In Over My Head
February 28, 2022 by Charlotte Riegel
Filed under Daily Devotions
By Charlotte Riegel –
The deadline for my application was fast approaching and I was beginning to feel as if I was ‘in over my head’. We had moved to a new community during the previous year and my love of flowers and gardening pushed me into determining to beautify this new community with more flowers. The county was offering grant money for Community Enhancement and I thought my idea fit the qualifications.
I had never applied for a grant before but a kind neighbor offered to guide me through the process. As various people in the community heard about my project proposal they gave me encouragement because they too wanted to see lots more flowers next summer. Several offered suggestions for where to put new planter boxes and one lady even agreed to assist with planting and caring for the flowers.
I walked around town several times taking pictures. Another friend from a neighboring community sent information about self watering containers and I spent many hours looking through their web site to determine which size of containers to put where. It was coming together nicely but the deadline meant I had to put a dollar figure on the grant application and figuring out all the details was overwhelming me.
Apparently my husband sensed I was getting a bit ‘riled up’ so he graciously accompanied me, camera in hand, to take more pictures, and even offered to do the number crunching. In the evening, another neighbor came to the house and gathered up all the details I had put together then determined he would actually fill out the grant application form together with his project, thereby removing another huge stressor for me.
As I tucked into bed that evening I remembered the scripture verse I read and prayed that morning: “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (James 1:5 NIV).
I took that instruction to heart, prayed that verse asking God for wisdom with this project and by the end of the day it became very obvious He had answered it quite wonderfully.
Prayer: “Thank you, Lord, for being so gracious and helping us when we but come to you with our need for wisdom. Amen.”
Charlotte Riegel is a freelance writer recently moved from a large metropolitan city to a wee rural community in Western Canada. Some call it retirement. She calls it 're-tire' ment as she explores new avenues of written and visual expression while assisting her husband in establishing a business in the tourist industry.