyway. Well, while Sonya my friend loves the sea her husband loves the mountains. We live across the road from the ocean and try to get away to the country as often as we can. What I love best is to gaze out my bedroom window at the sea, as it thrashes about spitting foamy waves onto the golden sandy beach or watch people happily playing on the shore, or picking seashells.
I often pray whilst I'm standing there and thank God for all he has blessed us with. My family and I are committed Christians, love nothing more than to live a life that is pleasing to God yet adventurous and action filled too. We are passionate about travelling, seeing different places and getting to know different people, bringing the word of God to far away places but I felt like we were living in a bubble as we were limited to achieving only what was within our means. I homeschool so that means just one salary, my husband's and since we would'nt even consider me going back to work it was'nt an option. We had decided a long time ago that I was going to be a stay at home mom, we later opted to homeschool when my son was just 2 and a half years old. He was barely three when I started homeschooling him and we have'nt looked back. My daughter is 2 years ahead of her grade and thriving, they both are currently doing the high school curriculum and loving it. Sure its challenging, but the rewards far outweigh the challenges for both them and I.
Coming back to our family finances, Ray and I seemed to be always looking for ways to earn more money and as always one tends to learn hard lessons from being gullible and blindly buying into scams rather than money spinners like they were supposed to be. Frankly I was tired of trying another venture, however I continued to search on the internet for opportunities to earn extra income. Ray was employed by a company that had been around for a long time and had some 300 odd workers. He is a human resource manager, who loved his job, except those days when he had to fire someone or have disciplinary hearings all day. Those days seemed to sap his energy and desire to do the predictable.
We often discussed that there had to be more to life than a mundane 8 to 5 routine. Ray was always encouraged by a typical day in my life, though it is busy, multi tasking sure is'nt easy, it is a lot of fun doing different things switching roles often to accommodate the many people I am required to be in a day. We were never successful in all the attempts we made to make money, okay maybe we did earn money from these ventures but it was nothing to write home about. We prayed often and asked God to lead us in our decisions for our family and to improve our finances too. We knew that the bible is full of promises from God that said it is His plan to bless us and not harm us and I did believe all of this but I wondered why we seemed to be standing in the same spot all the time.
I felt challenged to read God's word and spend more time in prayer, we would set our alarm for 4.30 am every morning and spent time in God's presence first before getting on with our day. I do believe where we are now came out of all the times we spent in prayer then, because when you sincerely seek God He is faithful to answer. At that time we were focusing on changing our attitude towards our circumstances and I was reading a wonderful christian book which was my Christmas present from my husband that I just never got around to completing. Well, once I started I could not put it down, I was consumed by changing my mindset and seeing our circumstances moving in a positive direction, just like Paul says in the Bible, we have to renew our minds with the word of God. Leaving our poverty mindset behind and believe me, it has got nothing to do with just positive thinking but everything to do with who you're serving and pretty much standing on the promises of God. However we started to see significant changes in our lives, but we still needed more income for our young family...
One day Ray called me from his office to say he was running late and would be home later than usual, the tone of his voice worried me, though he said there was nothing to worry about, I could'nt help wondering what was going on. Ray has a very gentle nature and never gets upset unnecessarily, but when he walked in the door that evening whilst I was busy preparing our dinner, I knew something was very wrong. From his loving long embrace to the upbeat little speech he gave me about staying positive I knew that things were really, really not sounding good but nothing in the world prepared me for what was coming. The well known company that he worked for was under going liquidation, suddenly I felt like someone had pulled the rug out from under my feet, I felt dizzy and nauseous at the same time. We were into the second week of that month and he was not as much as given his salary for that month, nor his benefits or holiday pay, zilch, nada, nothing.
My first instinct was panic, wondering what on earth we would do with what we had in the bank that month, how far could that possibly take us in terms of monthly payments that we had to make on everything. My stomach did little flip flops all the while I put on this brave front whilst I was falling to pieces inside, then suddenly, in my mind the word the word of God came to me, “ Do not be afraid I will never, never leave you nor forsake you. Hebrews 13:5 a strange calmness came over me and indeed my spirit was reminded to never fear as my God is in control. From that day forward Ray and I have chosen to believe God’s word over the enemy and know that we are so special to our Heavenly Father and He wants to bless us with good things. Life has not been easy, when one has to trust in God’s provision, cause it means trusting without having any physical evidence manifested but what I can say to you dear friend is “Jesus is faithful and sure to be trusted” Every single time we trusted God for provision He never, never failed us, often providing supernaturally for needs. Friends from around the world suddenly send us love gifts without us breathing a single word to them about our circumstances. Despite all these blessings our work situation seemed bleak, nevertheless we continued to stand on the promises of God.
We prayed fervently for answers to the problems we encountered, but more so for a job for Ray. I continued with the little projects we still tried our hands at, everything needed more money to be invested into it and that was money we did’nt have. I asked God to show us what we needed to do, Ray was now in his own consultancy and trusting God for more clients. It seemed that all we ever had to do was make payments on everything, I felt guilty for being ungrateful for what God had blessed us with after all we did have our beautiful home which God was faithfully providing for and the luxury of our cars as well. When things got too tight we got rid of the one car that we did’nt really need anymore as Ray worked from home. One evening after an especially long day, I took an extra long bath and spoke to the Lord whilst in the bath. I remember reminding the Lord of all His promises and asking why things were turning out the way they were. I got out of the bath and retired to bed, whilst Ray worked long into the night.
Lately I had been sleeping like a log and complained to Ray that I had been experiencing much tiredness even after sleeping soundly. However during the early hours of that morning I was awakened by someone calling my name, thinking it was one of the kids, I hastened to their room only to find them sleeping soundly. Sleep long gone from my eyes I watched my husband’s chest rise and fall gently as he slept, so I rolled out of bed and decided to pray and use this time to talk to the Lord. . And coming back to that perfect business that I’ve always wanted it, is slowly becoming a reality every hour of everyday brings new hope to us. I can spend hours working on my projects and still feel fulfilled knowing that what I work for now, will still be providing for me tomorrow.
Did you ever think that residual income would be part of God’s plan for you, I certainly did’nt until God spoke to me out of his word, "Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest" (Proverbs 6:6-8).
I do not believe God considered me a sluggard but He sure spoke to me that day and I realized if I wanted something bad enough I would work for it, although it might mean a few hours in my day to achieve this dream, I knew I could do it and yes our lives have changed so much for the good through the revelation God gave me through his servant. If God could teach the ant to store up for the future, he would definitely teach me and so He is teaching me daily and increasing my wisdom every hour which new fresh ways of creativity in our business. I was blessed immensely by my friend Paulette's email on God’s teachings on finances and how God wants you to be debt free.
I can honestly say that the strong confident woman I have become is due to taking God at his word and trusting him to send me help through his servant and today we have a business that by God’s grace will still be working for us tomorrow even when we are working for Jesus in some far away land, yes it will still be creating an income for us just like the ant that considered his provisions for the winter and praise God we shall never be trusting in the world's system of living again. Be blessed, as you allow me to teach you exactly what we did to earn with this amazing programme.
To learn more about this wonderful opportunity that is making it possible for children of God the world over achieve great things for Jesus, please email me at raydendhew@gmail.com
Sunday, February 7, 2010
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade
Welcome to my blog, hope you enjoy reading about our family's belief in a God who never fails.
My name is Denise and I am wife to the most amazing man Ray, stay at home mom and homeschool teacher to my adorable kids Caleb Rahoul 14 and Sele'ha Mikhaila 12. We are an average middle class family that believes in the simple things in life, like an immense love for the country and sea if that makes any sense at all. My friend once said I was strange, she said I either had a love for the country or a love for the sea, but I'm different and I don’t see why I or should I say we could'nt love both, which we do anyway. Well, while Sonya my friend loves the sea her husband loves the mountains. We live across the road from the ocean and try to get away to the country as often as we can. What I love best is to gaze out my bedroom window at the sea, as it thrashes about spitting foamy waves onto the golden sandy beach or watch people happily playing on the shore, or picking seashells.
I often pray whilst I'm standing there and thank God for all he has blessed us with. My family and I are committed Christians, love nothing more than to live a life that is pleasing to God yet adventurous and action filled too. We are passionate about travelling, seeing different places and getting to know different people, bringing the word of God to far away places but I felt like we were living in a bubble as we were limited to achieving only what was within our means. I homeschool so that means just one salary, my husband's and since we would'nt even consider me going back to work it was'nt an option. We had decided a long time ago that I was going to be a stay at home mom, we later opted to homeschool when my son was just 2 and a half years old. He was barely three when I started homeschooling him and we have'nt looked back. My daughter is 2 years ahead of her grade and thriving, they both are currently doing the high school curriculum and loving it. Sure its challenging, but the rewards far outweigh the challenges for both them and I.
Coming back to our family finances, Ray and I seemed to be always looking for ways to earn more money and as always one tends to learn hard lessons from being gullible and blindly buying into scams rather than money spinners like they were supposed to be. Frankly I was tired of trying another venture, however I continued to search on the internet for opportunities to earn extra income. Ray was employed by a company that had been around for a long time and had some 300 odd workers. He is a human resource manager, who loved his job, except those days when he had to fire someone or have disciplinary hearings all day. Those days seemed to sap his energy and desire to do the predictable.
We often discussed that there had to be more to life than a mundane 8 to 5 routine. Ray was always encouraged by a typical day in my life, though it is busy, multi tasking sure is'nt easy, it is a lot of fun doing different things switching roles often to accommodate the many people I am required to be in a day. We were never successful in all the attempts we made to make money, okay maybe we did earn money from these ventures but it was nothing to write home about. We prayed often and asked God to lead us in our decisions for our family and to improve our finances too. We knew that the bible is full of promises from God that said it is His plan to bless us and not harm us and I did believe all of this but I wondered why we seemed to be standing in the same spot all the time.
I felt challenged to read God's word and spend more time in prayer, we would set our alarm for 4.30 am every morning and spent time in God's presence first before getting on with our day. I do believe where we are now came out of all the times we spent in prayer then, because when you sincerely seek God He is faithful to answer. At that time we were focusing on changing our attitude towards our circumstances and I was reading a wonderful christian book which was my Christmas present from my husband that I just never got around to completing. Well, once I started I could not put it down, I was consumed by changing my mindset and seeing our circumstances moving in a positive direction, just like Paul says in the Bible, we have to renew our minds with the word of God. Leaving our poverty mindset behind and believe me, it has got nothing to do with just positive thinking but everything to do with who you're serving and pretty much standing on the promises of God. However we started to see significant changes in our lives, but we still needed more income for our young family...
One day Ray called me from his office to say he was running late and would be home later than usual, the tone of his voice worried me, though he said there was nothing to worry about, I could'nt help wondering what was going on. Ray has a very gentle nature and never gets upset unnecessarily, but when he walked in the door that evening whilst I was busy preparing our dinner, I knew something was very wrong. From his loving long embrace to the upbeat little speech he gave me about staying positive I knew that things were really, really not sounding good but nothing in the world prepared me for what was coming. The well known company that he worked for was under going liquidation, suddenly I felt like someone had pulled the rug out from under my feet, I felt dizzy and nauseous at the same time. We were into the second week of that month and he was not as much as given his salary for that month, nor his benefits or holiday pay, zilch, nada, nothing.
My first instinct was panic, wondering what on earth we would do with what we had in the bank that month, how far could that possibly take us in terms of monthly payments that we had to make on everything. My stomach did little flip flops all the while I put on this brave front whilst I was falling to pieces inside, then suddenly, in my mind the word the word of God came to me, “ Do not be afraid I will never, never leave you nor forsake you. Hebrews 13:5 a strange calmness came over me and indeed my spirit was reminded to never fear as my God is in control. From that day forward Ray and I have chosen to believe God’s word over the enemy and know that we are so special to our Heavenly Father and He wants to bless us with good things. Life has not been easy, when one has to trust in God’s provision, cause it means trusting without having any physical evidence manifested but what I can say to you dear friend is “Jesus is faithful and sure to be trusted” Every single time we trusted God for provision He never, never failed us, often providing supernaturally for needs. Friends from around the world suddenly send us love gifts without us breathing a single word to them about our circumstances. Despite all these blessings our work situation seemed bleak, nevertheless we continued to stand on the promises of God.
We prayed fervently for answers to the problems we encountered, but more so for a job for Ray. I continued with the little projects we still tried our hands at, everything needed more money to be invested into it and that was money we did’nt have. I asked God to show us what we needed to do, Ray was now in his own consultancy and trusting God for more clients. It seemed that all we ever had to do was make payments on everything, I felt guilty for being ungrateful for what God had blessed us with after all we did have our beautiful home which God was faithfully providing for and the luxury of our cars as well. When things got too tight we got rid of the one car that we did’nt really need anymore as Ray worked from home. One evening after an especially long day, I took an extra long bath and spoke to the Lord whilst in the bath. I remember reminding the Lord of all His promises and asking why things were turning out the way they were. I got out of the bath and retired to bed, whilst Ray worked long into the night.
Lately I had been sleeping like a log and complained to Ray that I had been experiencing much tiredness even after sleeping soundly. However during the early hours of that morning I was awakened by someone calling my name, thinking it was one of the kids, I hastened to their room only to find them sleeping soundly. Sleep long gone from my eyes I watched my husband’s chest rise and fall gently as he slept, so I rolled out of bed and decided to pray and use this time to talk to the Lord. . And coming back to that perfect business that I’ve always wanted it, is slowly becoming a reality every hour of everyday brings new hope to us. I can spend hours working on my projects and still feel fulfilled knowing that what I work for now, will still be providing for me tomorrow.
Did you ever think that residual income would be part of God’s plan for you, I certainly did’nt until God spoke to me out of his word, "Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest" (Proverbs 6:6-8).
I do not believe God considered me a sluggard but He sure spoke to me that day and I realized if I wanted something bad enough I would work for it, although it might mean a few hours in my day to achieve this dream, I knew I could do it and yes our lives have changed so much for the good through the revelation God gave me through his servant. If God could teach the ant to store up for the future, he would definitely teach me and so He is teaching me daily and increasing my wisdom every hour which new fresh ways of creativity in our business. I was blessed immensely by my friend Paulette's email on God’s teachings on finances and how God wants you to be debt free.
I can honestly say that the strong confident woman I have become is due to taking God at his word and trusting him to send me help through his servant and today we have a business that by God’s grace will still be working for us tomorrow even when we are working for Jesus in some far away land, yes it will still be creating an income for us just like the ant that considered his provisions for the winter and praise God we shall never be trusting in the world's system of living again. Be blessed, as you allow me to teach you exactly what we did to earn with this amazing programme.
To learn more about this wonderful opportunity that is making it possible for children of God the world over achieve great things for Jesus, please email me at raydendhew@gmail.com
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