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The Offer

Posted by on Jul 25, 2008 in Personal | 3 comments

First, a little mathematical equation:

Husband’s salary
- feeding one budding toddler and four bored kids
- operating two large A/C units for our house
- keeping our Suburban gassed up
_________________________________________________
= WHERE DID ALL THE MONEY GO??

As the start of school inevitably approaches (thank heavens!), I’ve been really concerned with how I will afford supplies and clothes, etc, for the kids.  And when I say “concerned,” I mean “losing precious sleep over it.”

Enter a very strange situation.

A colleague of my husband’s phoned yesterday and asked for a favor, something that will cost my husband about 4 hours of his time and which is outside of his normal job duties.  This person is also a friend, so my husband agreed without reservation.  To show his appreciation, the colleague offered to give my husband $500 in return.

Ahhuhwha?

Strictly speaking, there is nothing outright unethical about the situation.  But it just felt instantly creepy, talking about money with him.  Although I must confess I thought about those school supplies….

My husband and I talked it over, and it took him a while to convince this colleague that we would absolutely NOT take his money, though my husband would still help him out.  The colleague said something about at least sending our family a gift, but I suppose something like that is out of our hands.

I am a person of faith, and I don’t believe this was any coincidence that we would be tempted into a situation that would seem to be the answer to our current dilemma.  But with my faith, I choose to believe that someone else knows my situation, too – a loving Father in Heaven who will help us find a way to get the things we need for our family.  He’s never let us down before, although sometimes the wait has been long to endure.  I find comfort in knowing that in this situation, we did the right thing.

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  • http://kymburleev.blogspot.com Kimberly

    We’ve had these sorts of situations crop up as well, sometimes with ethical issues attatched. We’ve been blessed for maintaining our integrity though. Abundantly so.

    And it just doesn’t feel right being paid to do something you would’ve done out of friendship, does it?

  • http://ldscancermom.blogspot.com LCM

    I was so worried about the double a/c whammy, that’s why we ended up buying a single story. It’s amazing how quickly the money drains out though. And, plus! I can’t believe how much school supplies cost down here, mainly because they expect you to buy EVERYTHING. Since we started mid-year, I had to flag down a Walmart employee to explain what a 12X18 manilla was. This year, I took the easy way out and paid for the school to do it, I didn’t have the usual sales to compare to, but it was cheaper than what I spent last November.

  • http://ohbecareful.com Jamie

    We’ve been asking the same thing. Where did all the money go? (Gosh, at least the answer isn’t “rising cost of gasoline, consuming every penny it can with hungry, wide-open money devouring jaws” – whew!)

    Good for you and your husband. I agree with you entirely — God knows even our smallest needs, and provides accordingly. The waiting and the trusting doesn’t always come easily though. Believe me, I’m an up-at-night fretter over the silliest things sometimes.

    Hang in there!

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