Praise Report

When you quit your jobs and move your family and start a business and don't sell your old house and rent a new one, the forecast is STORMY with a 100% of FINANCIAL WOES. But God is good, of this I can attest fully and specifically.

Last month I was feeling a little downcast about my ability to buy the kids new things. There is a blessing in buying the $.25 bag of Matchbox cars from the Samaritan Center. My kids are still of the age where new-to-them is just plain delicious. That doesn't mean I wasn't feeling like Charlie Bucket sometimes.

It is no coincidence that the people who have entered my life in the past year have very much encouraged me to be financially solvent. Several of the people whom I consider new friends have all mentioned Dave Ramsey, often right out of the gate in our conversations.

When I was feeling mopey last month, I prayed that God would help me just be faithful in my finances. That I'd just be really intentional about the flow of dollars and cents. In my heart, I also had a desire to buy Baby Girl some new doll clothes and a new organizer for the playroom. I vowed not to buy anything new and if anything, to seek to acquire these through craigslist or the like.

The next day. THE NEXT DAY, Baby Girl's teacher handed me a bag. You get one guess...

A brand new-to-her doll with a whole wardrobe of doll clothes. Not to mention a generous assortment of movies and toy cars for the little man.

This morning my co-worker told me to pull my car around to the parking lot where she was parked. She removed two--COUNT 'EM 1-2--of the very organizers that were in my mind's eye. I hadn't even told a soul that I was in the market for these. She just knew.

Friends, this is not to congratulate myself for my own faithfulness. I am at best a pauper with a bad Ann Taylor habit.

This is not about me. This is also not a coincidence. God is just that good. He is just Goodness that exceeds all of our understandings of good. He defies the very gravity that pins us to this earth, that keeps our hopes about what is possible from soaring too high. He is the Lord who "is able to give you much more than this" (II Chronicles 25:9).