Pay It Forward, Karma, Boomerang

This person is away serving God and Country as a prospering Christian, citizen, spouse and parent. With posts on facebook I am reminded often that I had a part in starting this young life toward the right direction.

Wait, What am I talking about?  I'm talking about proving God at His word.

Malachi 3 says, "trust me in this" (giving to God) "see whether I do not open all the windows of the heaven for you and empty out a blessing until there is enough."

My parents raised me to be a giving person.  I was taught not only to give good gifts to people, but also my tithes and offerings to the church.  Jeff was raised the same way.  When we married, we vowed to never go without giving our tithes.  For a young couple, that was a big promise.  Jeff took it especially to heart, and became vigilant about it.  First, he paid the ten percent, and then came everything else including the electric bill - sometimes we had to borrow some money,or do some creative financing, but God always provided.

We went through some extremely lean years.  I often wondered, "where is God?"  "Why had He left me in this situation?"  "What is God's plan, and when will He show it to me?"  Jeff became very resourceful at finding and keeping money.  Sometimes we had to "rob Peter to pay Paul," but in the end, it was always worked out.

We also started something else.  We started giving to the Bethel Christian Schools Scholarship fund. Our kids were not old enough to go to school, but we went ahead and gave the same amount as one students' tuition every month.  Because of our gift, there was a certain child in the church that was granted a scholarship.  We were not really supposed to know who was the beneficiary of our funds, but we figured it out.  We kept that child in Bethel Christian Schools through middle school.  At about the same time we had to cut back, that child required some special education that a small school could not provide, and was able to go into a great program designed special for that child's needs in the public school system.

We in a sense started giving to the scholarship fund as a "pay it forward" type situation.  We were "paying forward" knowing that when the time came, our children would be provided for.  We did not expect at the time that my parents would take care of all of our children's tuitions, but they have.  We were given a gift from God through my parents because of our faithfulness for those 6 or 8 years that we provided for the other child.

We then had a unique situation.  Our youngest child required some modified schooling that a small school could not provide.  God led us in the right directions.  God opened the doors, and put together the right situations for our son to be blessed, always receiving instruction in a Christian environment.   Our son is now back in Bethel Christian High School, excelling.

Early in our marriage Jeff heard a sermon by our pastor talking about a man that our pastor knew that tithed on his boss' income.  In other words, the position in the company that he wanted, this man tithed on that amount.  This man literally went up the corporate ladder from being a "pole man" for the phone company to being a high ranking corporate officer at AT&T.

This inspired Jeff.  He promised God that he would tithe off of what he wanted his income to be - not anything outlandish, but maybe a percentage increase each year.   While I was experiencing the most difficult time in my life physically, God was opening the windows of heaven and pouring out on us a financial blessing that we could not contain.  There was a list of ministers and ministries that Jeff's bookkeeper faithfully paid every month.  We opened our home to a young girl who had been turned out by her parents.  We helped other families financially through tough times, we were even able to help a few couples with wedding costs.

As I was sitting in my "God why am I here?"  in my physical condition, God was raining down in every other area of our life.  But that's another story.  Back to the student.

It was our pleasure and honor to be so instrumental in that child's life.  Now an adult, this well functioning individual is a blessing to all of those around.  I see updates on facebook of how this person is flourishing in the place that God has established right now.   Soon, to come home to Riverside, but while gone, keeping God the center of his/her life, and excelling in many areas.

Even if that kid would have turned out bad, or gone the wrong way, we would still have counted it a blessing to have given that child the opportunity to come to know Christ in a daily way, and learn and experience the Holy Spirit up close and personal.

God's word never returns empty - Isaiah 55:11 says, "so shall My Word be that goes out from My mouth, it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing that I sent it."

The law of sowing and reaping, or planting and harvesting, paying it forward, some people even call it Karma.  It was established by God.  He even said prove Him, put Him to the test.  God wants you to challenge Him, I know He will not disappoint.

K