Half-Price Blessings For Fall Provision

This year’s garden has truly been filled with gifts, provisions and lessons we didn’t see coming. A beautiful visual lesson was shown to us recently. One where Yahweh arranged for us to receive little things so that they will produce greater blessings as time goes on. It involved a quick shopping trip for garden supplies.
Sometimes our budget just doesn’t allow for many extras, and we must choose which items of utmost importance will make the list. The trip a couple weeks ago was one of those shopping trips. I knew we had a set amount to get what we needed.

We had been having a lot of trouble in the raspberry bushes with Japanese beetles this year, and we hoped the store would still have traps in stock. Traps were on our list. Additionally, knowing that I wanted to start some cuttings, transplant three avocado trees for indoor growing, and start new seeds for late summer and fall harvest, I added one bag of soil and some fertilizer to help the heat-weary plants. I figured we would only be able to get small sizes of each and was prepared to buy whatever brands were left in stock. Late season garden shopping can be hit or miss. I also put a few additional “wants” at the bottom of the shopping list, just in case, then off we headed to the store. We prayed Yahweh would provide all our needs, and maybe even a few extras. I was hopeful!

When we arrived, Jim wanted to park on one side of the store, yet I felt strongly lead to park on the other side of the parking lot. He said he liked the right side better and preferred to park there, but I insisted on the other side. So, he drove to where I wanted to park. I then felt impressed to go through the garden department doors instead of the front so we could pick up the beetle trap, fertilizer, and soil first. That way we would know how much we had left for the “wants” list. Off we headed, grabbing a cart along the way.

I had planned on one smaller bag of potting soil that would be just enough for what I needed to do, costing around $5. As we approached the gates into the open-air garden section, imagine my surprise when there was a sign by some larger bags of soil. . . $2!! To be honest, I didn’t think the price was right. I thought maybe the “1” had fallen off and they hadn’t put it back yet. I asked a worker standing nearby if it was accurate. He confirmed the price, so we grabbed not one, but TWO bags of soil for less than the one small bag was supposed to cost. I was excited because now we had almost four times the potting soil I had intended to buy – and for less money! It gets even better: the soil on our “needs” list was just plain, generic potting soil - not organic. It also said it had no fertilizing additives in it at all. But the bags we were blessed with were organic potting soil enriched with organic fertilizer!

Although I was disappointed that there were no more beetle traps anywhere in the store, we were truly blessed to get that great deal on more and healthier soil than what we would have settled for. Inside, we also found a bag of fertilizer twice as big as our last purchase was, and it was half price! We were on a roll. Off we headed to the next department – office supplies. Next of our list was a pack of printer paper – again half price! We were already spending less than anticipated for more product. By this point I was about to embarrass Jim in the store by doing my “Happy Blessings Dance!” I opted to just wait until we got outside.

You might ask how all this happened for us.

There were just two simple things I did before we left for the store. The same thing I try to remember to do every time we go shopping:

1) I went online to check the prices and sizes of everything on the list so we had an idea of what we could afford.

Then. . .

2) I prayed and turned our entire shopping trip over to Yahweh, asking Him to provide for us as best He could. Especially for the garden so that we could grow more food AND have plenty to share with our friends. I also thanked Him for every time in the past He has blessed us on shopping trips. Praising him for the witness and testimony of provision that He has given us.

It doesn’t sound like much, yet that is all I do. Sometimes I have forgotten to pray and praise. There have even been times when I have been whiny and disrespectful to Yahweh. On those trips, I can testify that we have not been as wonderfully blessed. He ALWAYS blesses us, and I recognize those blessings everywhere in our lives. But I also recognize that when we are obedient, following His direction and doing His work properly, the blessings are always beyond measure.

Because of His great blessings from our shopping trip, I spent the next morning joyfully gardening indoors! I put on some music, took all our old seed-starter trays then started new batches of cucumbers, bush beans, pole beans, peas, and greens of every variety. I then transplanted our three indoor avocado trees into larger pots. Next I was able to trim and start 6 new coleus plants for our prayer garden, too. Here was the most amazing part: I barely used 2/3 of the first bag of potting soil. I even used some soil to put in the holes I dug in the prayer garden to plant the flowers we had been gifted weeks earlier. I would grab out handfuls of soil, and it seemed like Mary Poppins’ travel bag: never ending supplies!

Yahweh’s provisions stretched much farther than I asked for or anticipated. When I was finished with all that planting, tears welled up in my eyes at the blessings which had unfolded. We now have sprouts that need to find new places in the garden so that Yahweh’s blessings will not be wasted. We also have so many seedlings, we will be sharing them with our friends for their late summer plantings. A perfect demonstration of how Yahweh’s little things turned into greater blessings.

He IS an amazing Abba and a great miracle worker, when we let him.

Blessings and Shalom.
 
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:

Colossians 3:17 KJV And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

James 1:17 WEB Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow.
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Although we are not in The Land of promise, Yahweh has shown us that He still works as described in Deuteronomy 28:11 KJV “the LORD will make you plenteous for good, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground,…”​

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Half Priced Blessings