Trust in the Lord with all thine heart...

...and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

All of us must remember this scripture and apply it in our lives. It's a perfect illustration of the fact that we need His guidance over absolutely everything we do. It's hard, sure, but sometimes we are given a swift reminder that we need His help. This can come gently or it can come like a hard blow to the head, like it was for us yesterday. We're still recovering from the shock...

After just five short months, Cody was laid off yesterday. The company is currently "evaluating its changing needs" and his job "has been affected by this reduction in force." The termination is effective immediately, though they are paying him through the end of the week (how kind of them!). Nor was he the only one--we know a few others that were also laid off, including two entire departments. Guess the company wasn't doing so well.

We're not sure what this means for our family. In a way, we feel strangely blessed, because at least we know that I have a stable job (which wasn't the case even just six weeks ago), and plus we're using the healthcare benefits from my job, not Cody's, so our insurance coverage won't change. But this is quite a loss of income, needless to say, and things are going to be tight for us once again. At least we've done it before, so we should be okay. It's just going to be an adjustment...I'll be honest and say I really enjoyed living somewhat comfortably and even putting some money away. We'll need to use that little cushion now.

Joshua is now home with daddy again, at least for the time being, and I just know he's going to really start missing all his daycare friends and the fun activities he did there. And I feel badly that this will affect Maren's income as well, but like she said yesterday when we told her, "It is what it is." Hopefully another job will come along, if only something part-time, that will enable Joshua to return. He's had a great time there and I hate to see it end.

So for now, we're praying to know the Lord's will in all of this. Should Cody plunge headfirst into more schooling to get his bachelor's? That seems like a good idea. Or should he try to find another FT job in a field already over-saturated with fresh college graduates? Or should he try to just find whatever kind of job he can? His income will be sorely missed, so that last one is tempting. This is where prayer comes in, I suppose.

In the meantime, we just need to remember to trust in the Lord with all our hearts. He will direct our paths. I just hope we can see that clearly and recognize His direction when it comes.