Great devotional. I own a magazine, and have really relied on God to send me the right people. My two salesmen are both solid Christians, and after they started working for me, I also hired their wives to do layout. Because we all have a biblical world view, I don't have to worry about them calling on businesses that would go against my faith if they advertised. Also, when articles are submitted for the magazine, the women who do the layout are able to spot things in the article that would not reflect the type of image and the message that we want to convey. It is a "secular" magazine, but I feel like God has given this business to me and blessed it in order to plant seeds for the Kingdom. God also probably is blessing the magazine because as Christians, we all tithe and therefore more money goes back into the Kingdom.

When it was time to hire my second salesman, I prayed very hard that God would show me who he wanted to fill the position. I felt that I was instructed for someone to refer to their faith in their application. I received many applications that would have been considered top candidates, including the former County Commission Chairman, but felt like I still had not received the right one. Then, after about a week of this, I got an email (all of the applications were coming by email. Before I even opened the email, I had a very strong sense that this was the person I was supposed to hire. It was from a 22 year old young man, who had never done sales before, but he did mention that he really wanted to work for a company that incorporated their faith into the business. He and his wife had met at Bible college, and he was working two jobs, including one working with young people with emotional issues as a counselor.

Since our position was a straight commission I asked him if he would also bring his wife to the interview, so that if he took the job she would be in support of him.

At this point in the growth of the business, I really needed another person to do layout, and the ideal candidate would also be able to write. Interestingly enough, during the interview, his wife made several comments such as "when I was young, if we used improper grammar at the dinner table my parents would correct us right away", and when my husband and I were in creative writing class together, it would take him 5 hours to write a paper and I would be done in about an hour".

I ended up hiring him for sales and his wife for layout and writing. She had no real layout experience, other than some work on the school newspaper in high school.

Within a month, she taught herself how to use Photoshop and Indesign, and then taught my other layout person how to use it, and this totally upgraded our magazine. She also learned how to do a website, and we now have an amazing website.

In addition to the benefits for my company, this couple has more than doubled their income in the last couple of years. They have been able to buy a house in a nice subdivision. They just had a baby and she is able to continue working because she is able to work from home.

Magazine guy: you should interview Grant. He is your kind of people and I seem to remember he had lost his job due in banking due to the economy.

Tim, thank you for your comment. This is a wonderful testimony to God's faithfulness.

Thank you, Tim, for sharing your story of God's provision. He is so good and He does bless those who look to Him and trust Him for provision.

Erik, it was good to see your thoughtful comment.