When Your Expenses Exceed Your Income

When Joe and Stacy Crosby had their first child, they decided she would stay home with the baby. Living off of Joe’s income alone would be tough, but worth it.

Joe explains their starting point for this new stage of their lives. “We sat down during one of our budget meetings and we discussed, ‘okay, this is how we’re going to have to live. This is how much money we’re going to have. These are our expenses. So some of the things that we were used to doing we had to sacrifice that and let that go.’”

There was one area they refused to cut back on was tithing. Stacy says, “All we had to go on was faith. We were still tithing so, kind of looking at it from a financial standpoint there was nothing else we could do. So, all we had left was faith to know that God would take care of us in that situation.”

Now that she was home during the day, Stacy often watched The 700 Club. “There’s a lot of stories about others who have become CBN partners and they tithe and they give. Seeing those stories are very encouraging. I feel like that God laid it on my heart to give and just watch what I can do.”

She talked it over with Joe and they agreed to pledge $40 a month. At first, Joe was a little nervous about giving more than they were already tithing. “There were times where our expenses exceeded our income. And that’s when the Lord came through practically every month for us.”

He continues, “Once I really started to see what the Lord was doing, I lost that anxiety. I lost that stress. And just that peace came over me. It’s like ‘okay, the Lord’s got us. There’s no need to worry.’”

Within a year of answering God’s call to give more, Joe landed a job as professor at Southern Wesleyan University, teaching sports management.
He loves his job, and he’s making more than he ever has. And Stacy is thrilled that she can stay home with their daughter Jordan.

“It’s not so much what you’ll receive in return; it’s what you will do for somebody else.”

As the Crosbys started to see God provide through their giving, they also saw how their partnership with CBN was helping meet the needs of people around the world through Operation Blessing.

Joe says, “I love the fact that they would go in, you know, work with their hands, work with the people, interact with the people, get to know them on a different level.”

“Not so much a surface type level, but really get in there and help them get their lives together. So that really spoke to me.”

“The Lord has done so much for me and my family. I feel like it’s only right for me to give back that little bit that the Lord has abundantly given to us.”