photo credit; Charles ThompsonI have so much I am thankful for on a daily basis, I feel that I can not even keep up sometimes. But today, I have a really BIG thankful. One that just stopped me in my tracks like a Mack Truck kind of thankful.
310. God's abundant provision. He always presses it down and keeps filling to overflowing. Truly I am humbled and in awe of how generous and good He is. This past year Prairie Guy got a double raise that pushed him into a higher tax bracket. We have always felt we did very well in a low tax bracket, merely because we get all of our income tax back and it works out to not much less than he would make on a much higher salary after contributing all his taxes and rrsp's. We were curious to know how these "raises' were going to affect us financially. We thought our actual income might end up going *down* slightly because of it, ironic as that is. He would gross more, possibly bring home a few dollars more (or not), but we would inevitably end up receiving less child support, and subsidies on the home end (it's always in the second year that our child support takes a dive as they base it on your previous years income).
So this year we were expecting a dramatic drop in our child support cheques which are pretty equivalent to what I would make in a 3/4 time position. Well, this week our provincial government introduced a new tax break that not only raises our old tax bracket by nearly 10,000.00 but also dramatically increases the deductable for each member of the family. When you've got 7 people in your family, the consequences are huge. Oh, and they are backpaying for last year....
It never fails to amaze me how rich we are (well not by rich people's standards, but seriously, we ARE rich) despite all the logistics that make up our life. It is only because of His goodness and grace and I am incredibly thankful.
How about you? How has God blessed you with His goodness and provision this past week?
10 comments:
Oh I hear you loud and clear...we are SO rich!!
I am abundantly grateful for my husband these days; writing out our love story makes me praise God anew that, in spite of our pathetic human frailty, He has blessed us with the relationship that we have. I didn't do a daggum thing to deserve it, and I know that in my own strength I would have cut and run many years ago over some bit of petty minutiae! God is so good...
Praise God! He is so amazing! I am praising God with you. Extra money is a blessing, but it's not really just the money. God has a way of working in our circumstances that just blows our mind. He lets us know (once again) that He is the Great Provider.
those raises are really a double edged sword aren't they :) We've felt that same thing - yay we have a raise, but really, what does it end up amounting to?
Praise the Lord for tax breaks! I'm with you there!
May sound silly but we haven't had time or energy this past week, and then some, to go get groceries and some how our supply has stretched further then usual, even with me eating like a horse to keep up with the newest baby!
As a matter of fact, God has blessed me with His provision this week! I will just have to share... it is really a little thing but big to me!
Last week I gave my husband the house payment to drop off at the bank, well... he was late getting it there and we had to pay the $30 late fee (we have never been late on anything before, and things are tight right now so I have been trying so very hard not to waste money and spend extra on things we do not need, so this made me sooo mad!)
After cooling off and asking my husband to forgive me for getting upset, I also prayed and asked God to give us that $30 back...
Well, this past Sunday after church, some good friends of ours came up and said that they wanted to take us out to lunch, their treat!! We always go out to eat after lunch, so it is money we would have spent anyway, but we didn't have too, God took care of it! Isn't that just cool of Him! He cared enough about that to give it back to us!
That's my story for the week! I just love how God takes care of us!
Blessings!
Yes..we too have been blessed this week. My husband's part time job (he's in college full time) doesn't have any hours to give him this month. Just when we heard this, he got hired on as an assistant for a men's ministry that is airing now on EWTN and AFR. This will be consistant income...we are praising God!
Thanks for the uplifting post. A blessing to see there is so much good to be thankful for, even when things seem rough.
God's peace be with you~
I need to add to my earlier post.
We had a gift from the Lord also this month. Long story short, we found out we forgot to pay one of our insulation bills when we were building our house a couple months ago. Well, the loan was already closed so it was coming straight out of our pockets. The bill was about $800.00. We had $ to pay it, but we were really hoping to save it towards our emergency fund. But God provided in several ways: a ck for $100 that we overpaid for something, a $35.00 dollar electric bill instead of 100.00 or more (yes I reported it to our electric company and they came and replaced our meter, it had stopped working) and we received several hundred that was added into our loan for taxes and shouldn't have, so they sent it back to us.I just love seeing God work things out like that!
I just *so* enjoyed all your sharing today (thanks for the email stories too, I wish I could post them here, they were just so amazing and neat!! Please ladies who emailed me, if you get a chance put your stories here too (poke, poke, you know who you are =D) It just makes my heart sing to see people with childlike faith and and childlike exuberance over the gifts He pours out upon us. It's like havin' a "Thankful Party" (or sumpthin) ((that one's for you Princess Dawn...). Thanks for comin' and blowin' your kazoo's. =D
me too, me too.
Thankful for a surprise cheque in the mail which enabled us to go see my family for thanksgiving. ptl! my computer died, but I'm typing on a loaner from a generous friend with an extra! Our truck's alternator just died tonight, leaving me stranded at MB's. She kindly lent her truck to get us home, and I'll be trusting in our Father to take care of this next dilemma as well. I'm so glad I can trust Him!
wow what wonderful testimonies of His grace and mercies recorded here!
I would only add that this year my heart was moved to stay at home on our Anniversary..fix a really nice supper (I blogged it of coarse) and have quite time with my dh, which in turn saved us a bunch of $$$. And it wasn't that we didn't have it to do it just felt right if not better then the alternative.
This is where HIS heart work takes place in us all..to give us more than we could ever ask or imagine, that's HIS desire!
Yes I'm thankful too!
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