Amazing Little Blessings

It’s funny how life works, and how God works when you have a little faith.

Yesterday was kind of a down day for me. I’ve been working my tail off and starting to feel like my superwoman abilities to balance everything and encourage everybody and follow through on promises in a timely manner are slipping. Not that big a deal really, but I had been enjoying feeling very on top of things for awhile.

So anyway just when I’m sulking and wishing I could vent online about something that I can’t, I got a crazy unexpected email that I won an iPod Nano and a $25 iTunes gift card. If you know me well you know how much an iTunes gift card of any size means to me. Music is my sanity, my inspiration, my saving grace (besides of course THE saving grace of Jesus…but who do you think gives me music?) I was just sitting there wanting to buy some more music and feeling the pinch of a summer budget with crazy expensive camps and soaring electric bills from the AC running hard 24/7. This gift was something I didn’t even ask for, an unexpected blessing.

Later that night Mike and I had a budget meeting that really didn’t go very well. As part of Financial Peace U. we learned that these meetings should take place at the beginning of each month, should be short and sweet and should result in a zero dollar, completely balanced budget for the month. For various reasons this month’s review didn’t take place till halfway through the month and now things have already been spent that could have been skipped. Plus Mike’s budget was showing a fat deficit, suggesting we dip into savings this month to cover the big extra costs like summer childcare. That’s not how it’s supposed to be, common sense tells you not to plan to be in the red at the end of the month…only the federal government consistently runs like that and we all know how well that works.

The long and short of it is that expenses needed to be trimmed. I had an online shopping cart at Gymboree full of awesome deals like $3.00 shirts that I decided to just ignore. Sadly. I had also put a book I’ve been wanting into a cart at Amazon. It was the Jesus Storybook Bible, a book I have heard lots of friends rave about for sharing the wonderful story of the gospel with kids. I really wanted it, but decided it could wait too.

Then yesterday I happened to be checking Twitter at the right time and noticed the weekly WiseBread webchat had just started. My friend Kelly is the community manager for WiseBread, a great practical personal finance site, and she runs these weekly webchats about ways to save money. This week’s chat was on couponing, something I have recently started doing more of and am excited about. So I joined it, because these chats are just fun.

To my complete surprise, I won a giftcard to Amazon in the webchat! It was just enough to cover the Jesus Storybook Bible that was still sitting in my Amazon shopping cart. Completely unexpected. I got the giftcard code immediately and finished placing the order, totally grateful and knowing exactly where that blessing came from too.

Now I’m no follower of the prosperity gospel, but I know where my blessings come from. Blessings don’t always come in the form of money or good things, but sometimes they do. Believing and living like everything you have is God’s anyway and being faithful with a little sometimes gets rewarded in tangible ways with a little more.

25 thoughts on “Amazing Little Blessings”

  9. The church we are going to has the whole congregation reading the Jesus Storybook Bible and each week and then they are doing teachings from it.  We started this week and my boys are really enjoying it.  Plus the accountability of doing it as a church has really helped us to have family devotions.  Enjoy it!

  10. The church we are going to has the whole congregation reading the Jesus Storybook Bible and each week and then they are doing teachings from it.  We started this week and my boys are really enjoying it.  Plus the accountability of doing it as a church has really helped us to have family devotions.  Enjoy it!

  11. The church we are going to has the whole congregation reading the Jesus Storybook Bible and each week and then they are doing teachings from it.  We started this week and my boys are really enjoying it.  Plus the accountability of doing it as a church has really helped us to have family devotions.  Enjoy it!

  12. This is so encouraging.  Even without the little obvious blessings…it encourages me to know that others have these kinds of conversations with their husbands and I am not the only one that feels the pinch.  We’ve had several little things lately where God has shown Himself concerned for the little things.  They weren’t monetary, but still amazing.  His love is so huge and He cares for every teeny thing in my heart.

    Blessings to you!  Lisa~

  13. This is so encouraging.  Even without the little obvious blessings…it encourages me to know that others have these kinds of conversations with their husbands and I am not the only one that feels the pinch.  We’ve had several little things lately where God has shown Himself concerned for the little things.  They weren’t monetary, but still amazing.  His love is so huge and He cares for every teeny thing in my heart.

    Blessings to you!  Lisa~

  14. Can’t wait to get it! Andrew Peterson reads from it at the beginning of his Behold The Lamb of God Christmas performance/album. Which, by the way, if you’ve never heard, that is a MUST. 

  15. Can’t wait to get it! Andrew Peterson reads from it at the beginning of his Behold The Lamb of God Christmas performance/album. Which, by the way, if you’ve never heard, that is a MUST. 

  18. So glad that God heard your unstated prayers and sent those great little blessings as a pick-me-up just when you needed them!!

    (Hey look, I can comment again!)

  19. So glad that God heard your unstated prayers and sent those great little blessings as a pick-me-up just when you needed them!!

    (Hey look, I can comment again!)

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