When God Gave Us Cars

Retelling stories about God's provision to my daughter & to you

Circa 2019 when my husband and I were starting a detailing business. I’m testing new products on my worn-down blessing of a car.

My husband and I have been contemplating what it means to share our testimonies with our daughter, Eliza, who is soon turning 4. It’s a big question for us because we weren’t raised in homes that did that sort of thing.

To my father and stepmother’s credit, they took me to church and talked about God, but I only visited them two months a year. My husband and I are somewhat naïve about what a Christian home might look like in its daily workings.

• What does it look like to pray with your children?

• How often does one talk about the ways God is shaping us?

• Is Bible study an individual practice or a family one?

This topic may feel foreign to you, or the answers obvious, but for us, it is a new ground we are trying to cultivate. The biggest challenges are the simple ones: foundational habits where we wear our hearts for Christ on our sleeves and talk about Him again and again with one another.

The rest of this newsletter is a retelling of the story I told Eliza as she sat across from me at breakfast on an ordinary morning before the rush of school and work. It is three stories in one, weaved together to show how God has continually provided.

For the future, I would like to create a small booklet for her that has more of these stories: about how God has protected and provided for our family.

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Things Worth Mentioning

If you didn’t hear, there are new free workshops and membership content releasing January 1st. You can read about the details here:

I also want to quickly thank

Heidi Fiedler

for writing this recap of the 2024 Mental Health & Motherhood Virtual Conference. It was a dream I had that turned into a 12-speaker movement. Heidi was my wonderful host of the day. I couldn’t have done it without her.

Ten Things I Learned at the Mental Health and Motherhood Conference

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A Family Story of God’s Provision

There was once a great sickness that came into our lives called Covid or the pandemic but we didn’t call it that yet. All we knew was that there was something causing people to get sick.

About a month before the world shut its doors and everything stopped, I had a job making pizza. Daddy and I were poor - we had little money - and we were doing whatever we could. The car I had suddenly stopped working and I was afraid I was going to lose a job I had just started.

We went to a different church at that time and I shared with the pastor there I was afraid. A man named John Skubic overheard me and invited Daddy and I to his house to look at a car.

He had an old, worn down red-hunk of steel. I can’t recall what kind of vehicle this was but it ran loud and shook like it was going to fall apart when I took it on the freeway.

“This is a car that we hold onto when someone needs it for the day. I’d like to give it to you.”

There was a lot of shame and pushing away the offer, but we were desperate. He was sharing how strongly God provided for him and it wasn’t really his anyways. That generosity is something we didn’t understand. We finally accepted the car and he transferred it over to us in town.

That car didn’t last long but it was there exactly when I needed it the most.

It wasn’t the only car we’ve been provided with.

Do you remember when Momma’s red car died in August? I didn’t know what to do! I was panicking but then we got lucky because we had another car to use while Daddy was in Virginia. Everyone kept sending me sales links to cars to buy but I kept saying “no, that’s not what we need. We will wait.”

We waited and waited and then right before Daddy got back we had an old family connection offer us this new car we have now. It’s not very pretty and needs work but it’s the size and price we were hoping to find.

But then again, this is really the third car God has provided me…

When Daddy and I were just married, I was interviewing for a job where I work now - but as a barista to make coffee. I only dreamed of working in the office side back then.

In my interview I felt like I needed to be honest and tell them I didn’t have my own car and I felt really bad about that. And a gift happened. My soon to be boss offered me her old car on a payment plan I could manage because she felt like God had dropped my prayer in her lap.

How could we have planned this? We couldn’t. That’s how God works: he is good and provides for us in ways we don’t expect.

Eliza, sometimes God will answer your prayers and needs with things that look ugly. He might give you old cars that need work and only last for a short season. But he has still provided for us. He does it in his perfect timing and we can remember this.

God has always provided for our family.

Happy holidays, everyone.