God trickles through... again!

Someone in our church emailed this to me this week. I've edited some of the details in order to honor their request for anonymity. It's a great story about someone taking the challenge to get in the boat when it came to their finances. I love it because they didn't get a whole boat load of "fish" at the end. They got enough to take care of things for this pay period. But I'm giving away too much.

I just wanted to share something kind of cool that happened recently. When we met four months ago or so to discuss the church’s finances and tithing, you had us fill out a little questionnaire to make us really look at where we were in our giving. At the time, I thought, “well yeah, I give ten percent of my earnings, and I even try to give extra for special ministries that come up if I can.” That evening you issued us a challenge to honestly try to tithe that ten percent for at least three months and see where it took us. Normally I would write checks based off what my estimate of what our monthly income was and, if it was very tight, I would only tithe off of my income and not include my husband's. I always felt weird about doing that because our finances are mixed together and when we truly do live by the concept of “what’s mine is yours” I felt that it was wrong to separate them (in my mind) in order to tithe. So I took you up on your challenge and I really had to re-evaluate how honest I was in my initial response. Every paycheck I have made it a point to make sure I was really giving a full tenth from our combined income. I’m not about to tell you that we won the lottery or money fell out of the sky. But I do want to just point out one of the small ways that God shows me that He is always taking care of us and that He is faithful to His children.

Since I’ve left my part-time job to be home with the kids and pursue a home business, finances have been (to put it lightly) tight. Yesterday afternoon, after receiving my husband's check, I pulled out the portion to set aside for tithing, $110. I finished paying the bills and, as often is the case, that left us with a zero balance. I was thinking, “Okay Lord, you know we need groceries...but I trust you...” It is always so tempting to think of how else that ten percent can be spent! Later that evening, I got a call from someone who needed my services from my home business. I told her what the fee was and she said, “Okay, so that would make my total $110. Do you take checks?” I was so humbled by my frustration earlier that day. I stopped at the grocery store on my way home from her house.

I know this isn’t a big story with a grand ending but it was enough to remind me who’s in charge. It’s also another lesson to me about waiting for God’s timing and not my own. So often I wonder why I struggle financially when I feel like I’m doing “the right” things. But I really feel like God just shows me that the more I submit to Him and the more I humble myself, the more He will trickle out the blessings. And so, I will continue to take your challenge and wait for the next “trickle”.