God Blesses the Giver

Something that's always been in Kelsey's nature that I'm learning first-hand is how important it is to give. Kelsey is SUCH a giver, and it bothered me sometimes while we were dating because it seemed like he was giving so much without thinking to take care of himself. It really ground my gears, and I let him know on a few occasions.

Well now we're married and you can guess that side of him hasn't disappeared. Yet, God has subtly worked on both of us on seemingly opposite sides of the giving spectrum. Kelsey is learning the balance between being selfless and selfish with his resources, and I'm learning to trust that Kelsey gives sacrificially as God leads him(and learning to do so myself). Only some of it made sense until the 2014 Praise Party at my church, Elevation. Pastor Steven talked about people allowing their blessing to be stopped up. He challenged us to think about what is it inside of us that is stopping our blessing from flowing properly. God gently spoke to me that I'm so busy trying to be a good steward of our money that I'm on the verge of stopping Kelsey from sowing the seeds necessary to bring us a good harvest this year. Kelsey is a natural sower and that's why he loves to give so much. He gives to people, and we both got an amazing rush of excitement when we gave to our respective churches at the end of 2014.

To tie this all together, Kels and I had a set amount of money that we were going to try and live off of until I went back to school. Kelsey agreed to this idea, although his mantra this entire time was "I'm not going to worry about money. God is going to take care of us. I agreed with this mantra, but I still wanted to be smart with what we had. After an unexpected oil change price before heading to Charlotte, we were already not looking too hot on our mini budget. So I'm sitting in the Praise Party as God is speaking to me, and I knew that whenever Kelsey tells me that he has this bright idea to give to someone, I need to smile and say go for it-knowing that it's coming out of the money we have saved up to live off of this summer. I have to trust God through Kelsey and loosen up my fist. God has to strengthen my faith, and I decided in my heart that all of this would be so in 2015. Well, I was tested as soon as we got back to Rock Hill and Kelsey had an idea to pay for two elderly ladies' meal in the Waffle House were we had our late night New Years meal. Truth be told, I had been eyeing the ladies too, but Kelsey spoke up concerning them first. He flippantly mentioned that one day we'd be able to pay for other's meals in secret, and I agreed. He kept eating, oblivious to the war on the inside of me. I knew that God was saying in my heart, "no time like the present, Ash." I also knew that we only had about 60 dollars left to live off of for 4 days. War ensued for a few minutes before I obeyed. I looked at Keley and whispered, "Let's do it tonight" and nodded quickly in the ladies' direction. He nodded back and had it handled with the waitresses in a matter of seconds. By the time we left the restaurant, half of our budget was gone, but we were so giddy and excited about sowing that seed that I didn't care!

That is, until this evening when we were hungry and were talking about what we wanted to eat. I told Kelsey that we had 8 dollars cash and a Visa gift card that I was going to use for groceries. You'll never guess what happened next. Kelsey silently checked his account that previously had 3 dollars or so in it (we keep the rest of our money in the savings). Not this time; he checked his account at that moment and found over 200 dollars there! We high-fived and praised God in that car like crazy! It never occurred that he would be getting paid for work-study over a holiday break-especially since he hadn't worked at all. It was a couple of days late for the University, but for us it was perfectly orchestrated by God.

A similar yet smaller scale event happened on our date earlier this week. We went to Outback and knowing how I can be about our budget, Kelsey tried to find something reasonably priced on the menu. I told God that I trusted Him along with Kelsey and then said that money wasn't going to be an object that night. He could pick whatever he wanted to eat. During our meal, a woman approached our table and told us that the restaraunt had paid her bill. She wanted to give her 15% off coupon away, and she just so happened to pick us! Again, minor coincidence to her, but a move of God for us! We're so excited about how He's going to continue to provide for us as we rely on Him!