In 1993 the information industry in the United States took a plunge. In the part of the country where I live, companies started to lay off employees because of a drop in orders and clients. I was laid off by the computer company where I had been working for ten years. Like thousands of other people, I found myself jobless.

My first reaction? I went to the public library to research the names of information companies in the region and then sent my résumé to about 100 of them. After two months with no success, I started to rethink my situation. I knew that the steps I had taken were good, but they had resulted in nothing. So I had to approach the job search in a different way.

This time, I sat in my home office, and I prayed. I asked God to guide me, to show me what I should do. I prayed to feel His presence and support. I found a lot of inspiration from reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I began to realize there were a lot of things I already had, and I was really grateful for them. Then I made a list of all the times I could remember that I’d been able to find solutions through prayer: I had been healed of illnesses, I had resolved relationship problems—well, it was a long list.

I stopped mailing out résumés, but I continued to look for work through various databases. The media did not carry very encouraging news, especially for people my age who, according to them, were feeling most acutely the downturn in the economy.

Then one day I saw an ad for a job that wasn’t what I wanted to do, but for which I had all the qualifications. I faxed in my résumé, and two days later was called in for an interview with this company. This was in March of 1994.

During the interview, I was offered a job that was much more interesting than the one I had applied for—and it was exactly what I wanted to do. The people at the interview never even mentioned the job in the ad. I was very intrigued at the way things were developing. And I happily accepted the position they offered me.

After I had worked at my new job for about a week, the human resources representative spoke to me. “You know, the moment you sent in your fax, I read it, and I knew the person who is now your boss was writing a job description for a job that fit in perfectly with your résumé. So I walked across the hall, with your fax in hand, and told your boss he could stop writing. You were the right person for the job!”

I realized at that moment that this was not a coincidence. It was the result of my trust in God and my prayer for a better grasp of His guidance and of His love for everybody. In addition, I saw that the five months I had been out of work had been a useful time, filled with other kinds of good things—such as having a chance to be a big help to some members of my family. So it was at the best possible moment that I had found work.

I stayed at that job for two years. When I realized I was no longer useful to that company, I resigned on my own, found work immediately, and am still working for the new company.

It’s one more wonderful thing to add to my already long list of reasons that I’m so grateful to God.