Bless Them 100 Fold, Oh Lord

(Some pretty flowers blooming in our yard)
Our wonderful neighbor is a pool guy.  He has a pool business.  He and his wife have always been so kind to us and except our children with open arms.  We have known them for years.

Many years ago, every spring, he would ask us if we were ready for a pool.  And as it often is with huge families, something would come up that cost a lot of money thru the year (a vehicle repair, a major appliance would die, we would need a piece of equipment for Antonio)  and exhausted all our extra funds.  We would have to say not yet but we are still trying to get some funds together to get one.  We hope to get one, one of these years. 

We are not extravagant people.  My husband is a manager of a Chick-Fil-A.  I stay at home with the children, home schooling them and running the farm and home.  We have to watch our budget closely and really save and plan for anything out of the norm at all.  We shop thrift stores for our clothing and mark down racks in stores.  We hardly ever eat out and when someone donates a bag of used clothing to us, my kids get so excited as we look thru it all.  We just feel so blessed.  As God always provides for our needs.  Always. 

About five years ago our neighbor called and asked if we were ready for a pool this year.  We had a transmission go out on one of our large vehicles and were just recovering from that purchase.  I had to tell him once again.  Not this year.  He then said well, you better be ready for one because my guys are coming out next week to install it. 

My husband and I are not people that feel comfortable with people just giving us huge things.  We love to help others but feel uncomfortable being on the receiving end of things.  I tried to tell our neighbor,  no, that’s not necessary (in the nicest way possible of course).  I tried to ask him for a payment plan or if we could at least contribute to it.  He would have none of it.  He was giving the kids a pool and that was that. 
 

(Our side yard before the pool)

So he came out to the house and measured and then felt a little badly that he would have to give us a smaller one than he had planned as we only had so much room where we could put one.  He had the area graded and the pool installed and got it up and running.  Gave us everything.  Blessed us with everything.  From pool vacuum to a pool fountain.  He made sure it was a salt water system to be better on my children with breathing issues.  Still to this day I am humbled at the very thought of it all.  So very humbled.

(This picture taken the year the pool was installed)
We don't ask anything of anyone but sometimes people just give to us because they feel led to.  It is beyond humbling.  Just a few months ago our huge van had a dead battery.  I was going to have to wait till pay day at the beginning of the next month to get another to replace it.  Only a very few people, that I can remember, had known about it as it had come up in conversation in passing a very few times.   I got a call one day from the parts store in town to please bring in our van as someone had paid for a battery for us and they wanted to install it.  I was floored and did my best detective work to try to find out who this person was but to no avail.   

It doesn’t matter if someone has stepped up and felt led to meet a need of ours or someone has blessed us with a treat, I have never gotten used to these occurrences that happen occasionally.  But when they do happen,  I am always so very humbled.  Humbled to the very core.  Often to the point of tears.  

To all those out there that have blessed us over the years.  Who have sown seed into our family, financially, physically or in praying for us.    Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.   Thank you for your kindness and faithfulness in following what God put in your heart to encourage us and bless us.  So often it was just what we desperately needed at the time and God used YOU to do a  miracle for us! That even if you could not perhaps adopt a child yourself, you blessed and helped a family who did.  Praise God! The Word of God in action.  So very powerful to me.  

This road Tim and I have taken in our lives has been a very blessed one but not always an easy one.  We have given God our lives, our desires in life, to walk the life He called us to and do His desires.  We could not have done it or continue to do it with out God and His people.  That in obedience to His direction, have reached out to help us and love us over the years.

I pray daily for all the people who have given to us over the years.  That God would bless them 100 fold for their generosity in blessing us. Even if I don't know who they are because they did it anonymously.  God saw, and He knows!  Pour out Your blessings on them oh God! 
 

God is so very good to us always.  Just always. 

Deuteronomy 15:10  Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.

Deuteronomy 16:17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee.

2 Corinthians 9:10 Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;)

 

May The Almighty Lord God in heaven open our eyes to see ways we can encourage and bless others around us, being the Lords hands and feet in all we do. 

Blessings,

susan