I recently wrote this post.  When I wrote it we were house hunting and hoping to buy a house.  Well, it turns out God has opened another door for us. We received a generous offer from a relative to rent a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house for less than someone could rent a studio apartment. 

After giving it much prayer and consideration and weighing the pros and cons, we have decided to take them up on the offer! So now we are in the process of cleaning at the “new” house so we can pack up and move.

On the surface, some might say that this move is not a good one. Because we aren’t buying, we are not investing money into a home but are continuing to “throw money away” on rent. Because it is smaller, we’ll have to get rid of some STUFF. Because the whole point is to save money, we will be as frugal as possible with updating and decorating.

I guess I’m just weird. I am so thankful that we will be paying less rent.  That it will help us as Chris goes back to school. As we feed all these littles and provide an education for them.

I grew up in a very comfortable home, in a super comfortable neighborhood (it had it’s own pool).

But, I had several relatives who did not live as comfortably as I did. They didn’t have nice, basement ranchers and living rooms that were filled with furniture that no one ever sat on.

I have not been on international mission trips, I’ve never even left the country. What I have seen and what I do know is that my cousin would rummage through the dumpster at her trailer park for new treasures.

I know that the girls who came to live at Blount County Children’s Home often came with their belongings in a black trash bag. That their parents couldn’t pay the gas money to come pick them up for visitation.

I know there are children and families within a mile from me RIGHT NOW who will go to bed hungry tonight.

I know there are children and families across the world from me RIGHT NOW who will sleep in the dirt, who will not have clean water to drink or bathe in, who will be lucky if they get ONE meal today.

So am I thankful that my family gets to live in an outdated, smaller house? Ummm, yeah.

And am I so proud that I have a husband who would rather do things God’s way than try and kill himself and us to achieve the AMERICAN DREAM? Ummm, yeah. I am.

We could be drowning in debt. We could both be working 60 hour weeks. We could be paying car payments and $200 cable bills.

But, INSTEAD I think we’ll play board games with our kids. And I think we’ll keep paying our tithe first. And then we’ll keep seeing how God blesses us when we serve Him and do things His way.

Thanks.