Abundantly Blessed

Being newly married has been such an amazing time of life!! I find myself pinching pennies like I never have before and trying to figure out how to incorporate my basically vegetarian diet into a meat lover’s ‘happy welcome home after a cold 14 hour day meal.’ It’s been amazing to see how fast the time has gone and how I truly treasure every minute with my best friend. But we have received many blessings and adventures beyond this because we have chosen to put Christ and His everlasting Gospel at the center of our home and marriage.

We were both amazed we received from the wedding and how many sweet people have given us so much love and support. Preston and I were both very overwhelmed with the amount of money and gifts we had received. We had counted and recorded the amount of money and set it aside. Up to this point I had been frantically searching for a job, checking every website and applying to every place I could to no avail yet. One day I had this huge list of things that I wanted to do and going to the bank was one of them. A thought came very quick and strong “Tithing” it literally made me stop everything I was doing, find our stache of money. I counted and divided what we would pay for tithing and placed it in our scriptures to give on Sunday and took the rest to the bank. 

Later that day feeling nearly to the point of desperation as the Burger King ‘Now Hiring’ sign flashed into view I grimaced a little. And then my phone rang. I answered to hear the happy familiar voice of a family member asking if I was still looking for a job in Logan. Turns out I was given one of the greatest opportunities for work. It was for some of the lovliest, finest people that I know. They were so good to me and so gracious to have me spend no time working when Preston was off work. I learned some great new skills that will come in handy right now and the rest of my life. This ended up being the greatest blessing and the best job I could have ever asked for.

The day that I got the phone call, Preston and I had already decided we would go to the temple that night. It was the first time attending as a married couple and what a sweet experience that was. That same night in our scripture study it was Preston’s turn to select one. He shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon that I recognize has always been a theme for him in his life.

“But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God, and after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good-to clothe the naked and to feed the hungry and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted.”
–Jacob 2:18-19

He shared something with me that I had not realized up to that point. I had been doing everything I thought was good and necessary to receive a job. It was stressful, frantic, exhausting and I was getting nowhere. It wasn’t until I was exactly obedience and did what I knew was right that God was able to open up a multitude of blessings that He, the whole time, was just waiting to give us.

I always knew that tithing was a true principle and that I needed to live by it, but I became lazy doing it, even though I knew it to be true. I know that all blessing truly do come from God and He’s waiting and wanting to give them to us. I know that our Heavenly Father has so much love for us. We are His beloved Children. He loved us so much that He provided a Savior, Jesus Christ for us. Through Him I know we can find the source of ultimate peace.