Day 10

I missed this yesterday, but I am grateful for the fact that I know how to budget and live within a budget.  I am thankful that the Lord has taught my family the power of self reliance.  This has not always been easy for me, but it truly is a blessing.  I remember at one point in my life, wanting fancier and new cars and houses, clothes, vacations etc., but to have a car that runs and gets us to where we need it to take us AND have it payed for means so much more.  The other day, the girls saw a fancy Mercedes and they said, "WOW, don't you wish we had a car like that?", and it felt so good to honestly say, "Nope, I'm happy with what I have.  That car does the same thing that our car does. It gets us from point A to point B".  Mike and I have always tried to live a life that we pay as we go....aside from our house (which if I could pay it off today, I would).  I'm thankful we have learned that it is more important to save for rainy days than to spend all of our money having fun (not that we have not been able to have fun on the way, but we don't have fun, if we can't pay the bills). Rainy days have come our way, and will continue to come, I'm sure, but to not have to lay awake at night wondering if we can pay our bills is a HUGE blessing.  I give ALL thanks for this blessing to a loving Father in Heaven.  I know that paying tithing is a part of this blessing and I have a huge testimony of that.