God The Provider
God is Jehovah-jireh, the One who provides.
Janine and I have seen God’s provision in many ways throughout our 45 years of marriage. We had determined early on that once God blessed us with children Janine would be a stay-at-home mom and I would be the sole breadwinner. That wasn’t easy to do on a journalist’s salary in 1981 when our eldest son, Joel, was born. But God provided. He always has.
In 1986, I was editor of a weekly newspaper in Forest Grove, Ore., when the Lord put it on my heart to look for a new, potentially higher-paying job that would better support our family of 5. Since we had the only grandchildren on Janine’s side of the family, I promised not to move us more than a day’s drive away from her parents in Forest Grove. I then began to send out resume after resume, mostly to daily newspapers in the Northwest. I didn’t hear back from most of them. The ones that did write back (this was before email and cell phones) responded either they didn’t have an opening, or that I needed more experience.
A year passed and I only had two in-person interviews – one in Coos Bay, Ore., and the other in Pendleton, Ore. I didn’t get either job. Discouragement began to set in. But God kept reminding me of His promise in Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”
Not long after, just before Thanksgiving 1987, I received a call from the sports editor of The Idaho Statesman in Boise. The newspaper had an opening for a sports copy editor and flew me out for three days of interviews and a tryout. It went well. I returned home on a Sunday and was hired the next day. Jehovah-jireh. My start date: January 4, 1988.
We had five weeks to sell our home, pack up, and move our young family of five to a distant city where we knew no one. The real estate market was slow, but God brought along a buyer in two days. Jehovah-jireh. We left during an ice storm and wrecked one of our vehicles just outside of Baker, Ore., (another story of God’s grace) but no one was injured. Jehovah-jireh. We pulled into Boise on December 30 and found a home to rent in three days. Jehovah-jireh.
On our first Sunday in Boise, we went to Westside and were warmly welcomed. Susan Herrick brought us homemade bread that week and our families became fast friends. Jehovah-jireh. That was more than 35 years ago, and God continues to provide.
– Craig Sonoda
