Give thanks to the Lord for HE IS GOOD! Psalms 118:1
So today was pay the bills day. You know that day of the week where I sit down and pay Peter and Paul for services rendered this month. God has blessed my family so much. Matt has a steady and secure job that pays him well for both what he does and what he knows how to do. We have made the choice to have me stay at home and available to meet the needs of the family whenever they arrive. Yep...I am a domestic diva. One of the things that I do is pay the bills. It is my tradition to always enter the deposit first (yes I do still have a check log even though I do most of my banking online) and then write out the tithe check. It's important for me to physically write out that check first - it's an act of obedience and it makes it a "joyful" and a "faith filled" moment. For me, if I write out the bills first there is just too much temptation to not be obedient in our giving. And God has given us sooo much, I want to give back to him our first fruits as a praise offering. I want this part of my life to start with "Thank you God for all you have provided."
So again, today was pay the bills day. Got out my bill organization box with all of this months stuff, balanced the paper log with the on line record, wrote out a few checks old school, paid a few things that aren't auto drafted and then when I was just about done I remembered to go check the snail mail. Sure enough there was some stuff in the box, so as I chatted with a friend on the phone I opened it up piece by piece. There were a couple of "come spend money at our store coupons", a "buy junk from our catalogue" catalogue, a letter from a ministry that we had recently sponsored financially and something I didn't recognize. In fact, I thought it was junk mail - I almost ripped it in half and just threw it away. Instead, I opened it up and a check fell to the table. I'd heard of this before -people just getting checks in the mail - not people I know - but you know - face book friends of friends...that sort of thing.
God is good. We'd been talking all morning about when I would pay the bills. We'd been talking about the actions of faith my family is taking with our finances. We'd been talking about kids that need shoes, cars that need work, and being obedient when God tells you to do something. It was good time invested with Him. He gave me peace; he settled my mind; I was able to true experience the blessing of joyful giving. That check was in the mail days ago, but it arrived JUST IN TIME! Here's the coolest part - and it is fair for me to mention that it doesn't always happen this way - I was obedient and then in a matter of moments God showered me with additional blessing!
BUT, I almost missed it!!! Remember, I almost didn't even open that mail - had my hands ready to rip the envelope in half and toss it in the trash! Wake up call!!! How many time have I missed God's extra shower of blessings because I didn't see the value of what I had just received? How many times have I been in a rush to leave church and missed the kind words a friend had to say that had been inspired by God as a gift just for me? How many times have I missed life moments with my husband and kids because I was tired, or busy or distracted? How many times have a squirreled away at home and missed laughter and fellowship and love with my brothers and sisters in Christ? Blessings come in all shapes and sizes. Blessings come when we don't expect them. God's blessings are gonna come - Lord help me not to miss your blessings today.
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