I shared this story on Sunday to encouraging you in your financial stewardship journey. I hope it encourages you. I would also love to hear your story of Gods faithfulness.
-----
Eric & Krissy Gondek: Our Blessed Life Story
Before we were married in December 2008, we were both giving a portion of our income to our church. After we were married, Eric began managing our finances, and we continued to make giving a priority.
A few times a year, we would go on a date, and Eric would bring a print-out of the budget so that we could talk about our finances. Eric has a degree in accounting and works in the tax field, so he primarily handled our finances.
During one of our budget dates in November 2009, we discussed that our total charitable contributions for that year would come to 10% of our taxable income when counting the pretty significant goodwill donations we made over the year. Krissy wasn’t satisfied with this and said, "You can't give your used stuff to God and have it count towards the 10%. He wants the first and best fruits."
Krissy wanted to start giving 10% of our income directly to God. We argued a little; Erik knew that the money just wasn't there. Krissy was 7 months pregnant, and we would be going to one income soon so she could stay home with our new baby. She insisted and said she didn't care where the money came from.
Before we left the restaurant, we agreed to step out in faith and increase our automatic withdrawal - Erik calls it our auto-tithe. That night, he increased it to 10% of our net income. The first withdrawal of the larger amount would happen in 6 days, and the spreadsheets told us that we would start eating up our savings within the next month.
That was on a Sunday. When we returned to work that Monday, we both received unexpected raises. Neither of us had a review, and it was not time for an annual raise. In fact, Krissy was working in social work for a non-profit where raises were not a normal occurrence at all. The amount of our raises actually put us in a better place than we were before we made the decision to increase our giving.
A few months later, Krissy was done with her job, the sick and vacation time was running out, and we were officially going to be down to one income with a newborn. We made the decision to attend High Point full time just before the baby was born, so we wanted our tithe to start coming to our new church.
We prayed and talked about our tithe and felt God challenge us to go from 10% net to 10% gross, so we set up our tithe on High Point's website based on our gross income. Unexpectedly, Krissy's sick and vacation time lasted two paychecks longer than we expected. Then during the rest of 2010, Erik received two raises and a promotion in the middle of a recession. Every time it seemed like we would run out of money in the next month, God blessed us in one way or another.
In the beginning of 2011, Krissy heard on Faith 900 that money was still needed in Haiti, and the station was doing a fund drive. She felt led to give a donation even though money was pretty tight for us and we were beginning to prepare for our second child. We kept putting off the actual donation; we agreed to give it, but neither of us remembered to actually log on and give the money.
At the same time, Erik was interviewing with a new company for a potentially better position. He received an email from the HR manager at the new company where he was interviewing, and the response was the standard, "We have decided to go with another candidate."
A few days later Krissy was on-line and remembered the donation to Haiti. Later that day, we made the contribution together. A couple days after that, Erik received a phone call from the HR manager - the one that sent an email saying they weren't interested. She said that she accidentally sent him the wrong email, and they would like to offer him the job.
After Erik got the offer, he went to his boss and told him that he wanted to stay, but he had an offer for a better paying job. His boss spoke with the necessary people in HR, and that day they offered him over a 10% raise to stay in his current role.
We took some of that extra money and, in addition to our regular tithe, we now give a small portion to a savings account we set up - that we named our God account - so that when we feel led to give to something, we have money already set aside.
We accredit all of this to God. When we started to let His word become an influence over our finances, we felt His blessing. We believe that what has happened in our finances is nothing short of a miracle. Not everything has been perfect for us, but we have always had more than enough. We never thought we would be able to make things work on one income, but with His help, we are able to give to Him off the top and live on the rest.
-----
Are you living the Blessed Life?
Recent Comments