Thursday, June 15, 2006

Lessons

Julia at Scribblings has been posting lessons learned in the hotel room with kids. I have had different experiences lately that have taught me several lessons.

#1 Every thing we have comes from God

      We never have had a lot of money. We have always wanted to earn just a little more so it wouldn't be so tight. But somehow our spending grew just as fast/slowly as our income, so it always seemed tight. When, we'd get into a budgetarty crunch before, I'd always be able to work out a fix somehow. And we'd slim up a little until the crisis had past and we'd again be in the same tight situation again. Enough but not enough you know. Even when my husband had the wreck and was without a job for 3 months we made it through. Mostly we were relying on that next paycheck. I always knew what it would be or close to it and could work around it. That was what I was trusting in. I knew God would take care of us, but I was relying on that pay check.

      Now, however, it is a differnt story. I am not working full time Yes I dabble in Pampered Chef, but that hasn't been all that great for me. And at the moment I am not working part-time either. My husband's work now fluxuates from day to day, some days being good and some days not even breaking even. We still have bills to pay and it has only been through the Grace of God that we haven't fallen further behind than we are. He has truly been amazing. He has provided for us in ways that I didn't even dare to dream of. Steven has had to make some choices in the way he runs his day to day affairs and I can say that consistantly when he has sought after God and His direction, God has been faithful to reward that. One example, in the past we have always tithed on the amount we took home, the net amount. Even starting this current venture we did the same thing. However, in the last 4 weeks, he has been taking out a tithe each time he recieves money. It automatically goes into the front pocket of his Bible case, which he takes with him everywhere. There have been weeks that the envelope that has gone into the plate has contained as much money as what went into the bank that week (most of his other expenses come out before he gives me any money and I usually keep a small amount of cash for incidentals the rest goes into the bank for bills). But I can say we have fared better than before. Not only in moeny we have brougt in, but in other ways as well, in making ends meet. God is honoring this faithfulness according to His Word Malachi 3:8-12

      We are by no means out of the woods right now. But we are depending on God and not that next pay check. And we are so much more thankful for each and every gift we recieve, because they are ALL FROM GOD, each and every one, including the daily income that hubby brings into this house.

3 comments:

boomama said...

Awesome, awesome perspective - inspiring, really.

Anonymous said...

Maria, what a great testimony you will have to pass on once you get through this trial. Keep pressing on. It seems as God is blessing you.

Anonymous said...

Oh, man...this is so right there with me...I just sent you an email about waiting for the next paycheck before I read your blog!