Guest Blogger - Kim Johnson

Back in 1998 my husband and I started attending Northview Christian Life Church in Carmel, Indiana. We joined the adult Sunday school class for couples called "Home Improvement" led by Randy and Patty Reimersma. We made some great friends in that group that we still keep in touch with 26 years later - and Kim and Bob Johnson were part of that group.

I have always loved Kim's spunk and sense of humor - and her heart for Jesus! She is one of the most down-to-earth Christian women I have ever met. I invited her to be a guest blogger here so you could meet her and love her like I do. 

I grabbed this photo of Kim and Bob with their four beautiful girls - you'll see why when you read her story below.  💜    Be blessed!

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  We just celebrated my 58th birthday & our 30th wedding anniversary this past October! We got married the day after my 28th birthday.

 We always recall that October 15, 1994 was the most beautiful fall day; every single tree was in it’s full autumn glory here in central Indiana & it was 75 sunny degrees, which is one of the main reasons we chose that date. Nine out of ten of my birthday weeks are perfection! However we’ve always said, we don’t think we’ve had a prettier fall since.

  With just having hit the milestone of thirty years of marriage & of now staring 60 in the face, we’ve done a lot of reflecting in the past month.

  We’ve raised four beautiful daughters together; Abbey Grace 28, Chelsea Faith 26, Chloe Hope 23, and Lindsey Joy almost 21.

  To say I’ve learned a lot about each one of those virtues while raising “four little women” is an understatement…funny how God grows us up while we’re raising our kids!

  When I look back to our humble beginnings like most have, I can remember wondering how we’d do it all? Sometimes I couldn’t see the forest for the trees.

  I can recall many times looking out our kitchen window while doing dishes and feeling stressed out about finances. I’d inevitably see a big fat bird or two in a tree in the dead of winter & the verse from Matthew 7:26-27 would come to mind, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single day to your life?”  It would always bring me much comfort & I’d have to trust God anew that He had our backs!

  Raising kids isn’t for the faint of heart nor is it cheap I might add! And of course, all four had to have braces. That was close to $6,000 per mouth!

  When our third daughter had them, one time when we were at one of her appointments in October, they had a huge gift basket they were selling raffle tickets for full of all things pink in support of breast cancer awareness. In it contained a document that said, “Good for one FREE orthodontic treatment” amongst all the fun pink gifts. You could buy one raffle ticket for $25 or two for $40 to go towards breast cancer research. I opted to purchase one.

   When we left, I took Chloe’s hand, full of hope, & said this prayer, “God if there’s someone else who needs this more than we do, let them win, but we could sure use it & would love to win it, in Jesus name we pray.”

  I honestly forgot about it. I never win anything it seems! But in February I received a phone call from the orthodontist’s office informing me that they had drawn the raffle and that I had won!
I cried.

  It reminded me of the verse that says, “You do not have, because you do not ask God.” James 4:2.
I had asked & I did receive this unexpected blessing that felt like we’d just won the lottery!

  They had me come in to meet with their finance gal & she had a paper that itemized the costs of the orthodontic treatment & went through it all, then flipped it around for me to sign and pointed out a zero with a line crossed through it that said, “Paid In Full.” Through tears I told her, WOW that sounds familiar!!

  So our fourth Daughter’s braces cost us a $25 raffle ticket entry!! “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” Ephesians 3:20

  I think God uses our finances to test us for one thing & to show us that like the birds of the air He will provide somehow in some way for each one of us!

  This story is just a big example in our lives of that but there have been so many other ways that he made a way when there seemed to be no way!

  And the older I get, when we have financial stresses come up, because they just do, I can look back at all the ways His hand has provided and proclaim, “Great is thy faithfulness unto me”, like that old hymn says!

  Be encouraged today & look at the birds of the air.  Pray and ask God. Trust Him. “Cast all of your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7
God’s got your back!
    With grace, faith, hope, & joy,                                                             Kim Selm Johnson