Wednesday, April 15, 2009

The House Story



Monday, Amanda W. reminded me that I hadn’t posted the “How the House Sold” story on my blog. I had told her (weeks ago) it was a great story and that she could read it on my blog…. So here it is.
-BTW this is the Reader's Digest version. Much shorter than it could be. Along the way there were many small, yet monumental confirmations from God that we were supposed to move.

In Sept. of 2006 –when we found out we were going to be stationed at Dyess, we put our name on the waiting list for base housing. 10 months later, when we arrived in Abilene, there was still no telling when the houses on base would be finished and we could get a house. I had sworn off apartment living 2 homes ago, so that wasn’t the plan. We found a house very close to base and bought it.

We had lived there for 13 months when Mike and I started re-exploring the idea of living on base. We started praying about the idea, Mike deployed, we put the house on the market. The same day we put the house on the market we were notified that our name had come up and it was our turn for a house.

The plan had been to see if we could sell the house before accepting another house. We only needed one. So now –hardcore praying. We were completely content living in our purchased home so it was sort of odd that we were prompted to explore the option of living on base.

After praying and feeling a peace about moving onto the base –we accepted the house on Dyess.

We moved a month later. Actually, my Sunday school class moved us. Thanks guys!
(Mike’s still deployed).

The house is empty.

7 months it was empty.

We had a contract on the house that fell through due to some fun little agricultural termites.

Month after month we paid out mortgage. I wasn’t worried. I felt like we had been obedient to God and that he would bless us as a result of that. He provided for us financially every month. Slowly our savings were being drained, but we were still doing ok.

January came.

We got our tax papers in, including a record of our contributions to our church. We looked at his salary. We looked at what we had paid and it turned out that we were behind by about 30%. –We hadn’t intended to get behind on our tithing, we just hadn’t paid enough attention to it.

We wrote a check the next Sunday and put it in the offering box.

Tuesday we got an offer on our house.

Just a guess, but I think God was saying something to us like:
“Now that you have given me what is mine, I’m going to move this house off of you.”

Wonder what would have happened if we had been faithful all of the previous year to not get behind on our tithing?

The inspection turned out great this time and we agreed on a price for the house. Every counter offer we made was done after much prayer and pleading to God for wisdom. Each offer we made was bolder than I would have been. –We got more for the house than we would have had we not been seeking God.

After all the numbers were crunched it turned out that we would need to take a HUGE check to the closing. This was due to the enormous closing costs, realtor fees and other misc. expenses.

We had to pay –out of pocket a huge amount of money, thousands of dollars.

Lots of money to us. Selling the house was a little depressing and anticlimactic. It didn’t seem exciting or a relief like it should have. Oh well. Whatever.

Two days later I do our taxes. Since Mike was in a combat zone for several months (tax free income) and since Ty was born (more tax breaks) and since we didn’t know the correct amount to be withheld, know what happened?

We found out we were slated to receive a refund check that was almost EXACTLY what we expected to pay in the closing costs –to the tens of dollars.

Pretty much God

It was so amazing watching him guide us through this process. He didn’t leave us when we were not faithful to give the church their share. He waited. He provided. He encouraged.

When we were obedient, He was full of mercy and gave us back all that we were going to lose in the closing costs.

He didn’t even have to do that. What a God! He could have let us pay that huge chunk as a way of saying, “This is what happens when you aren’t intentional in your obedience.”

Just shows me again how:

“All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful
for those who keep the demands of his covenant.”


“O LORD Almighty,
blessed is the man who trusts in you.”


(Ps. 25:11 and 84:12)

4 comments:

Amanda said...

Thanks for telling your story. I love seeing how God works out the details for us and adds blessings along the way.

Anonymous said...

That is an awesome story and I'm so glad everything worked out and you were so blessed. Also, you sharing this story and me reading it couldn't have come at a better time. Very encouraging. I'll email you to explain.

Dan, Ashleigh - Izzie and Levi said...

That is such an amazing story of His faithfulness. I hadn't heard that you guys had sold. What a blessing!

Carolyn said...

WOW!! What an awesome testimony of God's love for us and His always AMAZING timing!