God's Magical Hand

Pastor Scott started out the year with an 8 week series on money management.  Phil and I do pretty good in that area after taking Dave Ramesey's Financial Peace class before Lizzi came along.  When Scott described that tithe meant 10% and if you weren't giving ten percent then you weren't tithing, I wondered if we were gifting or actually tithing.  Pastor Scott challenged us to try it for 90 days and if God didn't come through and provide for our needs then we could go back to doing what we were already doing.  When Phil and I had our budget meeting we found out that we were a bit shy of a full ten percent gift.  With a bit of trepidation we cut some areas, but decided to trust God's promise that He would open the floodgates of heaven.

Then I looked in the pantry saw that all my extras had been depleted and cried out to God.  I just didn't know how I was going to feed our family for the month especially with Phil and Abi home for extra meals and spring break happening too.  I told Him that I was clinging to His Word and would He please provide.

The month wore on without anymore thoughts about tithing and provision.  One night about a week ahead of time I felt inspired to write the next months menu out.  I discovered it'd be a five week month instead of four week because of how payday landed.  This made me groan, I really don't like five week months, they seem to go on forever and I feel pretty stretched out by the end of it.  Checking the sale ads later wasn't very encouraging either, as there wasn't anything that I buy on sale.  Then I realized that our shopping weekend Phil was scheduled to be gone I was crestfallen.  I was going to have to get a month's worth of food on my own, not a pretty thought.

Suddenly it was the end of the month, but I was astonished that the calendar said it was, because my cupboards weren't reflecting the same timeframe.  Miraculously we still had food, even fresh fruit!  In fact, we had so much food left that we were able to eat for another week on it, which changed my next month from five weeks down to four.  I couldn't believe it, we had eaten our fruits and vegetables with every meal like normal, and the cherry on top was remembering that Phil and Abi had been home to share all the meals with us for a whole week too.

I felt like the widow in the Bible that Elisha told to gather as many jars as she could.  With her last small jar of oil she was able to fill every jar that she had.  I feel so blessed that not only did God stretch our food for the month, but He even provided for my anxiety over the next one too.  We never felt deprived, never felt that 'end of the month' woe, it was amazing!  If I may add even more, when we did go shopping (yep, new weekend so Phil was home!) there were so many things on my list on sale I couldn't believe it!  With our purchase we were also able to save 21 cents per gallon of gas.  I am blown away by how much God has done for me and in turn our family in the first thirty days alone of the challenge.  I know that as we continue to trust Him with our full ten percent he will further provide, wow, and woo me more and more.  I have a sneaking suspicion that we will never miss those funds as we rely fully on God to provide for us.