Testimony of BLESSING, and a birthday present

God works in mysterious ways. Of this I am sure. And you know what, I have learned that when I sit back and surrender things to the FATHER...it's SO much easier!!!

If you don't already know, Erik and I have birthdays coming up next week (Erik will be 28 on Tuesday, and I will be a quarter of a century old on Thursday...VERY MUCH looking forward to that!) Anyway, have you been birthday shopping for your spouse lately??? It isn't the easiest thing in the world, and it is ESPECIALLY hard if you're on a budget.

And this year, because God has just blessed our marriage so much, and transformed our marriage in ways i can't even begin to describe here....I wanted to find the BEST birthday gift for my husband ever!

Originally, I enlisted the help of my wonderful sister Marissa to help me out. But, go figure, she wanted me to give her ideas for what I wanted to do for my husband...and bless her :) I love her, and she's the best sister I could ever ask for, but i had NO CLUE what to do for my husband :) And i know that Rissie loved me when i tried to put it all on her to come up with a great present :)

Haha :) After a long day of having NO CLUE what to do to bless my husband, I later decided to begin the blessing by sacrificing something that had once been so important in my life. I went to my hope chest and I found all of the books that I had kept after our initial housecleaning. I made sure it was okay to sell them (as i won't make a MAJOR decision like that without consent from Erik). He gave me the okay, and I was off to sell my books. I prayed over them before I gave them to the counter person at Half Price. God blessed me there with more money than i could have expected! PRAISE GOD!

After selling my books, and desiring to just be by myself for a while, I called my husband and asked if I could spend some time by myself in Wal-Mart. Again, he agreed that was fine...woohoo! So what did Kristi do for the next hour? I walked around and around and around thinking about what i could possibly do to bless my husband. Finally, i found some workout videos that I thought SURELY would be the perfect gift (LOL---it really would have just blessed me!)

My spirit didn't feel like that was the PERFECT gift to give, much less for a BIRTHDAY...so I began to walk out of the store, when I decided to agree with the Holy Spirit and make some coupons for my husband that he could redeem for stuff that would bless him over the next year. So I bought a package of index cards, some scented markers, a bin to store index cards in, and some cute animal stickers (I'm a girl---i wanted it to be CUTE!!!!)

Then as I got home, I began working on the coupons for my husband's birthday...and I made him 100 coupons (10 things...with each coupon idea made 10 times...does that make sense?) So for the next 100 days, Erik can choose from these things: Free choice, foot massage, a night free TV (and I can't complain about his choice!), 3 hours free TV, a night of free computer, choice of movie at the movie theatre, no grocery duty, date night of his choice, and no chores for a day (what do you think was his favorite??? LOL!)

Anyway, I was working on this right in front of him. When he asked me what I was doing, I lied (shame on me) and told him I was making things for school...the excuse worked, he didn't' have a clue! And in all of this, I still had in the back of my head that I was going to go buy those workout videos for him the next day. But then my grocery list expanded beyond what i had the cash for...and THIS is the beginning of my testimony!

You see, originally, my list of things to buy with the money I had leftover was just those 2 workout videos. But then, I realized that we needed soda, and I wanted a tape measure. Okay, so I went to buy these items...and it was going to be above the 22 dollars that I had to spend. And let me tell you, I have had STRONG conviction in my life not to use credit. So this particular day, I was very upset that I was going to have to use credit to buy these items.

I walked around the store somewhat frustrated, and praying to God asking the Holy Spirit for what I should do. Somewhere in my time of walking around the store, I got hungry...and guess what, I didn't want to cook...so added to a bill that i already couldn't afford, I now had hunger...and desired to eat at McDonald's (of all places!) So now my bill was going to be something like 30 dollars...and 10 of that on credit...wasn't adding up, and I wasn't happy.

So I walked around in frustration some more, waiting on the voice of the Lord to answer my prayer. I will say it again, when you ask---be ready to RECEIVE....

Suddenly, as I was walking (about the time that I was ready to leave the store and check out), it dawned on me that I should just get the ONE video...and then I'd have money to buy the sodas and tape measure AND, praise God, have money to eat with....THANK YOU LORD!

So I proceeded to the check out counter, told the lady I only wanted ONE video, and I paid for my items and got just enough money back to have money to eat with. So then i went to McDonald's...and got chicken nuggets (do you realize it was the MOST DISGUSTING meal i ever had?? How can you desire something so much and it be sooo horrible??? God was teaching me a lesson!) ANYWAY...as I was eating my meal, i realized to my horror that I had forgotten to buy screws to fix our computer desk and that we also needed hand soap...GRR!

Now I LOVE how God works---because in my mind, I seriously thought that I had about 4 dollars left...so when I went to get these screws and soap, I made sure that I didn't purchase more than 4 dollars worth of stuff (because remember, i DID NOT want to use credit)...I take my items up to the cash register and encountered a line (so what else is new?) But this line was a BLESSING...

I decided to pull out my cash so that things could move quickly and I wouldn't be holding up traffic. To my HORROR, i realized that i only had 1 dollar and some change...not nearly enough to pay for these items without credit....my heart FELL!!!!

For whatever reason, I just felt like I should look in my purse for these other 3 dollars that HAD TO be there...and as I was looking frantically through my wallet...i received the BEST BLESSING from the Lord...because staring me right in the face was a 10 dollar bill!

I cannot even begin to tell you the shock that I was feeling in that moment...but it was GRATEFUL...i slowly pulled it out, questioning if it was for real or not...and wrapped around the bill was a receipt from when I had cashed a 10 dollar check....but i had forgotten about the money..

Until that moment...when God provided for my NEED...and I DID NOT have to use credit....

That money was GOD'S money, and of course, after purchasing my items, I gave it all back to God...every last penny of it...because He had blessed me, and I wanted to bless Him...

PRAISE GOD!!!

It was a blessing that I thought only happened in stories---but I EXPERIENCED IT...and wow!

Thank You Lord!!!