Jesus Used Coupons! |

Apr 24

Ok, you got me, Jesus did not literally use coupons. I do however, believe He used them in my life to help me through difficult financial times. Today is Easter, and so I want to wish you all Happy Easter and share how I believe Jesus used coupons to help me.

I realize many of my readers may believe differently then I do. Your comments are welcome here, the only thing I ask is that any comments/ conversations remain respectful.

Now back to Jesus and coupons. You see I follow coupon blogs where other families were taught to coupon by a grandma or mother, and they have made responsible decisions with their money. I read about many of them being able to do things like purchase houses and such with cash after saving. Thank goodness for people like that, but truth be told thats not me. I am the girl whose credit has fluctuated from bad to good to mediocre and back to bad. Give me a lump of money and I am tempted to run off to Disneyland for a week with the family, rather then paying off debt. I am not advocating this lifestyle, just being honest with you all.I struggle to be responsible. Oh and did I mention I make impulsive purchase choices from time to time too.

The truth is not only has my family not always been responsible with money, there’s been addictions and fighting in my household. My husband and I have struggled in our marriage. There was a time in the not to distant past where he was struggling with an addiction, and not even living at home with us any longer. I hate to air my dirty laundry, but I think its important for you to understand how really dirty it is, to fully understand how Jesus cleaned it up for us. Even the description I included above is keeping things really clean (this is a family blog after all). The truth is that sin had ravaged my family. Addictions ran rampant, there was no income coming in for some time, and I was struggling to even see the value of living any longer.

Through these dark times, I fell to my knees and cried out to God to set my loved ones free from drugs, to heal my marriage and to provide for us when there was no income coming in. There were no bright lights, no angels visibly appearing, and it certainly took more then one prayer (more like years of prayers), but He answered every prayer. In spite of all of my own imperfections, He heard my cries and answered.

God was faithful even when my family was not. He was merciful when we did not deserve it. He provide every financial need when it seemed impossible to save our house, or put food on the table. Most importantly to me he restored my family. He did not just bring us back together into the same house, but my husband and I are deeply in love with each other. You probably will not see me refer to him as ‘dear hubbie’ on my blog, its just not our style. Make no mistake though, I love my husband as much as any wife loves hers – and going through what we have I appreciate the things we do have so much more – health, peace in our household and more then enough to get by on.

So how did Jesus use coupons. Didn’t I just learn from someone. Another blogger maybe? Nope. I was a stress case, not able to think clearly, I would literally forget to close my own front door often when leaving the house. Couponing can be complicated, but somehow I picked up a newspaper one day and started to make it work. I found a blog or two to follow later and got even better. Pretty soon I was using coupons to make the tiny bit of money in my pocket stretch into a full blown budget a family requires to live off of. It reminds me of when Jesus turned one basket of fishes and loaves into enough to feed thousands of people on a sea shore many many years ago. The same God that fed the people in that story, used coupons to meet all of our needs.

How do I know it was God, and not my own abilities. Well because my family was a HOT mess! I think God allowed us to hit bottom like that so I would know in my heart of hearts that everything I have comes from Him. I cannot take credit for any of it. We are blessed, and if you compare our choices and abilities with what we have been able to accomplish, it does not take long to see the math does not add up. By our own merits my husband should be dead or in prison, we would be divorced, I would be depressed struggling to get by and not screw my three kids up. In all honesty that is who my family is. But God in His infinite mercies looked down from Heaven and gave us another option.

You see that is what Christians celebrate on Easter. The fact that Christ took our sins upon Himself when he died on the cross. He paid the penalty so we would not have to. We believe He rose again three days later and conquered death. The victory was over sin. It means that no matter how great your sin, His blood has already made the atonement. All we have to do is ask Him for forgiveness and walk away from the sin. He will restore us (and our families) to Him.

Romans 5:8 tells us “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”. I am so thankful for that verse. If He would have waited until we got it all together my family would have had no hope. We are not the ‘all together’ types. In many ways that is a blessing though. Its freeing to not have to strive for perfection. To know that there is nothing I can do to ever be ‘good enough’ but that God does not care. He loves in spite of my imperfections, in fact enough to die for me and for you.

Happy Easter All!