God is sooooo amazing! I just had to share with everyone something that happened to me just recently. I love it when God has a chance to show His awesome greatness. This is a little long but it is sooooooo worth the read. :)

As many of you know, my family and I just moved. We went from a spacious town home (well sort of) to a tiny apartment. I've made the apartment home and it works but, it's definatly a stretch at times. We (my husband and I) made this choice to do this so we could save up for a house down the road. We felt led by the Lord to become even better stewards over what He's given us. It felt so good moving cause we knew it was all in God's will for our lives.

Well, just before we moved my odd landlord went through our house and complimented and confirmed that there wasn't any major damage at all and he really enjoyed having us as tenants, and we would be getting our full security deposit 14 days after the 1st (which was stated in a letter given to us previously from him). Now, the law states the landlord has up to 21 days to return the deposit so even after the 14 days had come and gone, we weren't too concerned.

Then, the 21st came around and my husband called the landlord to see if I could swing by and pick up a check from him the next day for the deposit and such (it was a very fairly good amount) and at this point, the world came crashing down on us. The landlord told y husband that according to his wife, we didn't pay rent back in June of 2006. OH MY GOODNESS! What had happened is I had my purse taken then and I had to close accounts out and one of our checks to her bounced. As son as we found out we had told her before it all hit about having to close the account. She told us to pay her CASH and NOT TO TELL Bill (our landlord) as he would become upset. So we did as she asked and paid cash. The problem is, as they were going through tax stuff, she saw the notice from the bank from June and told Bill that we never paid her.

I was so upset, I left work to get the paperwork I had stating I would get all my deposit money back. Meanwhile, as Christy (my bff) was driving me home, she felt led by the Lord to tell me to forgive them, RIGHT AT THIS MOMENT, before anything was resolved, the Lord was asking me to forgive. OH MY GOODNESS that's a hard thing to do. In the midst of my anger and frustration at this injustice, I had to forgive them. After much prayer and tears, I did what the Lord asked of me. I called Jeff and shared with him to forgive as well (he was also on his way home) and it was a total confirmation as he told me the Lord told him to do the same about 10 minutes before I called him.

Now, as I arrive home, I was under the understanding that even after they deducted the month's rent, I still should've received about $600 and it was in the mailbox waiting for me. When I looked in my mailbox, the letter was in there as the landlord had stated however, no check. Instead, there was a bogus listing of problems with the unit (all which were not from us but from previous tenants WHICH was known by the landlord before we moved in) and NOW, they stated the I owed them $181. OH LORD!!!! I broke down and cried. I wept at this injustice towards our family. We did everything as unto the Lord in giving our notice and leaving this place in even better than received condition.

At this point my husband gets home and we all pray together (Christy, my husband and myself). We agree in prayer over the situation and conclude that it would be best to go and speak face to face with him, in love and in Christ. We also felt we should bring our children along (my 2 cute boys) to share with them the Godly way to handle a very bad situation.

As we talked to him, he was very defensive at first. We continued in explaining how we had paid cash to his wife and all the events around that time. We stated clearly that we are in no way calling her a liar, but possible because it was cash, maybe she forgot. We did mention also about all the other claims on the paper and asked for receipts, which he had none. Before we even arrived, we had purposed in our heart no matter the outcome, even if we lost out completely on the $1850, that the Lord will sustain and supply our needs (it was to purchase another car). At the end of our conversation, our landlord asked to give him 4 hours to talk it over with his wife.

As the hour got closer to the 4 hour mark, I was prompting my husband to call him and find out what the outcome was. But my husband felt in his heart that it wasn't the time and that the Lord would take care of things. We agreeed that if he didn't call my husband by 9am the next morning, then my husband would call.

No call that night. But just as I was dropping off my boys to walk to school, I got a call from my husband. "You're not going to believe this. Bill just called." My heart sank for a moment. "Yeeess???" I said. "He told me that he couldn't sleep all night, he kept thinking about what we said. He said that he couldn't rest until he called us to tell us that he feels in his heart that we're telling the truth regarding rent and that he will give us a check today for the amount of rent." YIPPIEEE!!!!!! Even though it wasn't the full amount, we had trusted the Lord and knew that if this is what was given to us, it was what's supposed to come to us. I told my boys of the wondrous victory the Lord gave our family. They were so excited to see God's glory they said that they're going to praise him all the way to school.

Isn't God so amazing!!!!!! We're still trusting in the Lord for the rest to buy a car but I have no doubt in my mind that when the time is right, God will supply all my needs. I encourage all that just read this, always trust and have patience in the Lord. If we would've called at 9pm the night before (when my patience was running out), I would've possibly harmed the chance for God to work on his heart all night long and prevented God's blessing in this situation.

Thank you Lord! You are forever amazing and forever unchanging!