It's 2am and I'm exhausted, but I have to share this story before I go to bed and I don't have time to write up a blog post. This weekend, we took the kids on a surprise vacation to Six Flags (yeah for Read to Succeed!). It was a pretty special trip because we only get to take a vacation with just the six of us every 4-5 years (grandmas sometimes take us with them because we can't afford to take a trip every year on our own). We don't use credit cards, so our funds were limited to what we could squeeze out of Dh's last couple of overtime checks and what we made when we sold our steer. It was plenty of $ to have a good time, but we needed to keep a careful watch on our spending because there was no room at all for us to go over budget. On Thursday in my prayer journal, I asked God to help us use our money wisely to make it stretch for everything we needed and to give us peace about it so we wouldn't be too stressed about how much things cost. (I tend to be a worrier about spending money because we "might need it later".) This morning was Six Flags day, so we decided to feed the kids a nice, big, breakfast, snacks for lunch at the park, then grab dinner on the way back to the hotel because food in the park is so expensive!), So, we ended up at IHOP. While we were waiting on our table, we sat out in the breezeway of the restaurant. A middle aged couple walked up to the door and dd14 opened it and said "How are you doing today sir?" The man replied and walked on by. When he got to dh and I he said "that's nice group of children you have there" and went to put his name on the waiting list, then sat down inside the lobby. I went to the restroom while the kids sat with DH. When I came back, the man stopped me and said, "I was talking with your kids and they are wonderful! They tell me you homeschool. We did that with our kids-our oldest is 23." We talked for a few minutes more and I told them we were there to go to Six Flags but the kids didn't know where we were going, then their name was called for a table. A little while later, we were seated in a different section of the restaurant. After a while, I saw the man coming toward us. He stopped next to DH and put a $50 bill on the table. He said, "I already took care of your breakfast and the tip and I'd like to buy your lunch today as well. All because this young lady held the door for me and called me sir." We were speechless! We've never had anything like that happen to us before. We thanked him and he left. We didn't even get his name! So, a random stranger today gave my family over $100 for our vacation! It was an amazing feeling! Because of what he did, we were able to treat our kids to some things we normally wouldn't-we let them play some of the midway games and win some prizes, we treated them to nachos and ice cream for snacks, we had a good lunch in one of the restaurants rather than just sharing some snack foods. And we did it without having to worry that we were blowing the budget. Isn't it awesome that God cares about even the smallest detail of our lives, like vacations? Ask and it shall be given!
I was having a sort of blah day and your story turned it around! Thanks for sharing and making me smile. Beth
That brought tears to my eyes--literally!!! I hope you don't mind if I share a cool story, but not as cool as yours. I worked as a waitress and there was a group of men who came in every Wednesday to drink coffee and maybe eat a small breakfast and have a meeting for an hour or so. I waited on them every Wednesday for quite a while and they would give me a few dollars for a tip- about the right percentage because the tabs weren't that high. One Christmas I had a thought in my mind to give gifts for some children (I believe 5 or 6 kids-it has been a while). Their mom was addicted to drugs and they were being taken care of by their grandparents who were not in good physical condition and not well-off financially. About the same time I was thinking about this, these men left me a Christmas gift of $50. I might have spent a little more, but honestly I can't remember. It was nice to not have to worry about it.
Okay if we are going to share blessing stories I have one. Some of you know that we were foster parents for over 20 years. What you may not know is how we got the house we live in that was big enough to keep sibling groups together. My Daddy knew I wanted to be a foster family but we only had two bedrooms at the time and we had our three birth kids. We were using our dining room for the twins bedroom and were very crowded. So one day my Daddy walked in and said, "If me and your Mama buy that house next door for you so you can keep those kids will you be happy?" Short version is that they bought this big old six bedroom house and we took in 116 children and adopted 4 over a twenty year period and kept sibling groups of 5 once and one group of 6 along with many others.
One of our former pastors told us this story: They used to live in another state, and maintained contact with lots of friends there. When this fellow was in college, he was all signed up, and managed to get his tuition together, but he had NO money left for books. While he was sitting there thinking about how to get this one main book, the phone rang. It was a friend from the other state. They made small talk for a bit, then the friend asked whether he was all lined up for the semester, were all his fees paid, did he have all his books yet, and so on. Well, this one book was about $150 and he hadn't gotten that one yet. Oh, the friend says - God told me to put a check in the mail for you today, for $150, so I did, but I was just wondering what it was for.
Lovin' these stories, too. Here's mine: My hubby lost his job during the economic downturn and we lost our house. We were able to live in the house until we got the notice to move. Despite being jobless, we wanted to do the right thing and move out of the house since we couldn't pay for it. Mortgage Co. said they didn't care if we stayed-they said it might be a while before they actually took it in forclosure. Ok, so we got to live in our nice house, rent free, for 1 whole year with the blessing of the mortgage co. Now hubby still had no job and no prospects for one. One day, we got our notice to move out in 1 month. We literally had no place to go. My husband and I were praying throughout this whole time, but of course, the day the notice came, we prayed even harder. He got on the computer and did the same ol' searches he'd done every day for the past 7 months but this time, there was a listing for a job he hadn't seen before. It was located in a city 1 1/2 hours away. He called and immediately got an interview, and within 3 days, was hired. WITH company car. WITH health insurance for the whole family (nobody else was offered this at his company). Then the Mortgage company offered us 5,000 if we could move out in 2 weeks, and it was CrAzY, but we did it. Hubby found suitable housing and was able to secure it w/ some of the mortage money because we literally HAD. NO. MONEY. Oh and one more detail: New boss told him the job had been open for the past 6 months and listed. Nobody even called about it despite many guys losing their jobs locally. PLUS the boss had never even heard of the website my hubby found it listed on. When my hubby went back to look for it-it was gone. Could not even find it again. Moral of the story is you MUST trust in God. He will make it happen. He remembers the lilies of the field, the birds in heaven, HE will remember you.
Whoa! That's almost spooky! That sounds like something that would have been written for Touched by an Angel! I love it!
I don't really have A story specifically, but I can testify that many times when our backs were to the wall, God has come through for us in miraculous ways. Like when I prayed all night for someone to be delivered from porn, and the next day that person took all his magazines out to the burn barrel and made sure every page burned. Like when I prayed for someone to be delivered from alcohol, and God took the craving away totally. Like when we had no prospects for making it financially to the end of the month but "somehow it worked out" or some check came in that we weren't looking for at all, or a total stranger walked up to us in WalMart and put a $50 bill in my hand "to help support the school." God is SO good!
It sounds like one of the mysterious ways stories in Guidepost magazine too. You should write it up and send it to Guidepost.
I will look into that. Thanks for the suggestion! I think the part that blows me away is that it wasn't really something we "needed". We had money with us to pay for our trip, but I was just feeling stressed about keeping close track of it because it was limited. We've seen God meet our needs, but this is the first time I can remember him providing for a "want" in such an obvious way. I was in a hurry the other night, so I left out the part where I accidentally left our park tickets in the hotel room and we spent 30ish minutes going back for them before going to breakfast. If I hadn't forgotten them, we wouldn't have been in the right place at the right time. Also, because I was so worried about money, I almost insisted that we hit McDonald's for breakfast to save some money, but Dh said IHOP, so I agreed. I just love how God worked out all the little details to make this happen!
What an awesome thread! In tears by the end - I really have needed this reminder about how God is faithful, He is our Provider, and He is always on time! Thank you all for sharing! Tiff, just wanted to say that I totally get being hesitant about spending money, about being worried about doing something for FREE because there are always extra expenses. I completely and totally understand the thrill, the wow-factor, of being able to do some of those silly, unnecessary things like the midway games. I am in awe over the blessing of not only did the man pay for breakfast (I could almost see that coming, just knowing the gist of the thread) but he also gave you cash to pay also for lunch. THAT is a God-thing, that is the wow-factor, that is how our God provides every need but also the very desires of our hearts! It's funny that you mention just above about being gung-ho about going to McD's instead for cost. When I read the original post, I wondered about why if you were trying to save money had you not done the "big breakfast" at home (didn't dawn on me that you were staying away from home in the first place) or at least somewhere cheaper. That's my thought as well - but isn't it amazing how sometimes God steps in because of our faith and provides the BIGGER things because we trust that He WILL. Speaking volumes to me today. Thank you so much for sharing!
