Penny Pinchers

I have recently finished reading (and greatly enjoyed!) Karen Ehman's book A Life That Says Welcome. Although the book is primarily about hospitality, and we might not think of "penny pinching" going along with hospitality, I found the following excerpts to be inspiring as she shows us that it isn't the "stuff" in our homes that matter when we reach out to others -- it's what's in our hearts. Her stories also demonstrate that God honors our desires when we are truly striving to be good stewards of the money He's entrusted to us. I hope you are as encouraged to trust God a little more by her story, as am I!

"Often in our life we have made a prayer list of items we feel we need. We learned years ago that before venturing out to buy an item at full price, we should give God the opportunity to provide the item at a great sale price, used for still less, or sometimes even for free. We have seen God answer our prayers over and over again. We document these in our family's 'I Spy' book -- a simple spiral notebook that chronicles the faith stories of how God blessed us with material possessions that we needed and prayed for."

Karen goes on to share the story of when they moved from their first, 900-square-foot home to another which nearly doubled their square footage. Money was tight after the purchase, and there certainly wasn't enough to buy all the new furnishings the house required.

For the sake of space, I can't quote her entire story here, but she goes on to tell of specific items they looked for and specific answers to prayer God provided.

She concludes, "We found many other items over the course of the summer... When the time came for us to move in, we had all the rooms perfectly furnished with nice pieces that matched and fit. Our 'I Spy' notebook began to burst at the seams as we recorded our Creator's faithfulness. At the end of the summer we added up what all of those appliances and furnishings would have cost us if we had purchased them new and at full price, and the grand total was nearly $10,000. But God saw to it that we only had to fork out a little over $1,500. Isn't He amazing?"

~Kate Boyer Brown