Inspired by this book in January Chris and I decided to give away the part of our income that we don't need after we budgeted for living expenses. It was okay for a while because we had some buffer in the bank account, but after three or four months it has started to bite a bit. We still have more than enough to live on - but I have been rethinking a lot of purchases, and making wiser financial decisions, going to the markets to get the veges and visiting the op shop.
On Saturday I was sooking about this grumpy grumpy and genuinely not being a cheerful giver. I wasn't able to buy something straight away that I wanted and had to SAVE. I agreed in THEORY about giving money away, but not when it affected me and I had to sacrifice. We had always given money away and been what I think generous - but I don't think it was until it hurt.
Then on Sunday we were unexpectedly financially blessed by a couple at church who didn't know any of this, we got puppet show jobs at the libraries in the June/July holidays, I was asked to tutor a boy in speech therapy, we got a bag of clothes for the girls, three more puppet jobs at schools have come in and my kilometric allowance from last August came through my pay.
You cannot outgive God.
It has taught me (again) a valuable lesson that our money is not our own, and the more generous we are with it and the more faithful we are, the more we are looked after. It's hard to explain - you need to give it away without any expectation it will come back. But the longer I do it the more I realise God loves to give back in ways you never expect.
