I'm beginning to loathe commercialized blogs. No good reason, really. If the content is usually good or excellent, I try to overlook the lists of sponsors and ads and the frequent giveaways. We Are That Family is a new blog for me, and I hesitated to put it on my sidebar at first. It's commercialized but the content is often very good, and this week especially, I am loving it. Kristen is in Kenya with Compassion International and blogging daily about her experiences. Compassion is a wonderful, reliable organization, worthy of Christian offerings, as Kristin's posts illustrate (whether monthly for the sponsorship of a child, or occasionally, as God allows).
One of my California pastors wrote an account once about his reluctance to contribute money to a church building fund. He had credit card debt and three kids in college, and felt he just couldn't do it. But out of obedience, he did it anyway. A month later he received a large sum of money from the Veteran's Administration (something to do with his Vietnam war injuries). It completely paid off all debt and helped with college tuition. I read his account seven years ago, but it still brings tears to my eyes to think about how God honored his sacrifice.
Our current pastor blesses us with similar stories--such as being given $1000 for his son's braces from an anonymous donor. Last summer his daughter got married and a sizable sum of money came in anonymously for her wedding flowers.
I can add my own story.
We recently received a $7000 tax credit stemming from the earned income tax credit, and the additional child tax credit. Normally, people may not tithe on tax refunds, because the income is tithed on when paychecks are received. But this money was not a refund to us. Tax credits are provided by other, higher-income tax payers. Thank you, if you are one of them!
Getting free money is always humbling--definitely, we felt the need to tithe on it. Although writing a tithe check for as much as our house payment proved somewhat scary, we knew first hand that exercising faith brings blessing in some form or another.
Two rather large checks were written for car repairs since we received the money--for needed repairs we had put off and for a water pump. And I dropped and broke the camera! (No replacement yet, thus no pics.) My faith wavered some at this rapid exiting of funds, but still, I remembered many stories about blessings coming from giving cheerfully.
Confirmation came today that God was honored, or at least happy about the whole tithe thing. My husband was handed a $200 check at church, written through the church, but donated anonymously for school expenses. We were blessed...and relieved. School curriculum needs to be purchased for 2010-11, and all four children have grown out of clothes recently, necessitating thrift store visits.
All this to say, jump out in faith! Read Kristin's Compassion posts and pray about sponsoring a child. God will honor your sacrifice. Yes, giving it might hurt, but your money is likely to come back to you in some way. Test it out and be blessed!
One of my California pastors wrote an account once about his reluctance to contribute money to a church building fund. He had credit card debt and three kids in college, and felt he just couldn't do it. But out of obedience, he did it anyway. A month later he received a large sum of money from the Veteran's Administration (something to do with his Vietnam war injuries). It completely paid off all debt and helped with college tuition. I read his account seven years ago, but it still brings tears to my eyes to think about how God honored his sacrifice.
Our current pastor blesses us with similar stories--such as being given $1000 for his son's braces from an anonymous donor. Last summer his daughter got married and a sizable sum of money came in anonymously for her wedding flowers.
I can add my own story.
We recently received a $7000 tax credit stemming from the earned income tax credit, and the additional child tax credit. Normally, people may not tithe on tax refunds, because the income is tithed on when paychecks are received. But this money was not a refund to us. Tax credits are provided by other, higher-income tax payers. Thank you, if you are one of them!
Getting free money is always humbling--definitely, we felt the need to tithe on it. Although writing a tithe check for as much as our house payment proved somewhat scary, we knew first hand that exercising faith brings blessing in some form or another.
Two rather large checks were written for car repairs since we received the money--for needed repairs we had put off and for a water pump. And I dropped and broke the camera! (No replacement yet, thus no pics.) My faith wavered some at this rapid exiting of funds, but still, I remembered many stories about blessings coming from giving cheerfully.
Confirmation came today that God was honored, or at least happy about the whole tithe thing. My husband was handed a $200 check at church, written through the church, but donated anonymously for school expenses. We were blessed...and relieved. School curriculum needs to be purchased for 2010-11, and all four children have grown out of clothes recently, necessitating thrift store visits.
All this to say, jump out in faith! Read Kristin's Compassion posts and pray about sponsoring a child. God will honor your sacrifice. Yes, giving it might hurt, but your money is likely to come back to you in some way. Test it out and be blessed!
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