And God Provided a Ham

I LOVE to save money at the grocery store. Because we have so many mouths to feed and because we choose to be a one-income family, I look for every opportunity to save as much as I can. I coupon, I meal-plan, I budget, I scrimp and save, but one of our biggest monthly expenses is still groceries. I go for a "big load" of groceries once every two weeks and then I usually go back once or twice during that two week period for a refill of the necessities. You want my best advice for saving money at the grocery store? Stay out of the grocery store! The more often I go, the more money I spend. So my best advice is to cut down on the number of trips you make. That advice is yours absolutely free. You're welcome. 

Well, given my passion for saving money on groceries, you can imagine my shock the other day when my cashier gave me my total and it was nearly double what I normally spend. I had planned. I had used coupons. I hadn't bought anything unusual. I swallowed hard and swiped my card. By the time I pulled my Suburban into the driveway, I was near tears. I had spent all but a few dollars of my usual two-week budget, and that includes eating out money too. (We don't eat out much, but I like to have a few extra dollars for it in times of complete dinnertime chaos.) Time to go confess to the husband. He was (as usual) totally cool about it. "God will provide, Amber. He always does. Don't worry about it." But totally irrational me responded with, "But the hamburger meat was $17!" And of course, he says, "Babe, God will provide the meat."

Once I had calmed down and he had dried my tears, I told him, "We better make sure we write that tithe check on Sunday. I know he'll provide if we do that. If we don't, we're gonna be hurting by the end of the month." How did I know that? Well, it's one of His precious promises! Read on...

"Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need." Malachi 3:10 

That's a challenge from the Lord himself! "Test me in this," He says. 

Well before we ever even had a chance to test him, an unexpected and very generous check came in the mail for some work that Chris had done. I love it when that happens! I felt like God was showing us that he was going to provide for all of our needs, no matter what. This weekend, we had an opportunity to give generously. So much of us wanted to hold onto our money because we knew we were going to need it. But both of us could see that there was someone who needed this money more than we did. So we gave it away. 

So we gave and we trusted and we waited. (I can almost hear the music playing behind this scene. So far it's been kind of sad and dreary, but now it's building in anticipation. Can you hear it???)

Yesterday, I got a text from an old friend. "This is random and last minute, but I'm headed to your area to drop off some meat. We butchered 2 pigs and have 800 pounds of meat. If you can meet me, I will load you up!"

What?!? God provided meat? Actual MEAT! Yesterday, I loaded my freezer full of breakfast sausage, ground sausage, ribs, pork chops and two giant hams. God literally poured down a blessing until there was no more need. Such a precious promise and we got to see it FULFILLED. Thank you, Lord.