floodgates

You know how, sometimes, something happens and it isn't at all expected, though you kinda needed something like that to happen, but then it does, and you think, "Seriously. I must be dreaming. It's gonna be kind of a bummer when I wake up."
Well. I'm sorry, Mr. Linus, if I wasn't supposed to talk about this to anyone, but I find it exciting.
I should preface further by saying that M's job is not the most glamorous, or the best-paying. It's an office job, it's respectable, and he seems to think it's the best he can get (I disagree, but that's another story). His dad and I have been trying to convince him just to toss his resume to the four winds and see what comes back, but he says, and of course this is true, that it's been difficult to keep up with everyday tasks, let alone shape up a resume, hunt down the winds and ask them to send messages for him.

So. Yesterday, we meet at the metro, as is our custom, and he says, "My boss wants to move me to another job. But that's good news, and bad news." He drones on about the low ceilings at this other office, the drab interior. Then says he'd be supervising a couple of people, one of whom is rather loopy, etc. I say, "Would the pay change at all?" Yeah. Just a little. He'd be making better than 1 1/2 times what he makes now, as near as he can figure. This doesn't happen immediately -- his boss merely told him that he was her pick to replace a woman who will be retiring sometime before next year. But, WOW.
(side note: I always wonder what the grumpy, silent types on the metro are making of our conversations. Probably wishing we'd shut up. HA!)

It comes at a great time -- when wouldn't be a great time? -- as there are lots of big, LIFE decisions to be made in the next few years. Wedding(s)? Another child? A move to a county with better schools (sorry, Prince William)? These things might soon be possible.

The best part of this story, to me: The night before (THE NIGHT BEFORE!!), we had been kicking around the idea of tithing. I have a confession: I have not been tithing for the past three or so years. Not at all. After a lifetime of being a very faithful tither, I saw single motherhood as the time that it just wouldn't "work." I know, I know. It's not about how much you have... Believe me, I know. Now, M. doesn't really attend church officially, but he's come with me a couple times to the wonderful little church I've been going to for about a month now, and he really likes the people and respects what they're about. He wholeheartedly approves of me tithing there, and actually wants to chip in. Which I find amazing, considering ... well, considering how many "real Christians" probably don't tithe. Yeah, including me, at the moment. So, we have our little conversation. I mention a sermon I heard about a year and a half ago, about Malachi 3:10:

"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."

So, we decide, okay. Let's tithe, well, not 10 percent at this point, but X amount. Let's get the ball rolling. And THE NEXT DAY. This job thingie happens.

The sad part is how long it took me to put two and two together. We were all happy last night about this possibility (probability?!), and it's not until this morning that I think about the conversation the previous night. Wow! Some people aren't very expectant, are they?

God's good. That's just about all I can say at this moment. Boy, is He good. And He's good when times are lean, too. But, well ... I'm just full to the brim with gratitude, and awe, at this moment. And had to share.

I've got a funny story from the weekend, too, that I haven't had a chance to "publish" -- we do now have home Internet access, but it's giving us an error or some fool thing, so, hm, actually we kinda don't have it yet. We should, though. Arghh. So I'm having to sneak in some extracurricular typing at work to post. So, stay tuned.