A First Taste of God's Provisions by Joni Nichols

I was in college, had about 50 bucks a month that i could blow on ice cream and new clothes, but I had a goal. I was going to make a demo of my music. A type of mentor, Dale Griffin, had told me, first get 500 dollars and then go to someone and make a demo. It took me 4 months to save up 200. Got a huge speeding ticket going back to Texas zooming into Roswell. 180 bucks. I knew I "derserved" it so I set out again. 4 months later had 200. Bounced 4 little checks at the end of the month. $25 dollar bank fee x 4 + 90 worth of checks = savings gone. ( What was I doing/thinking?) I was de-winded, yelling laughing, (remembering my conversation with Anna a few weeks before about God providing for her.) "ok god, if you want me to record, the YOU'RE going to have to provide it because it's taken me 8 months and I've only gotten to 200 TWICE! and this is impossible. So THERE!" It was a challenge, not a child-like expression of faith...or yes, it was child-like, like a child throwing a fit. And I went about my crappy evening. 20 minutes later I got a phone call from a random lady reminding me to come to the Golden Key Honor Society Induction Ceremony (which I joined for Resume purposes by simply filling out a postcard and sending it in at my parents urging) and only decided to go because of the punch, cookies, and coffee. Got there a week later to find no refreshments, a huge seated audience and a 2 hour program, guest speaker and all. Waste of time, and I had no friend to be with. So I made fun of the guest speaker and her LITERAL "The Little Engine that Could" speech with the guy sitting next to me and was dying of restless negative emotions. Time for the scholarship winners. What did I care? There were 2. I was the second one. The award: a check for $500.
I humbly walked back to my spot in the audience, aware of God's provision, my understanding of God changed. It was first awareness of his watchful, daliy concern for me. And though it was a long time before I understood the extent of his grace, I saw for the first time that my sufficiency was not required, and I would not have asked had my sufficiency not run out.