giving God what is His...

[okay, i've typed, deleted, retyped, edited, deleted, and retyped this post. it's long. it's likely not even that interesting to anyone but me. but it's apparently supposed to be here because God isn't going to leave me alone. sorry.]

indulge me for a minute... [envisioning rita standing at the back of the church on sunday in her bright pink shirt, praisin' the Lord for a car created in the last decade. love that lady.]... i've got something to share.

the Lord has been good to me. better than i deserve. i have a job that i truly do love [even if my boss tells me i'm just a rookie and i'll learn better with time!]. a husband that works his hiney off and takes his responsibility of supporting the family very seriously. kids that are for the most part, not annoying... errrr... i mean amazing. He's given me a lot. my current job was made to order for me, in timing, in duties, and in pay.

do you see where i'm going with this? hold on tight folks, i'm gonna talk about tithing.

i have been a mostly-faithful tither for years now. i don't say that to toot my own horn- i'm not tryin' to pharisee my way into a giving parade here... because frankly it's not that hard to tithe from a part-time job's salary. the chunk doesn't seem so big. but when you are making considerably more. and it comes in bi-weekly increments.

[choke]

that's a lot of money. i did pretty well at first- i mean i was really happy about my job. but then i missed a sunday of church, and i didn't so much double my offering the next week. [been there?] or i forgot my wallet and just gave what was in my pocket. some weeks i hit. some i missed. and the Spirit nagged at me the whole time.

it didn't take a rocket scientist to see that although we were making more money, things were still kind of tight some weeks. others they weren't. i'll let you guess when things went well. then i made a big boo-boo in the checking account... and a few things bounced into the stratosphere. immediately i knew it was my fault--- not because of the mistake [well, that too], but because i wasn't giving to God what was His.

btw. confession sucks.

thank God for a beautiful christian friend who helped bale us out of a tight spot. and since then, i've been praying about it. giving to the Lord is something that my sweet husband and i don't see exactly eye-to-eye on. and i know my tithing off my new income could/would be a source of contentment in him. so i asked God to cover it. and guess what. today we got the tax check that our preparer told us not to expect til late summer. we had to amend our filing, and it holds things up. but the unexpected money isn't even the best part...

i call my husband tell him i have a confession to make. i talked to him about that financial strife. the not tithing. the knowing they were related. and he says "you gave $$ yesterday, didn't you". answering yes, i waited for the inevitable comment... that did not come. he was just quiet... [i asked Him to cover it, why was i surprised?] when i told him about the tax refund, he was amazed. absolutely blown out of the water kind of amazed. and then he says [fyi, this is the best part]... "well, when we went to that class at church, it said to give to God first, then pay off your debt, then worry about the rest. seems like that's the right plan, huh?".

if you know my husband, you know that's huge. if you don't, i'm telling you, that's huge. first, he definitely got it at the stewardship class. seeds were planted. second... he sees the connection too... he sees God working in our lives... he sees the good God has planned if we are faithful to Him...

big stuff folks. God's working.