One of the things I have struggled with the most is patience. When I've made up my mind on something, I feel like I need it all to happen and I need it to happen now. This is the reason behind: why I hired a board of directors for my company who DO have patience; why I have had trouble sticking with a weight loss plan - I want immediate results; why we dug ourselves into so much debt - not because of needing frivolous items, but because with even the necessities, we could not depend on God to deliver - we instead depended on MasterCard & Visa; and even why I have burnt the bottom of many pots and pans! ;)
I have prayed scripture over this and in the process of walking through our financial troubles, I began to learn patience. Faith & Patience are so tied together, but I never made the connection until a couple years ago. Anyone can have faith when it only takes a minute to get what you're believing for (or less!) But faith comes not by seeing, but my believing. And if you never have to wait to see something, you never have to learn real faith.
Once I realized my issue, I began to read faith and trust scriptures. One area I struggled in was tithing. Only because "How can I tithe when I can't pay this month's rent?!" I struggled big-time on this. If you are struggling with this, I hope this encourages you. This may not be in conjunction with what a lot of preachers would preach for you to do, but this is what helped me: baby steps. God spoke to my heart and asked if I could trust Him with just $10 / week. I agreed. Then before long I realized "wow, I am still paying bills and things are falling into place!" Then just a few weeks later, He asked for $20. And so on... (though at the time, $20 was close to our tithe!) Anyway, my belief was God is such a loving God, HE had PATIENCE with ME! :) See, he taught me TWO lessons... He taught me trust and faith as I learned with each step that I could trust Him AND He taught me patience by demonstrating it with me! :) See - that's the kind of God I serve - a loving, encouraging Dad! :)
Fast forward to where we are now. We are doing much better financially. But with all our years of lessons and learning to wait for things, we are able to say "Just because we CAN afford it now, doesn't mean we should." Doing this gives God a chance to work for us. Sometimes, He has come through with a much better deal on the item the very next week. Sometimes we get a bonus for the amount of the item, so it's not out of our normal income! And sometimes... someone will give us that item we were going to buy. And thus the testimony...
I got into a car wreck 5 years ago (almost to the day) and totaled my beloved Mercury Cougar. I was working at home and with Dustin's shift at the movie theater, we had been kicking around the idea of selling the car and going to a 1-car family. The thing holding us back was that my car needed work on it in order to get a good price (like the Kelley Blue Book value) SO, when it was totaled, the insurance gave me the full value for it! We used the money to pay off some debts and became a 1-car family. Then we got into a position where we needed a second car but couldn't afford one. However, we were VERY blessed. We have never had to worry about a ride. Sometimes we were a true one-car family. But other times, friends would go to the airport and leave their cars here (we are close to the airport and often drop friends off to save them the parking fees). Then a friend went to basic training and Iraq and left his car here for over a year for our use! Then my mom loaned us her car for over a year. So we have been blessed. Very blessed. But now it's time. We need a second car. So began the discussion.
My mom offered to sell us her car for a couple thousand less than its full Kelly Blue Book value. Because of the great offer and the fact that I had driven her car and liked it - I felt it was a good move. Dustin was not convinced. We prayed about it and after some time, realized we just didn't have the peace to go through with it. I finally told her we would not be taking it on a Thursday night. It was so hard on my flesh - I even cried. How much longer would we bet without a car now? Then Dustin kindly reminded me about patience and how God continues to take care of us. So I found peace. Then the following Saturday afternoon (less than 48 hours later) Dustin got a call from his grandma. She asked him if he would like to have Pop's van (for those of you who don't know, Pop just died in September). He asked how much for it. She said "nothing". She had been trying to sell it, but God put on her heart to GIVE it to us. That's right - FREE. I thought one deal was great, but this one was even better!!! One issue with my mom's car was that though it was a 4-door, it was very small and would be hard to have when we expand our family. The van - we could have a soccer team and still be fine! ;) And I gotta admit - it's a smooth ride. So, now we are the proud owners of a rockin' mini van! ;)
Tell me my God doesn't work in amazing ways! And even better, this time I only had to have patience for like 40 hours! :) God is such a great God! He really is a rewarder of faithfulness, trust and patience!! And yes - we can keep the car for years to come as our family "grows". ;)
Also, we were able to bless others this year. If you are in a growing stage where you are believing for finances, I encourage you to bless someone else. It doesn't have to be monetary - it can be a cooked meal, a batch of cookies, a cup of coffee over a long chat. And if you do have an abundance of finances, look to God for opportunities to bless others. He put someone on my heart that we are not even close to. I had no idea they were having challenges, but He put their need on my heart and we sowed a seed. Then we found out what all they'd been going through! God used us, just like He used Dustin's grandma and so many others for us.
Blessings to you all! I pray that God brings you all a wonderful Christmas and an abundantly blessed 2012!!!
