Remembering Financial Blessings

One of the purposes of this blog is to help me remember personal spiritual experiences so that I won't forget them or the related feelings. I've been talking to my Sunday School class recently about this- how it's so important to REMEMBER; we're asked to remember who we are, remember what we learn, remember to always take Christ's name upon us, remember to keep our covenants, etc.. This seems like such an easy concept, and yet it can be so hard with everything else that fills our lives. It is hard to remember everything, so I want to post this so that I will not forget it and how much the Lord blesses me.

Money has been a little tight recently, so this last fast Sunday both Drew and I fasted for the purpose to receive some financial blessings or to do better financially. We paid our full tithe and a generous fast offering and put our faith in the Lord that His challenge to 'prove me now herewith...if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pur you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."

Here are some of the blessings- be they big or small- that we have received since then:

Drew's work hired me to do some consulting architecture work

Our dentist office that overcharged us finally reembursed our credit card

I called in and asked, and our credit card bill percentage rate was lowered

We received our escrow overage check from when we changed our homeowners policy

I was able to do all my grocery shopping close to our budget and using a gift card that we had purchased previously (aka no new credit charges for groceries)

Drew asked and his boss agreed to let us assemble and package some parts that Drew designed as a little ongoing side job

My aunt's dad hired me to do a little cleaning at my great-grandpa's house a couple times a week

I really believe that these are answers to our prayers and I want to remember that our prayers were answered. There are a couple other interesting things that I noticed from this experience that I also want to remember:

These were not the ways that I was expecting to be blessed or for our answers to come; but the Lord's ways are higher than our ways, and the blessings did come, just not as I might have suspected.

Each of these blessings required initiative and work on our part. Sometimes I think I just need to ask for something and then sit around and wait to be blessed, but I need to remember that it takes effort from me. If I didn't call my dentist over and over then we wouldn't have been reembursed; if Drew didn't take the initiative to ask his boss about assembling some parts at home then we wouldn't be doing it, and on and on. We asked and then were willing to work to help find our answers.

I am grateful for these blessings, and I know they come from the Lord.