If you were thinking about giving us money....

Please don't!

A few weeks ago, our pastor called Brian and asked him if we could help out with a sermon he was preparing by going up in front of the church and telling our story about how we didn't agree about titheing and how God changed our hearts about the whole thing and how it's affected our lives since then.

Brian and I agreed and in a nutshell, this is what Brian said....

We both felt that we need to give consistantly to the church, but we didn't agree how to give. One of us wanted to tithe to the church and the other wanted to give money to friends, family, and missionaries whenever there was a need. We started to fight about this alot, so we agreed to pray that God would help us come to an agreement.

A month later, we agreed that we needed to tithe to the church AND give to those in need. Right before this happened, we found out I was pregnant and I took the job I have now. That meant a big huge pay cut, but more time at home. Instead of us freaking out about how we were going to pay our bills, we just trusted that God would make it work out. For those of you that know Brian, this was a big deal. Brian has always been a big worrier, especially about providing.

A year has passed and we have seen lots of positive changes in our life that we attribute to our decision to give joyfully and faithfully. Brian worries a lot less because he trusts God more, and I'm more responsible with our money. We have seen lots of progress towards our financial goals too!

Anyway, as we were preparing what we were going to say, we lost something very very valuable and very very meaningful to us. (please don't ask...it's still too painful to talk about). Years of the hard work, sacrifice, and saving down the drain. But the truth is, that there has been a blessing in it. Because in dealing with this, we see how God has deeply changed our life. The verse that comes to mind is 2 Corinthians 4:18 "while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." We accept that life isn't always going to be easy, and we are reminded that our treasures are not here on earth, they are waiting for us in heaven.

So anyway, if you were in church today, and you were thinking about giving us money. Please don't! This didn't really effect our day to day finances. It's really more of an emotional blow. Your willingness to give to us really touched us deeply.