Saturday, February 4, 2012

The Mailbox Miracle

Things start to tighten up financially in October as the year comes to a close.  Once-a-year bills are due. The family gathers together more often, stretching the grocery budget.  Then Christmas shopping brings on the grand finale, making my list and checking it twice to bless everyone in my world! 

At half-nest I am also intentionally putting “memory maker” events on the calendar before everyone is gone.  We took a couple of extra mini-vacations feeling that these extra-budget activities were approved by God!  Unexpected expenses followed, bringing me to the point where even Dave Ramsey wouldn’t have been able to make our ends meet!  As the days in 2011 were marked off of the calendar, I knew we needed a God-sized miracle. 
Before leaving home Monday, December 26th I wrote out checks for the bills in hand, marking their due date on the back of the sealed envelopes.  My savings had been emptied, and the checkbook balance was at zero.  Careful timing of depositing these in the mailbox upon returning from our memory making mini-trip would be crucial! 

Upon returning on Wednesday, I noticed the pile of envelopes and MAILED all of the bills before thinking through my “careful timing plan!”  By Friday I realized that I was in great trouble.  Oh, no . . . I wasn’t supposed to mail ALL of the bills that day!  An idea of how I could help God out came to mind! 
Family and friends had generously joined together to give money towards the purchase of a brand new sewing machine, and my daughter was guarding this gift to keep me from “stealing from Peter to pay Paul!”  A quick call to my Sewing Machine Bank would solve the problem.  Of course, I would be sure to reimburse this sorely needed withdrawal in January.

Friday afternoon, out of the corner of my eye, I saw my precious daughter and sweet son-in-law come to the front door with a large box…a very large box!  What in the world could this be, and what brings them here so unexpectedly?  As I opened the door, they burst in yelling, “SURPRISE!” 

“Oh my!  Oh no!  You shouldn’t have!  You really, really shouldn’t have!”

What a surprise!  Before I could put in my request for the loan, they had taken the gift funds and the liberty to PURCHASE THE EMBROIDERY SEWING MACHINE!  Everyone celebrated with me at the early timing of this great gift.  As we unpacked the sewing machine from the box, tears began to roll down my face.  They were tears of joy and tears of fear!
I prayed myself to sleep that night asking God for a mailbox miracle!  I woke up with the prayer on my heart, “Oh God, ONLY YOU can provide the help we so desperately need at this point.  Please send a mailbox miracle!"

By the time the mailman came on Saturday, I had somewhat forgotten my desperate cries.  Bringing in the stack of mail, I sat it down without looking through it.  Later in the day, I realized that I still had not opened the mail.  I returned to the stash to find a blank envelope nestled in the middle of the advertisements and late Christmas cards. 
Could this be? Is it really . . . the prayed for mailbox miracle!? 
Quickly, but almost trembling, I peeked into the anonymous plain envelope only to find the answer to my prayers.  This gift, a money-order for the exact amount needed in my check book, had been hand-delivered by an anonymous friend I will consider God’s angel.  God was faithful to me once again, and I am thankful for His amazing grace.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Our Inheritance Banks

Light bulb #2 – We must make deposits in our inheritance bank
We are commanded to leave an inheritance for our children’s children (Proverbs 13:22)
While often we think of this command in terms of material possessions; however, our inheritance can include so much more:

“A good man, by being good and doing good, by honoring the Lord with his substance and spending it in his service, secures it to his posterity; or, if he should not leave them much of this world’s goods, his prayers, his instructions, his good example, will be the best entail, and the promises of the covenant will be an inheritance to his children’s children.”  Matthew Henry Commentary
It’s time to start your own “inheritance bank.”  for your children and your children’s children.

What is ONE THING your eyes have seen?  Give an account of when and where God helped you.

Share a memory of a time when you blew it – you lacked faith and did not believe God.  What did you learn from that experience?
Deut. 5:32-33 “So you shall observe to do just as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right or to the left.  You shall walk in all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.”

Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons; Deuteronomy 4:9

"When your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the LORD our God commanded you?' 21 then you shall say to your son, 'We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 Moreover, the LORD showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household; 23 He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.' Deut. 6:20-23