When I went to file our taxes this year it turned out that we owed our lovely government some more cash. Under normal circumstances this would not be a huge deal. We have put ourselves in a situation where we have no debt (except our house) so we would have some extra cash around. Well, these are not normal circumstances. My wife is back in school and we are trying to keep ourselves out of debt by paying for it as we go. So our cash is pretty tight. We could pay the tax bill but it would have to come out of school money which would push that goal further back. We have also been following Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University so we had our emergency fund set up.

So the money could either come from our emergency fund (which would not get replenished for a while because of school costs) or we could take it out of the school money. Both of these were doable but neither was optimal.

I decided I would wait to pay the tax bill until I had to. We had about a month until the deadline. About a week later we got an envelope in the mail from our mortgage company. I had been waiting for this letter to come since last year. I was expecting a small drop in our mortgage payment since we had Homesteaded our house. Sure enough we got a drop in payment, but here is where we got to see the Lord’s had at work in our lives.

Along with the letter declaring our new payment there was a check. An escrow refund check. The amount of the check was two dollars over the amount of our tax bill! I couldn’t believe it (I don’t know why I should have doubted). The Lord had come through for us on our tax bill. It amazed me that even in a thing as piddly as our taxes, He cared. He cares for His children!

The point is this: God cares about the details. He may not always do what we want, but it will always be what we need. Every time. Sometimes it might not look like money, but you can trust that it will be what you need. Even in the details of life.

Brian

• Lacey is going back to school. We really feel like the Lord has provided the time and money resources for her to finish her degree so we are taking Him up on the offer.  In order to afford school without taking out loans we needed to free up some cash flow in our budget.  The truck made the most sense so it was the piece that went.
• With the sale of the truck we have no more consumer debt. This one feels really good.  The only piece of debt we have left is our house.  Not having debt to weigh down our budget frees us up to do so many things.  One of those is sending Lacey to back to school with no debt at the end.  If we kept the truck we would still be paying for it when she was done and we would be paying student loans.  With a little sacrifice will will have neither, if the Lord wills.

Like I said, we will have to sacrifice in some ways.  We no longer have a new vehicle that is covered under warranty.  We will be driving our other car more which means repair costs will probably go up some.  Having one car also means that one of us is stuck at work while the other has the car.  This is not a big deal to me.  I don’t mind staying at work for lunch.

I am certain that there will be other positives and negatives that we haven’t even thought of yet but will experience as time goes on.  I can honestly say that I am glad we did it.  And I am glad my wife will get to finish her degree.  Exciting times.

Brian