Mysterious Ways

Last Sunday I was asked to teach the Elders quorum lesson by the EQ president. I believe that this was an attempt by George Brown to keep me at church for the last hour instead of sneaking off (I still think 3 hours is a really long time). He handed me an article from the Ensign from President Monson that talked about trials and blessings. He asked if I would teach it, and I gave him a solid, certain, I'll think about it answer. Throughout the week he called a couple of times and I picked up my phone and with my thumb, and rolled him to voice mail. Don't get me wrong, I really like George, but I did not want to teach this lesson. For anyone who reads this blog (both of you) knows that this past couple of years has been a real struggle for us in the construction industry, and lately it seems like life just gets harder, with beating after beating with the economy. I have watched my Sister go through so much with the loss of their business, see her stress and financially seen them go right to the edge, only to have things miraculously turn around. I have seen friends go out of business, declare bankruptcy, lose homes etc.. and lately we began to wonder if we were not going to suffer the same fate. We have been pretty blessed, but it seems like jobs have been drying up, and the ones that are out there are just not worth taking because people are bidding them at a loss. Kathy and I have contemplated what we would do, she is working full time, going to school, and it seems like every other week someone would find a way to stiff us in business. One client that we did a tenant improvement on packed up his business and home overnight and left the state without paying.
I have been so stressed because I do not ever want to stiff anybody on a bill, so as the resources dry up, I have allocated what money we do have coming in to pay off vendors and sub-contractors.
Now back to George Brown. Out of desperation that he might have to teach, he finally called back again on Saturday and I agreed to take the lesson. It went well, we talked about blessings, challenges, and what lies ahead for many of us. I relayed the story of visiting a friend in the hospital during the week. He had fallen from a roof and shattered his leg. He is a big strong guy, and to see him laying in his hospital bed realizing that he would be out of commission for up to 6 months instantly gave me a little perspective on how lucky I am that I have at least been blessed with health. After class, I scooted out the door as quick as I could and went home.
I thought a lot about the lesson, and some of the comments, and was satisfied that maybe we didn't have it so bad. I could always work harder, and I have a wife that has a great work ethic and still remains such a good Mom. Jeff is in school, and with his scholarship, and his part time job he is self sufficient and is actually putting money away.

When Monday rolled around I got a call to go look at a job that I have been bidding, the job grew into a much bigger project than was originally anticipated and it would be big enough to get us through December, January, and possibly February. I also had a call from one of the Engineers from a job that I had done earlier in the year. He asked if I was interested in a job at one of the companies other properties. I had never really thought about going to work for someone, but I thought I would at least hear the offer. On Tuesday, I called the Chief Engineer at the place that was looking and realised that it I had done some work for this person in the past. He told me that when the position had opened up he immediately thought of me. He told me what the job would entail, the hours and the benefit package that went along with it. He explained that it was a Union position, and although the uniouns are not really trying to get new members, he wanted to hire me based on past work, and my knowledge in this field. It is a good wage, I will not get rich off of it, but the hours are set up in a way that I can still run my business and pursue some of the things that we have been working on. It offers us enough that we know that we can meet all of our obligations, and if we budget we will be able to once again put money away in savings, and Jake can go back to Cello lessons (we haven't broke the news to him yet though).
I guess what I am getting at is that this last week I feel like we have really been looked over and been blessed in ways that we didn't realise would be possible. Will we be rich? No. Has my perspective of what is important changed? Yes, most definitely. I realize that maybe the reason that we have had to struggle is so that we could be humbled a little bit, but I would be totally unappreciative, if I didn't acknowledge that this just didn't come about by luck or fate. Every day we are guided. Some days we recognize this guidance, others we are oblivious to it. We are not given every thing we want, when we want it, but we are also never left alone. God works in mysterious ways, and someday when I meet him, I'm not sure if I will want to ask Him why, or just thank Him for the experiences that trials and blessing both have brought.