"Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works." (Psalm 145:2-5)

Four years ago, this was one command in the Bible I certainly could not obey. How could I? My husband's job had made him take a pay cut, and the cost of living was going up. We had bills, bills, bills, and no vehicle that fit our whole family, and, in fact, no dining table that fit the entire family! Our income was down to 1/3rd the amount that we had been living on, just "barely scraping by." We had five children and were now living near the poverty line. God had let us down! Or had He?

Around this time, I heard an idea from my daughter's Sunday School class to write down our blessings and put them in a shoebox. My daughter was instructed to write down each blessing she receives from God and things she was thankful for and place them in the box. When having a melancholy day, we were to open the box, and one by one, read out loud of the things “the Lord hath done.” No matter how hard I tried, I could not stop thinking about that. Perhaps it would help me snap out of my current melancholy over finances.

Instead of a box, I used a notebook. I was stuck, as I could not think of anything to be thankful for. "Lord," I prayed, "Help me to see things to be thankful for.... Help me to see Your provision in my everyday life." Soon, I had filled up my notebook, such that I now purchase a new notebook every year and have them labeled by year on my bookshelf. What a blessing to read about provisions from the loving hand of our heavenly Father!

God has taught me much through my blessing journal, as I now call it. I have learned that my husband may get paid on Thursdays, but my God provides for me every day. My budget may not work on paper, but God is not limited by what works on paper. A new mom I spoke with was convinced she could not live on one income because of her budget not working on paper, yet I had to encourage her that sometimes God allows our budgets to not work on paper, despite the most frugal lifestyle, just so He has room to provide for us supernaturally and lovingly in a more personal way than simply extra money in our husband's paychecks. Come on! Would He get the glory if we just kept getting raises? God delights in giving us little blessings all the time, to remind us of His love for us!

Would you like to see a page from my blessing journal? Here is a list of a few things provided by our Lord recently, apart from my husband's paycheck:

• God provided the money and materials to repair both porches (which were very unsafe).
  
• God supernaturally blessed our garden, and we canned about 500 jars of vegetables, did a lot of dehydrating, and froze a lot too.
  
• Somehow our meat chickens, instead of being a scrawny 5 lbs or less, weighed in at 10 lbs each.
  
• God provided clothing for my children all year long through people who just felt led to give us things though we never expressed a need.
  
• Ruth asked for roller blades for her birthday, but we could not afford them, and we prayed about that with her. We told her that if God provided for roller blades, that would be the only way she would get them. Later that week, a lady from church put a bag of clothes for the little ones in our car during Wednesday night service and in the bag was a nearly new pair of roller blades in her size! Praise God, and what a testimony to her! Roller blades are hardly a "need" but God even heard that "want" that she had and met it. She considers those the "roller blades that GOD gave me".
  
• Last year we had some Christmas presents (which were things like an ornament for each child, a box of crayons, a sketch pad, etc. nothing fancy), but we mostly focused on celebrating the first coming of the Lord and looking to His second coming. The children asked us if we could do Christmas like that again every year-it was "way more fun." They all want crayons again for Christmas.
  
• Someone this past week gave us a couch, and it matches our living room!
  
• God has managed to help me to be a better steward of the grocery money, feeding our family on $50-80 a week, while extending hospitality nearly monthly andhaving enough left over for additional offerings weekly.
  
• God provided some additional homeschooling materials that I had "want" of (I could have improvised and was planning to, but God met that "want"), in the math program I use, without me mentioning this to anyone but Him and my husband. I also recieved a bag full of school supplies, which we can always use.
  
• We got a lot of free bricks to use for landscaping (also a want that was met without expressing it).
  
• God provided free wood for the children to get their long-awaited tree fort.
  
• God has allowed Martin learn how to do some home repairs and car repairs, which saved a lot of money (this was not something he would ordinarily do).
  
• A side of beef--a gift from someone anonymously.
  
• Our well broke this year, and a friend came over to help Martin remove the motor so he could get it fixed. Later that day, our friend came over with a brand new pump, which he said our church bought for us.
  
• Five boxes of quality fabric from my aunt in Virginia.
  
• A very wonderful "multifunction machine" (photocopies, makes faxes, scans, and prints), which after all manner of rebates, coupons and a gift certificate, cost me $5, and saves me a lot of time and money since I was always copying something.
  
• Our neighbor gave us five bushels of pears.

That is just the tip of the iceberg! I could fill a whole book with my lists, and have. Don't misunderstand me, sisters! God is not a cosmic Santa Claus or a magic genie granting us unlimited wishes! We are not given things so that we can hoard, but so that we can give. I recently heard someone teach that spiritual people are conduits and can never have "too much" as they will always reinvest in God's kingdom, but a carnal person will never have enough and greedily grab for more. In saving a few dollars, don't neglect to be a blessing through giving, hospitality, encouragement, and kind words to others.

This weekend I sat down to do my taxes. I just got a program to figure my taxes and budget. When I typed in my charitable giving a little "warning window" popped up. "Warning," it read, "Recheck both amounts for your charitable contributions and your income. Numbers inconsistent." When I rechecked the numbers were in fact correct; God had allowed us to give more than 10% of our income to His work, despite the fact that we live near the poverty line, and that was just the giving we had receipts for! I couldn't even do a budget using the other component of the software, as it kept giving me warnings that my income and expenditures didn't match up. However, that hasn't stopped God yet!

Kimberly Eddy is a joyful homeschooling mother to five arrows for Christ, and wife to Martin of 13 years. Under the covering of her husband, she manages her web-based business, Joyful Momma Publishing and is the author of Momma's Guide to Thriving on One Income and many more books yet to come.


Young Woman Reading by Mary Cassatt

This article comes from Momma's Guide to Thriving on One Income and was submitted by Mrs. Kimberly Eddy.

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