A couple of months ago, we had a little budget crisis of our own.
So, we sat down and hashed out a very tight budget in order to pay off some debt. We read some Dave Ramsey stuff and we were both excited at the possibility of paying off this debt, we were on the same page, committed, ready to do what it takes to be good stewards of what God has given us. Well, October came and we tracked all of our spending, trying to stay under budget or at least not go over, and well, we did very well in some areas, but very bad in others. It was only month one and I was starting to get discouraged. We had that flat tire I told you about and all of Dylan's extra soccer games that were hours away made us go way over on gas and 'entertainment.' {Grrr...what were we supposed to do, not go to his games? Umm, no, we decided that 20 years from now it will not be important to him that we stayed home and saved $200, but he will remember that we were there for him and celebrating in his excitement.} But anyhow, I digress...
We had the flat tire, and we were in desperate need of 4 new tires, the flat sped up that process. We were hoping to wait a couple months until we had our emergency fund built up...but no. So, I started out this month thinking we were going to be in the hole already, but I decided to pray that God would somehow provide for the tires. We picked up our vehicle from the shop after they had closed on Thursday, I had no idea how we were going to pay for it, but kept telling the Lord about it. Today, Ryan and I walked out to the mail box. He started going through the mail and said "Lutheran Social Services? Looks like a check." I said, "It's probably a bill." mind you, we've never worked with LSS.
{they are an adoption agency} Then I thought "maybe it's one of those things like, if you adopt through them they will pay your registration fee or something like that..." I was about to tell him to rip it up, no need for more adopting just yet... lol! But then he said it was a $1,000.00 check written out to us and it dawned on me, our agency had just merged with them and this was the refund for completing all of our post placement reports!!!!
"TIRE MONEY!!" I said! I told Ryan that I had been praying for money to cover the tires and here it is!!! So excited to see God provide. Later we went to church for a prayer service and Ryan happened to talk to the guy from the shop and asked him if he had our bill ready...to which he replied, "what bill? It's been covered, so don't worry about it."...OH. MY. WORD. I was seriously jumping up and down, it was so exciting to share this with the kids, I love when they get to see how amazing our God is. Jehovah Jireh!! The Lord will provide. We are studying about Abraham and his descendants right now in school and tonight we sang "Give us Clean Hands" I got the goosebumps and all choked up when I thought about the fact that my God is the same God of Jacob and Isaac and Abraham and how he provided for them way back when and he is still in the business of providing for us today! Amazing.
Here are some of the lyrics of that song, it is a good reminder to seek HIM as we head into election day....
"Give us Clean Hands"
We bow our hearts
We bend our knees
Oh Spirit come make us humble
We turn our eyes
From evil things
Oh Lord we cast down our idols
So give us clean hands
and give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Oh give us clean hands
and give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Oh God let this be
a generation that seeks
Who seeks Your face, Oh God of Jacob
Oh God let us be
a generation that seeks
Who seeks Your face, Oh God of Jacob
