Laine's Letters

**guest2** · 12-05-2003, 02:25 PM

Hi All,
I subscribe to Laine's Letters and have for years. You can sign up to received her letters yourself, get great recipes at her site and learn so much! She is a wonderful, godly woman who has a heart to help others get out of debt. I have emailed her several times to share with her how much her letters have touched me and she graciously has taken the time to email me back.

Here is her latest letter! Enjoy!!!!

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Dear Sisters,
Hi! I have been so wanting to write to you all, and I have a letter
started, but with the busyness of Thanksgiving, I couldn't sit down and
finish it. I hope you are all doing well. We are fine here at our home.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with seventeen people around our two
tables. I recently made a nourishing turkey soup with the leftover bones
and meat, as well as a creamy, cheese potato soup with the leftover
mashed potatoes. (Both recipes are on our website.) My mom wanted a ham
with our Thanksgiving dinner, so I made a ham and bean soup, too, with
the leftover ham bone. I tell you, I get as excited about cooking with
the leftovers as I do the main meal that they come from! And with a good
homemade bread, soup is just so satisfying, so healthy, and so frugal in
the winter months. ~Smile~ There is much treasure to be found in a
kitchen full of homecooked love, isn't there? It's my gift to my family.
And it's my gift to you all, too, as I share my favorite recipes with you
on our website.

A couple of years ago I shared the recipes from our Thanksgiving feast
with you. I looked at those recipes this year and realized that I pretty
much cooked the same recipes this year. Thanksgiving traditions are so
special. I feel blessed to bring some of my grandmother's, my mother's,
and my friends' traditions to my table, as well as my own. I use my
grandmother's cracker stuffing every year. We just love it. I had a
friend's father at our table last year, and she just called me and said
her father wants my grandmother's recipe for stuffing. He just loved it.
Recipes are such treasures! And they're all on the website for you.

When the fires hit our area recently, my Bible, our photos, precious
letters, and my recipes were on the top of my list to take. It's been
wonderful making this special recipe book for my son, Quincy, as he
requested because I can grab one book with all my recipes in it. It's
taking me a year to write this recipe book for him for I soon realized
that I cook certain recipes at different seasons of the year. So I've
been adding to it time and time again. I just added some Thanksgiving
recipes this week.

We paid off our house! Yes! We are debt free in 2003! God is so very
good. It has been a lot of prayer and practice. Or as I like to say,
"Pray and pay." I am working on a letter to share with you all how the
LORD helped us to pay off this house on an annual "take home" income of
$29,000 or less for the past nineteen years with six people living in our
house and a whole lot of guests. (My husband said I could share his
income amount with you in hopes of helping others who are struggling
financially. I am a full time homemaker and have been so for the past
twenty-one years.) I so often say, "It's not the amount that comes in
that counts, it's how it goes out which greatly matters."

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you
have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake
you." Hebrews 13:5

"Honor the LORD with your possesions, and with the firstfruits of all
your increase. Then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats
will overflow with new wine." Proverbs 3:9-10

"Endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as sons." Hebrews
12:1

"God disciplines us for our own good, that we may share in His Holiness.
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however,
it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been
trained by it." Hebrews 12:10-11

Art has been with the same company for nineteen years. He is a wonderful
welder and could make a much larger income, but he feels the LORD has him
at this company. It is his mission field. He has no sick pay, nor
vacation pay, and never has at this company for the past nineteen years
he's worked for them. He does have medical insurance, but no dental or
eye care. So I have done my best to stretch what he brings in. It's a
learning process that has been going on for years and years. I pray that
I can share what God has taught me thus far, and this is the letter I am
working on just now. It hasn't been easy to get debt free in Southern
California, but, oh, so profitable. I just love seeing the load lifted
off my husband's shoulders. It's the best gift anyone could have given to
me. Art is just so pleased! So pleased! He goes around singing that the
shackles are off him. ~Smile~ I'd work twice as hard, if I had to do it
all over again, to see him so refreshed and relieved. It's just blessing
my socks off to see my husband so renewed.

Are we on easy street now with no debt? Well, not exactly. We are
presently putting our two sons through college debt free. Again, it's not
easy. But so profitable. We're still tight, and I'm still stretching
Art's income. This week I had $60 to spend on groceries, and I prayed as
I shopped at the stores. I made it! I spent $60.75 all total and came
home with 40 items which will make my cooking so pleasant this next week.
I love shopping with the LORD. He give you eyes to see the good deals and
can stretch a small amount of money like no other. He makes all the
little things of my life so joyful. And then I get so share with others
who are struggling in the same struggles He's helped me through. I
wouldn't have anything to share had He not walked me through. It's just
so good to know Him and to love Him, yes!

I also know our kids are learning so much through all of this, which
will help them when they have their own families some day. My older boys
are both hard workers, each carrying a job as well as going to school.
Quincy has paid for his college up to this point, but he would like to
attend Bible college full time next semester, and this is where we come
in to help him. My boys are both debt free so far with their cars paid
for. They also pay for their own car insurance, gas, registration,
clothes, and anything else they might need. It's not been easy for them,
but I can see the profit already as they mature into fine young men. As
much as we have tried to ground them in the Word of God growing up, we
have also tried to ground them in being wise with their money. They both
tithe and give regularly, save, and try to spend wisely. Which is
basically what I will be sharing with you all in my next letter. It's
what I've taught my own children for years, and what we've practiced in
our own home.

"Two things have I required of Thee; deny me them not before I die.
Remove far from me vanity and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches,
feed me with the food convenient for me. Lest I be full, and deny Thee,
and say, 'Who is the LORD?' or lest I be poor, and steal, and take The
Name of my God in vain." Proverbs 30:8-9

"There is that which scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that
which witholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The
liberal soul shall be made fat; and he that watereth shall be watered
also himself." Proverbs 12:24-25

"Owe no man anything, but the continuing debt to love one another, for he
who loves another has fulfilled the law." Romans 13:8

"She does him good all the days of her life. He has no need of spoil."
Proverbs 31:11-12

He has no need of spoil because she spoils him! I am doing my best to
help my husband be all that God has called him to be. He is the head, and
I am the helper. What a team God has ordained in marriage. I used to
complain, grumble, and walk through my days with a critical eye - which
affected everyone in this house. But by the grace of God, He got me into
His Precious Word every day for the past eleven years, and Jesus has
changed everything in my life! Our marriage, my motherhood, the use of my
time and talents, and, yes, even our finances. I never thought it could
be possible. Art told me this morning that when I started walking in
God's Word to build up our marriage, he found living with me heaven on
earth. What a blessing! He couldn't have paid me a nicer compliment.
Because I've definitely been on the other side of the coin.

I used to think we needed more money and more time (which caused no small
amount of anxiety, fear, panic, and nagging in me) until I began to
understand and practice the use of money and time through God's
perspective. A perspective that I need to be reminded of daily, for His
"sweetness of lips definitely increases my learning." Jesus loves to
multiply the loaves and fishes, yes! And He loves to teach us so much
through tight times. I have been His avid student and continue to be so.
I keep praying for Him to "train up this child in the way she should go"
and " to turn the ashes into His beauty." For I have so much to learn
after wasting so much time earlier in my marriage, and I have still so
much to put into practice. Yet all things are possible with God. I can
see that in the miracle of paying off all our debts on a smaller salary
than most in an expensive area of the country. God is so good!

Well, I better get back to work. One more week of school and then it's
Christmas soon. I usually have my Christmas cards written by now and most
of my shopping done, but I haven't this year. Instead I tried my best to
help my husband pay off our house. It meant a lot of staying home to work
here and staying out of the stores to avoid spending. I'll look at Art's
beaming face this Christmas and that will be my reward. He wanted to pay
it off by his 46th birthday, and praise God, we did it. I can't stop
thanking the LORD and kissing my husband. I understand Proverbs 31 so
much better now: the more you want to bring your husband honor and help,
the more you learn to do and save. I pray to have it down by the time I
am a grandmother. It makes for a very good and profitable busy.

Have a wonderful day, Sisters.

Love,
Laine

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Laine's email address: <mailto:laine.a@lainesletters.com>
Laine's official website: <http://lainesletters.com>
To subscribe: <Laines_Letters-subscribe@welovegod.org>
To unsubscribe: <Laines_Letters-unsubscribe@welovegod.org>
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**Lori Biever-Launder** · 12-05-2003, 02:39 PM

I bookmarked it check out later. Thanks!

**Guest1** · 12-05-2003, 02:42 PM

Mine just showed up in my box too! Seems like when I'm just about to forget about her (as if

) I get an letter.....

Thanks for sharing with everyone Debbie!

**MJsLady** · 12-05-2003, 03:24 PM

what a neat letter! I subscribed after reading. It is so cool listening to her, I can almost see what she is writing about, thank you so much for sharing!

**Heather** · 12-05-2003, 03:59 PM

Oh Debbie, what a great site!! I just signed up for her newsletter and am looking forward to spending some time going over the articles, recipes etc.!!

Thanks so much!!

**MJsLady** · 12-05-2003, 05:10 PM

I spent so much time reading her archived letters now I have an eye ache (headache behind my eye) so I am taking the rest of the day off line! It is unusual for me to get that cuaght up!
The last tiem was reading Elinore Pruitt's letters! I need to refind that site, it is definitely a read again one!

**AmyMCGS** · 12-06-2003, 11:23 AM

What a nice letter. I'm going to check out her site. Thanks!

**Katybird** · 12-06-2003, 11:39 AM

What a neat lady! Thanks for sharing her site with us. I am going to sign up too.

**Mom23boys** · 12-06-2003, 05:18 PM

Thanks for sharing Debbie. After reading that, I subscribed to her email and bookmarked the site. It sounds wonderful.

**guest2** · 12-06-2003, 05:34 PM

You all are very welcome!!!

She is one of my favorites! And her recipes are all really good!!!!

**doodlebug** · 12-07-2003, 07:44 PM

Thanks, Debbie! What a wonderful lady! I'm looking forward to sitting and spending some time reading through her letters and I signed up to receive them too!