There are so many things that happen from week to week that allows Bear Necessities to work. The first thing that happens is prayer. Bear Necessities was born in prayer. Actually, it was a prayer that someone ELSE would do something but as God will do when you allow Him, He changed that completely and I'm so grateful! Prayer is still the force behind it. Every week.
I have four menus that consists of the items that need to be donated in order to provide supplemental weekend food for our kids. They rotate each week so that they kids are getting different foods. Each week I pray that God will bring the items for that particular menu through the people in this community. Week after week I wish I could say that I go through every day without a thought that we'd ever come up short. Alas, I doubt. I never doubt that we won't be able to serve the kids but subconsciously, I wonder if I'll be the one at the store filling the gap. It never happens. Seriously, did you read that. It NEVER happens!
One week in particular I was running errands and had an overwhelming urge that I needed six apples. I thought it was ridiculous because I had counted... I KNEW that we needed 15. I even picked up 15 at Wal-mart but put back the second bag before I got to the register. You know what? I'm sure you guessed because it's oh so predictable but when I arrived at home, with the donations that had arrived while I was out running errands, we needed exactly six apples and nothing else!
Week after week I wish I could say that I go through every day without a thought that we'd ever come up short. (Yes, I know that I already said that. This time was for dramatic effect.)
I doubt and He comes through. I doubt and He comes through. I doubt and He comes through. Again and again. Again and again. Again and again. Again and again.
In the midst of all that happening, day after day I come home and find my front step looking like this:
Day after day, my husband comes home to find the foyer looking like this:
When my kids arrive home from school they carry the bags to the basement. Madeline loves counting and organizing the food on the shelves. With each can we place on the shelves we are reminded that the Lord will provide. We recently did a study on the different names that God is called in the bible and one was Jehovah Jireh, which means "The Lord will provide." I am so thankful for the constant reminder of this and the opportunity to teach it to my kids in a practical way that they can LITERALLY see.
On Wednesdays or Thursdays, God provides in a different way. He sends us volunteers to pack the bags and carry them upstairs. Here are a couple of our regulars with my kids as well:
Even before the bags are prayed for and dropped off for delivery, the whole process has started again. I pray. I count. I blog. I receive.
Each and every second of this process makes me feel more alive and more blessed! I believe with everything in my heart that it is in times of service to others that we grow and experience a true joy that does not exist when we're wrapped up in the busy-ness of life.
Bear Necessities has given an opportunity to my family and me to know that Joy. Whether it be through Bear Necessities or some other cause that's close to your heart, I challenge you to step out and step up by serving. I promise that you'll never be the same... and you'll be glad!
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