God's Faithfulness & Unexpected Expenses

I want to share with all you in "blogland" how God has been so faithful to our family in 2008!

Earlier this year I read a book by Randy Alcorn, called the Treasure Principle. Our church gave this book out free to anyone who desired to read it. As I was typing this I was just reminded that the fact that I got a copy at all is also proof of God's faithfulness. The 1st Sunday they were given out I was reaching out to take the last available copy and someone snatched it right out from under me (yes, in church!). The next weekend they gave more out but I was serving in the preschool "Worship Care" during the service so I missed my chance again. Well, a few weeks later I went to our ladies leadership team meeting and there on the table was a copy with a sticky note with my name on it! Thanks DeeDee & Bro. Hal!

Anyway, I got a little sidetracked there. If you read my blog regularly you realize we have had a lot of sickness in our family this year, and along with sickness comes doctor visits and trips to the pharmacy. We are a single income family and we do live on a budget, but sometimes you just can't budget for everything. In January and February we spent an extra $600.00 on doctor visits and medicine (and we do have very good insurance). Also in January and February we had the "expected" big expenses of my life insurance, my professional dues (for speech-language pathology), homeowners dues, and James' car insurance! Talk about money stresses, we definitely had them!! And to top it off, a couple of weekends ago when the boys had the stomach virus and we really needed our washer and dryer to work, our dryer broke! James is really good at fixing things but he was unable to fix it this time (he did 2 years ago.) So we have parted with our washer and dryer of 12 years and now have new ones which were delivered today!! (We decided to go ahead and get a new washer too, since it was 12 years old and was probably going to break sometime soon anyway; but maybe we can sell it for a little bit of money).

Back to The Treasure Principle for a minute. After reading it I decided that we should tithe after each of James' paychecks rather than just tithing once a month like we normally did. Normally we would wait until he got his bonus check, since it is different every month, and then just tithe one check, since we knew what the other 2 checks would be. We have always tithed, but now we are doing it after each payday rather than just once a month. And I was also convicted of spending money on "extra" things that we or I really don't need, but would just like to have. So I am making a conscious effort to spend our money (James makes it and I spend it!!) more wisely and in a way that is honoring to the Lord. So all this to say that I think Satan has tried to attack our finances majorly since we are really making a conscious effort to use our money as the Lord would have us to.

However, God is so very faithful!!!! He has provided us with the means to pay for everything! He has provided for our every need, and even some extra for us to give to some friends who are going on a missions trip! We have even been able to pay the "extra" we like to pay on our mortgage every month, and have put some into savings. Now isn't that a great and awesome God! God knows our needs and will provide for them, all we have to do is to keep seeking Him with all our heart, soul, and mind.

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you."
Matthew 6:33