Friday, April 5, 2013

Recognizing Blessings

An unexpected blessing happened to us today and I wanted to share it.  Backing up a couple of years:  we have struggled with budgeting our money for years.  It was tough to live on what we made and it was easy to use credit cards.  Over the years we have started and stopped with spending our money wisely...budgeting, budgeting, budgeting.  Giving up when it became too hard or a crisis happened and we went into debt further.  We always paid our bills on time, and never missed payments...we just couldn't seem to put anything into savings.  About two years ago we decided to try again.  Only this time I decided to take the advice of church leaders to pray and study the scriptures for a solution to this problem.  Oh, I had prayed before, but didn't add the scripture part into it til now, AND I really wasn't ready to sacrifice my own "wants".  It made all the difference.  When we were faced with a rather large (thousands) tax bill, at first I was totally crushed, not sure what to do next.  I slept on it, and the next day after prayer and some scripture study,  I was determined we were going to pay this bill with as little help as possible.  We saved every penny we could, we scrimped, we cut back on buying anything that seemed "extra".  We had a little help (thank you!) but we covered most of the bill ourselves.  YEAH!  That success was humbling and made me realize that with the Lord's help we can do anything - even things that seem insurmountable.

Fast forward to today.  It is interesting how things work out.  We are in the position of needing a more dependable vehicle.  A wonderful deal was dropped in our laps and we couldn't say no - so we said yes!  We had to come up with $182 to pay insurance on the new vehicle until our policy renews in July.  I didn't have it.  Still determined to pay cash I decided it would work out.  Sunday Dan was presented with the opportunity to help a woman in our church put risers on her septic tank ports.  In doing a little research on where to buy the risers on the internet I ran into "Septic Riser rebate program".  Turns if you live in a certain area in our county and you've had risers installed (or you install them) anytime after July 2006 you qualify for up to $100 rebate.  We had risers installed in October 2006.  We qualify.  So that bill of $182 has now shrunk to $82...a sum I know I can come up with before the bill is due.

Coincidence? I think not.  By being willing to help someone that needed it, we were blessed - not only with good feelings for helping a friend, but by given the means to pay a bill.  The Lord is good indeed.

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