I've been wondering about this whole "blogging" thing and how useful it would be for myself. Sometimes just getting thoughts out there is incredibly useful for self reflection. Although I've found it difficult to get going. However, I must say that this post will be the easiest one I've written.

My family received a huge blessing today. It's one of those blessings that can only be explained by saying it was a "God thing". No other explanation. No coincidence. Nothing but our Heavenly Father providing what we needed, when we needed it.

This year has been rough on us. I'll write more on this another time, but we almost lost our 3rd oldest daughter. It was a horrific ordeal that I'll get into another time. Our old vehicle (144,000 + miles) has needed a few kicks in the pants this year to the tune of several thousand dollars. We have had unexpected expenses right and left it seems.

We had accumulated some debt while our daughter was in the hospital, as well as having to watch what little savings we had dwindle because of these expenses.

We decided we would buckle down and not buy anything we didn't need and we might even eat beans and rice if we needed to. Thankfully, for those that don't know, my wife is a fantastic cook and mexican, so her beans are awesome so that actually wouldn't have had to be that much of a sacrifice.

In the midst of all of this, the Lord really got a hold of me and pushed me to eventually step out in faith to start this new church that we are just now starting. As a part of that my wife and I prayed and agreed that we would up our giving to well above our standard tithe. We didn't know how this was going to work, but we knew if we wanted others in this new plant to be willing to step out in faith and follow us, that we had better lead by example and be leaders that practiced what they preached.

So we began this new level of giving. Right from the start it was apparent that God was in this as He just started to ease our fears in huge ways. In fact, my wife was so excited one evening she said "I don't know how to explain it, but it's almost like we aren't even giving that extra money. All of the bills are paid, the extra tithe is given, but we are still doing ok". We couldn't explain it, but God was doing what only He could do.

Fast forward to today. We had several other expenses come up out of nowhere again in the last couple weeks with our rapidly becoming beater (vehicle). We were beginning to be a little stressed about where we would come up with some extra money. Yet, because God has never let us down, we stayed faithful in our giving knowing that God had this situation well in hand. I got word today that we were going to be recieving a check from a very unexpected source that pretty much EXACTLY equalled the amount left that we owed on our credit card from all of these expenses. Yes, it was a "God Thing".

So what is the take away? God gave us EXACTLY what we needed, EXACTLY when we needed it. It's amazing. We shelled out a lot more money this year than what I received today. We didn't get all of that money back. We didn't get gold raining down from the sky. We didn't have some rich long lost uncle pass away and leave us with some million dollar inheritance.

Nope. God just saw that we had a need and met it. God doesn't always meet your needs with montetary things. But rest assured. If you remain faithful, God will meet your need, when you need it.

In the end, STAY FAITHFUL. Too many people expect God to act like a cosmic vending machine where as long as you deposit a few coins inside, He will somehow make you win the lottery. Yet, they haven't spoken with God in a very long time or done anything to build a relationship with Him. It just doesn't work like that. We need to give our Time, Talent and Treasure to God simply because He is God and has already done all He would ever need to do to in our lives to deserve it.

Give freely. Love freely. Stay faithful to God and I can promise you that while you probably won't end up with a wad of cash, God WILL give you just what you need, right when you need it.