Nate and I are currently walking the road of trusting God 100% in regards to our finances. Let me be clear, this is not something that is easy - especially for me. I always like to be in control of situations like this and I am finding that I am being stretched beyond my comfort zone!
I'm sure you've heard testimonies of people who have given an offering of money to God and it was more than what they could afford at the time. Usually, at least the testimonies that I have heard anyway, what follows is an exciting occurrence of a check arriving at their doorstep at just the right time - and it is for exactly the amount of money that they needed! Please don't misconstrue what I am saying; I am not mocking these stories, nor am I discounting them. I believe that God works in those ways quite frequently. In my present situation, however, he is deciding to be clever about it and test my patience as well.
A few weeks ago my husband and I were on our way to Carrington for a wedding. We stopped on the way to have dinner at a well known "neighborhood grill." We received our food and started chowing down. After a few moments, Nate noticed that he needed a refill on his beverage. So, we kept an eye out for our waitress. Twenty minutes went by and our waitress did not stop by our table, in fact, NO ONE stopped by our table! The funny thing was that our waitress walked past us several times and serviced tables all around us, but we seemed to be completely invisible (and very thirsty - Nate was, not me).
Finally, my husband went up to the manager and explained the situation. The manager felt so bad about it that he paid for our entire meal and we were free to go on our way! Stunned, we walked to our car and I couldn't help but giggle a little as I realized how God had just financially blessed us with a free meal.
Fast forward to a week later - we were in Portland (for another wedding) and we decided to drive to the coast for the day. We wandered down to the hotel restaurant and ordered breakfast. Nate had the buffet, but I ordered the Brick Oven Eggs (scrumptious - I had tried them the day before and loved them!). The waitress came to the table with the side of fruit that I ordered and explained that it would be a few more minutes for my eggs because the chef had accidentally burned them. I told her "no problem" and we continued our conversation. Ten minutes later she stopped by again and said that the chef had done the same thing again! She felt so bad - she explained that this has never happened before, and that my meal would be completely free that morning to make up for it.
Now, I must explain something about myself. Normally in this situation, I would be a little annoyed. I would complain to my husband about the service and sit there huffing with my arms crossed (I hate to admit it, but I am only human and yes, I am usually quite impatient). The interesting thing about these experiences is that I was not annoyed, nor was I upset. In fact, once again, I couldn't help but giggle about this abnormal blessing! As I walked to the car with Nate, I told him how it was so amazing that God was blessing us with bad service!
I hope this testimony has inspired you to have a better attitude when things don't go your way. If you take a step back in those situations, you might just realize that it is God blessing you in a most unusual way!
