Thanks But No Thanks?

A roofing contractor was busy working on replacing the shingles
at the peak of a steeply pitched roof one day when he suddenly
lost his footing and began to slide toward the edge of the roof
where he would certainly fall off the building sustaining serious
injury or even death. He immediately uttered a prayer as he was
falling. " Lord if you save me I promise to all ways keep the
commandments and be forever grateful." As soon as the
prayer left his mouth his overalls caught on a protruding nail
immediately arresting his fall. "Never mind that last prayer
Lord. "The man said. "This nail saved me so I don't need your
help after all."
It's an old story. Anyone who's been to enough church meetings
or has a mother with a Readers Digest subscription has heard
it more than once. It still illustrates one of the weaker attributes
of humane nature. Nearly the entire history of the
Book of Mormon people can be summed up by the above story.
I am no exception and this frustrates me. The proper amount
of pressure will always cause me to turn to the Lord for
help. As soon as the the pressure relents to even the
slightest degree though I begin to think I had things
well in hand all along. It's shocking how quickly I begin
to slide back in to old bad habits of thought and action
( or inaction.)
The past two years have been particularly challenging
in every aspect of my life. Some of the greatest
challenges have been financial. Times have been
difficult for most of us and being self employed has
taught me to weather the ups and down of the economy
fairly well but for the last two years the drop in business
has been very disproportionate in relation to the
economic down turn. To complicate matters, literally
every piece of equipment in the shop has failed completely
and has had to be replaced or has required extensive
and very costly repairs. All within the last six months.
The unexpected costs alone have nearly wiped me out.
At the end of May I was faced with the distressing
decision of either keeping the doors open maxing out
debt in the not wholly unreasonable hope that a 25 yr.
old business would eventually recover or calling it quits
and getting a real job leaving the business debts unpaid.
Any decent accountant would say call it quits after seeing
the books.
For many years I have learned to put great faith in the
law of tithing and that faith has all ways been rewarded.
I have continued to pay a full tithe as well as a generous
fast offering throughout my financial struggles.
I decided to exercise a little more faith and determined
to fast one day a week for the month of June for the
welfare of the business. the second week of June we
received a large order. We had bid on the job nearly
two months earlier and were sure we had lost the job.
The rest of the month was still very slow but that one job
was just enough to keep the doors open for another month.
When I delivered the order the the second week of July
the customer placed a second order twice as large as
the first. The money from this job allowed me to get
caught up on all the unpaid bills and at least get even.
August has all ways been one of the slowest months
of the year for us. We're not exactly raking in the
profits this month but I can confidently say the
past two weeks have been one of the best starts
in the month of August that I can remember in a long time.
Now that the pressure has been relived I feel tremendous
gratitude but I also know I'm all ready sliding back into
my old habits. I don't know what to do other than to
just keep trying to be better. I just felt I should publicly
acknowledge the blessings of providence some where to
remind me when I forget.