I"ll warn you right from the start, this is one of those times that I am using this blog to sort out my own thoughts, so read on at your own risk! :)
Tithing is something my husband and I have struggled with in the past. I grew up in a home where tithing was automatic, and had nothing to do with the family's financial situation at any given moment. It was simply done, no matter what. My husband grew up with parents who were "occasional" tithers. They would tithe a bonus, or a monetary gift, something like that, but they did not tithe on a regular basis. Even if they planned to tithe a bonus or some such thing, if a bill "popped up" unexpectedly, the tithe was forgotten. My husband had this mentality for a while too. It is something that I have prayed about a LOT. Recently, we have been in another time of not tithing because my husband felt we "couldn't afford" to tithe. Now, my thinking is that we can't afford NOT to tithe, but I know that tithing needed to be my husband's decision, not something he did because I nagged about it. So, I chose to just pray. I've been praying especially for the last week or so. I don't know exactly why I felt the "urge' to pray so specifically about it, but I have.
Last Sunday, the Lord answered that prayer~or rather, He let me know that He had all ready asnwered that prayer.
In addition to tithing, my Dad, who was our pastor for a number of years, also taught that while it wasn't "required", he believed it was best to tithe in cash, so that your giving could be "in secret" as Christ tells His disciples to give in the book of Matthew. Last Sunday, my husband told me that for the last 3 weeks, he has been going to the bank and getting our tithe in cash, and dropping it in an offering plate on his way up to the choir loft~he and I both are usually in the choir when the offering is taken.
I had no idea that he had been doing this, and I am SO pleased, and have just been praising the Lord for this work He is doing in my husband's heart.
Now, today, Roger comes home and tells me that "the bottom has fallen out" for the company he works for. ALL overtime has been cut indefinitely, and a nearby plant owned by the same company permanently laid off an entire shift of workers~34 people lost their jobs.
We had really come to depend on Roger's over time. Now that it is gone, and we don't know for how long, he is considering taking a second job~something part time, in the evenings.
He had to do this once before, when Rachel was just a baby. I hated it! He was away from home a lot, adn I missed him terribly. Now, we have all 3 children, and I know it will be really hard for them if he has to be gone more.
We have talked about the possibility of my going to work part time, but Roger isn't thrilled about that. In the first place, we will NOT consider putting the kids in school and my working while they are there. We COULD do that~I have experience as a pre-school and Kindergarten teacher, and could easily get my para-pro certification. I also have relatives who work in the local public school system, so getting a para-pro job would be easy. But, it would mean putting all 3 kids, including Noah who is only 4, in school full time. Roger and I disucussed it, and the disucussion was very brief because it didn't take much for both of us to know that the whole para-pro thing is NOT what God wants for our family.
I AM willing though, to go to work in some way, shape, or form, but it would have to be part time, and it would have to be hours when Roger could be home with the children. The other obstacle in our way is that I am unable to drive myself due to eye problems, so Roger would have to load all the kids in the van to take me to work, then load them up again to come get me, so a night time job is probably not "do-able".
I don't know if God's will is for me to work, or for me to "hold down the fort" while Roger works a second job. I just know that I want for our family whatever God wants, and I'm willing to do His will as soon as He gives us peace about what His will is for us.
In the meantime, I just keep reciting my favorite poem, by Grace Livingston Hill~
Charge not thyself with the weight of a year,
Child of the Master, faithful and dear.
Choose not the cross for the coming week,
For that is more than He bids thee seek.
Bend not thine arm for tomorrow's load,
Thou mayest leave that to thy Gracious God.
For daily only, He says to thee,
Take up thy cross and follow Me.
Blessings,
Mom23munchkins