After the day I had the other day, I think it’s time for a testimony.
I’d been having trouble with a tooth that honestly, I know will need pulled. The problem is that I don’t want to spend the close to $500 that it will cost. As many of you know, I’m not really working and things with the business have been slow-going. I do have Medicaid, and I decided I would at least go get a check-up and X-ray and if I decided I trusted this new provider, I would use them and save myself hundreds of dollars. So, I rescheduled my original appointment to get the tooth pulled with my “normal” oral surgeon (yes, it’s become “normal” at this point, don’t judge) until after my appointment with the Medicaid dentist, that way if I didn’t like the Medicaid dentist, I could still keep my original appointment and not have to wait another who knows how long.
Even thought I’m not technically working, I’d been picking up some gigs here and there to try to make a little something. I had been referred to a client helping to take care of an elderly couple, but it was only going to be once a month. The pay is excellent and no taxes so not too shabby of a gig. Then one day she called me and in the course of a few hours kept changing what she would need me for and by the end of it I was looking at the potential of bringing home about $4,000 a month! That would definitely cover my tooth pulling and get my financial life back on track! But, alas…that is not working out (through nobody’s fault), but I will still be getting 5 hours a week and I’m thankful for that.
So, back to the drawing board. I was doing a split shift the day that it became obvious I was not the best suited for the morning shift. After my morning shift, I went to my dentist appointment that was covered by Medicaid. Well, let me tell you, I have never walked out of an office of any kind before due to how dirty it was. And if you know me, you know that sort of stuff doesn’t normally bother me. I mean, I’m not gross or anything, but I just don’t worry about germs the way some people do (gotta say, I’m pretty darn healthy, too), unless it is a situation, for example, like taking care of this elderly couple or fixing food for someone or something like that. Anyway…the people at the dentist office were nice, but the waiting area made me feel like I was going to get hepatitis if I sat for too long. When I was called back to the “room” where I would have my check-up and I’m assuming X-rays, I couldn’t help but immediately notice how dirty the counters were. The tech wasn’t wearing gloves which also concerned me. I faked a sudden migraine and said I’d reschedule, and left. I will not reschedule. I know this was not a one-off thing, because when I got back to work for my night shift, I was telling the other caregiver and she said the name of the office before I even had a chance to.
So, there I was, faced with a $500 tooth-pulling, running out of credit cards that I only qualified for in the last year. I finally got my credit in good standing and now it’s going downhill fast. I digress. I’d been picking up some other gigs here and one day earlier this week, I drove quite a distance for this one particular gig. On the way home, my check engine light came on. Ugh. Not gonna lie, I was starting to imagine all sorts of expenses. I had a diagnostic report done and the part didn’t seem horribly expensive, but my brother (a mechanic by nature) insisted I take it to a shop to make sure it was diagnosed correctly. I scheduled to have my car looked at the next day with a friend’s mechanic.
I woke up the next day feeling doom and gloom. There had been a huge storm the night before but thank God no damages. Anyway, I walked through my house covering it in prayer and casting out evil in Jesus’s name. A lot of times at night I will just pray that God doesn’t allow any evil in my house, my car, my business, my relationships, my family, etc., but I don’t ever feel like I need to walk through the house praying. But I did. That was early, like as soon as I woke up.
Shortly after I began having pains very reminiscent of the pain I felt years ago when I had a kidney stone. I wasn’t worried about money with that one since I have Medicaid, but I mean…come on… who has time for that kind of pain and time away from what they’re trying to do? It was non stop. I then decided to send out a pray request. I sent it out to the 40ish people in an online prayer group I run. I sent the request to my daughter, 2 individual friends, a group of 3 friends, and my ladies Bible study group. Oh, plus a random prayer group that one of my friends told me about.
The pain IMMEDIATELY WENT AWAY. IMMEDIATELY! And it’s still gone! When I got to my car appointment, I told my prayer warriors how the pain had immediately stopped and asked them if they would pray over my tooth as well (I was really trying to take care of it myself with oregano and clove oils, until it just fell out on it’s own – I’ve done that once before and had no pain for almost 2 years before it just fell out one day), and pray that the car issue was a big nothing burger.
I’m sure you can guess since this is a testimony where the rest of this is going. As it turned out with my car, the last time I had my oil changed there was something they forgot to tighten. The mechanic tightened that up, and also checked my brakes that I said needed looked at and found something rubbing against something (he showed me, but I don’t have the technical terms) and how he fixed it. He didn’t charge me anything! (I did give him a few bucks for his trouble, though)!!!
The tooth situation was still weighing on me, but I realized I could go entire days and only take ibuprofen once. I was a little paranoid to cancel the appointment, but the oral surgeon’s office called as I was driving home from the mechanic shop and I took it as a sign to go ahead and cancel my appointment that was for the next day. I’m having less and less pain and now I’ve found if I just wait it out a couple minutes it usually goes away but even that only happens maybe once a day.
Can I tell you, how absolutely overwhelmed with awe I was at how God just took care of all my problems just like that!! It left me in tears. I’ve always felt blessed by God, even when it seems I have nothing, because he always works things out. But I think he needed to remind me because I was starting to get a little concerned.
Now, that doesn’t mean that I won’t ever start to think my life is over if something goes wrong. I already, just two days later, started to freak out when my computer wasn’t registering to connect to the internet. I’ve been having some laptop issues so it wouldn’t surprise me if it took a dump on me, but I’m not in the position to buy a new one. Well, today, instead of dwelling much on “what if,” I just remembered everything God did for me in ONE day and that if something happened to my computer, the thing I use to find work, the thing I use to design for my business, the thing I use to communicate with most of my friends – God will make it right. He will take care of me. One way or the other. He always does. And guess what. I’m on my laptop right now, online, posting this.
God is so good!
The Armentrout Shout-Out 