Giving back to him a portion of what he has given us!

We have had a ton on our mind lately. Seems things are looking up more and more every day, other than the fact that Dan's car won't start. We have our mechanic coming today to look at it. It shouldn't cost too much to fix.

This past Sunday we started FPU (Financial Peace University). The first lesson was start a $1000 emergency fund. We for once had the money, so Dan set it aside. We have it now, only to have to dip into it already to get the car fixed. We are thinking the fix will be $150 or less, so that is not the end of the world.

One thing my inner self has always struggled with is the guilt of tithing. I know a lot of my readers are church goers who know the importance of tithing. Just in case you are not familiar with it, the Bible says that we are to give 10% of your income back to him. There are too many scriptures on it to list, so if you are interested in learning more Google it! Anyway I used to tithe when I was single. When Dan and I got married we could not afford it. I had felt conviction over it time after time and finally talked Dan into finding the money. I promise you, after less than two months of tithing I got pregnant with Josie after trying for 27 months. Coincidence, I think not! We were finally being obedient to God and he was blessing us.

After a while with all the medical bills piling up and all, we slacked off and stopped tithing. That was 2 years ago. I have been feeling the guilt again of not tithing. I know how God provides if we are faithful to him. I have seen it over and over, not only in others lives, but in my own. So after nagging Dan to death about it, he told me the other day that he been saving out tithe money. We have not decided where to tithe just yet, but we are setting aside that money for God. We will probably start giving to the church we have been attending. (That is a story for another day). I know that we may not have it every time, but part of being faithful is saying, "God, I don't have the extra money this week, but I am going to be faithful and give to you anyway. You have never left my family hungry and I know you will provide for us"!!

It seems since he has been setting aside that money that we keep receiving unexpected blessing after blessing. I have always heard the saying, "you can't afford not to tithe". I am finding it more and more to be true. I really have a feeling that God has great things in store for The Pingel Five this year. We are getting our health back, I may have a job and many more things. All things I will talk about at some point... I think it has a lot to do with us just being faithful and giving back to him a portion of what he has given us!!