This is a hard post for me to write. Maybe I am prideful. Perhaps it could be I don't want to admit my struggles. Either way I feel a need to share how my personal testimony of faith has grown in the past three months. Perhaps the hardest part about writing this is knowing how much to share. I have always lived my life with an open book kind of policy and my husband has not so out of respect for him I have to be cautious.
In Malachi 3:10 it says, "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and
prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if
I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." There are very few places where the Lord tells us to test him, but this is one of them. My little family has been blessed over the past three months as we have "tested" the Lord by working harder at being more diligent in paying our tithes and offerings.
We, as many others, have struggled in this economy to meet our financial obligations. It is amazing to me that as we have been able to cut some of the debts out and I have been blessed to pick up a job watching kids that we have not seen an increase in our spending money whatsoever. I am baffled that we were able to pay the other bills we were previously paying. Either way we have been greatly blessed to be able to make ends meet as well as we have.
This summer we had a few mistakes that ended up with some excessive overdraft fees at the bank. We worked hard to fix them, but it seemed like no matter how hard we tried we just could not catch up. Just when we'd think clear sailing was around the corner we'd end up with something new that we couldn't figure out how to fit in the budget. The never ending cycle was wearing on our mental health and Kent and I were struggling to be kind to one another. We were both stressed to our limits. Then the first miracle happened.
In September I was stressing about how we were going to get a large bill paid that was coming up in October. I opened up the bill expecting it to show an owing balance and to my surprise it showed a negative in front of the total we owed. Not only did it show a negative it was negative about 2 months worth of payments. I was quite perplexed and then I was worried. What if it says that, but I am misunderstanding what I am reading. I'd better call. So I did and to my delight the woman on the other end said, "yes it is showing that you have a credit of...." She went on to explain that I would not owe a balance until December 1st. I clarified that with her again and was thrilled to finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. I was amazed that my call had not put her on alert. I had figured that someones payment had been credited to my account and they would be quick to search for the error, but she acted as if it was no big deal so I was not going to convince her otherwise.
As December 1st rolled around I was again expecting to get the bill and although we had climbed out of the whole we had got ourselves into I was still not certain how we were going to pay this bill. When the bill arrived I was stunned again. I had expected to see the negative gone and it was, but I had not expected to owe a $0.00 balance. I do not know how it happened; computer error, human error, an unknown donor? I do not know! This is what I do know. It was a miracle from God. God sent us a huge sum of money in a way that made sense to us. God took care of us when we were struggling to care for ourselves.
Again a few weeks ago we were short being able to pay the mortgage on time and I did not want to have to wait until payday and end up with an expensive late fee. We were blessed to find out Cort needs glasses, but we didn't have the money for the glasses as well as the entire sum for the mortgage. Again we were blessed. I had the faith and asked God to help me know how I could pay for the mortgage on time. With 5 separate deposits we were blessed to receive we were able to pay the mortgage on time and even get all the bills paid up to our next pay day. I am so thankful this fall the Lord saw fit to bless my family and to teach me at least 2 very valuable lessons.
#1. When we pay our tithing the Lord really will, "open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." I am amazed at all the little ways the Lord has blessed us as well. People asking if we needed this or that and it being exactly the thing we needed to buy, but weren't finding the money for. He really does take care of those who place their trust in him. Lesson #2. We may think we take care of ourselves and our families, but really it is the Lord who takes care of us when we allow him to. The political catch phrase of the day is, "you didn't build that, the government did." Perhaps there is a half truth in that. We didn't build anything...the Lord did. We only do what the Lord has allowed us to do. We are eternally indebted to him. While we can never truly pay him back I hope that we as a country will at least try. We owe him so much!
