More gratitude and blessings

Let me share with you the blessings Kent and I have recieved from tithing this month. Pay day was last Tuesday on the 5th of February. The pay check before that was tight and we didn't have enough to make Kent's truck payment that was due on the 26th. Luckily it has a 10 day grace period. We decided that the fifth's paycheck would have to cover rent and the truck payment. As soon as Kent got paid I wrote out the checks and took them to where they were due. Of course when I figured out what our bank total was we didn't have any money left for tithing, groceries, my license renewal, other bills, or valentine's day presents or my birthday presents. After getting so little for Christmas I was feeling very deprived and unloved thinking I would again get little or nothing for Valentine's day and my birthday. My faith was definately being tested.

On top of all that I realized that my savings account would be pulling $25 dollars out of my checking that day and I didn't have $25 dollars anywhere to pull from. That I assumed would cause not only a negative in my checking, but also a bank charge that I couldn't afford and also in these two weeks I would have to pay to renew my license.

Here's the amazing part. On Sunday the 3rd there was a huge snow storm and Kent's mom wasn't able to come up and tend her gandkids for Kent's brother. That meant he needed a babysitter on Monday and since we had been down for the superbowl he asked me if I could do it. I watched his kids and not expecting to be paid he gave me enough to cover two weeks of groceries. I deposited the money into the account and nothing had been moved to savings so I closed that savings account in order to keep this concern from coming up again.

Later that week Kent called a guy he hauls barrels for and was able to haul some. I was paid from Eddie Bauer despite thinking I hadn't worked enough to earn a cent and I got birthday money from Kent's mom. I had enough to cover my license renewal as well as part of tithing. So with Kent's barrel money and my birthday money Kent and I will be able to keep our blessings of tithing and still have a little left over for Valentine's day and my birthday.

Another blessing of being poor is that as I was contemplating being prepared for a disaster I realized that we are so broke that if something were to happen and we needed to get out of town in an emergency we wouldn't be able to. We would be stuck. So as I was depositing money from Kent's brother they asked me about opening up a credit card. At first I said I was not interested as I usually do because I am not in the habit of using credit cards. I don't like getting in debt and I feel that anything I want can be saved up for or I can due without. When I was completing the deposit with the banker he asked me if I was sure about the credit card and I remembered my thoughts about being stranded in an emergency and how I had thought maybe an emergency credit card would be a good idea. I went ahead and got the card and received it in time to get Kent's cell phone reconnected instead of using the money he had made hauling barrels.

In addition to all those blessings we have even more. Our computer has been freezing up for a while now and we thought it was a virus. I told you about the external hard drive we were able to purchase through my brother and store all our files. Well my brother came over and erased everything off the computer to delete the virus and the computer still froze. Come to find out there is another part that was over heating and that is what was causing the freezing. So now our computer is toast. Amazingly my brother was able to replace our computer free of cost with a computer from his work that wasn't being used. We were able to get this computer up and running and even got the internet up and running too. So as you can see blessings do come readily from heaven. While I would never wish these trials we have gone through on anyone I am grateful for them because they have enabled us to see how the Lord does love us and take care of us. We have been exceedingly blessed and I pray that we may always see the hand of the Lord in our lives.