Читать книгу A Million Blessings - Angela Benson - Страница 15

“Good night, sweetheart,” Sandra said into the phone. She sat on the floral upholstered chaise in her church office. As usual, she and Andrew were working late. “Mommy loves you, too. You and your brother be good for Grandma and Grandpa.”

“We will, Mommy,” ten-year-old Andrew, Jr. said.

Sandra held the phone close to her breast after the dial tone told her that her son was no longer on the line. She missed her children, but she understood that they enjoyed staying with her parents on the horse farm. She enjoyed it out there as well, despite the disapproving looks her mother gave her when she thought no one was looking. Sandra had given up trying to make her mother understand that the good she and Andrew were doing with the money more than made up for the lie they told about getting it. The older woman would just have to see for herself.

Sandra yawned. Today had been another busy day, and she was ready to go home. Actually, she was ready to go to their new home, but the contractor had told them just today that it would be at least two more months before they could move in. She was getting the dream house she always wanted, but it was taking some time. She yawned again. She could wait.

She got up from the chaise and headed to Andrew’s office. As usual, she would have to drag him out. When she opened his office door, she found him sitting at his desk, head lowered over a pad, a pen in his hand. Her heart grew full as she watched him, thinking of how much their lives had changed in the last few months. Their dreams had finally come true. Her husband was now pastor of his own church, she was First Lady, and together they would make a difference in a lot of lives. They’d show the naysayers, namely, her mom, and Pastor McCorry and Vickie, just how wrong they were.

“Sweetheart,” she called as she walked toward her husband’s desk. “It’s time to go home.”

He looked up and gave her a weary smile. “I’m sorry. I lost track of time.” He put the pad and pencil on the desk and then rubbed the back of his neck.

When she reached him, she pressed a light kiss against his lips. “It’s okay. I’ve gotten used to it.”

He pushed his chair back from the desk and pulled her down on his lap. “I promise I’ll do better,” he said, rubbing a finger down her cheek. “I was working on Sunday’s sermon.”

“How’s it going?”

He inclined his head toward the pad on the desk. “Why don’t you read it and tell me what you think?”

She leaned over and picked up the pad. She read the words of what she knew would be one of her husband’s most powerful sermons. A tear rolled down her cheek.

“That bad?” Andrew teased, wiping away the tear.

She turned to face him. “No,” she said. “That good. This is wonderful and powerful, Andrew. You’re going to bless everybody on Sunday.”

“That’s the plan,” he said, pulling her close. “We are Showers of Blessings, after all.”

Sandra eased off his lap and sat on the edge of his desk. “That we are,” she said.

He lifted a brow. “I feel a but coming. I knew the sermon was missing something.”

She met his eyes. “It’s not the sermon,” she said. “It’s this idea of having folks come down to the altar and write their needs on a piece of paper so we can meet them. I had Jacob run some numbers. What you’re proposing can get pretty expensive pretty quickly.”

“We have the money,” he reminded her. “We can afford it.”

“I know we can afford it now, but it’s not something we can sustain over the long haul. Can’t we start smaller so that we do more over time?”

“I’m open to suggestions,” he said.

She couldn’t help but lean over and kiss him. They were really partners in this ministry, and he considered seriously every idea she had. If she didn’t already love him, his respect for her and her ideas would have made her love him.

“What’s that for?” he asked.

“Because I love you,” she said simply.

“I love you, too,” he said. “Now tell me your idea.”

“I think there needs to be a closer tie between the sermon and the blessing. Last year, after preaching a sermon on good stewardship, Bishop Long at New Birth asked folks who had gotten themselves into trouble with credit card debt to come to the altar so he could pray for them. He ended up praying for them and paying off their credit card debt.”

Andrew leaned forward and kissed her. “Marrying you is the best thing I’ve done in my life,” he told her. “That’s exactly what we’ll do, but instead of credit card debt, we’ll do mortgage debt. This is what was missing from the sermon.”

“Paying mortgage debt might be too ambitious, Andrew,” she said. “Couldn’t we start even smaller?”

He shook his head. “Mortgages are on my heart. You have to trust me on this. It’s what God wants.”

Sandra still wasn’t 100 percent on board with the idea, but she trusted her husband. His gambling days were behind him and so were the lies and half truths that went with them. “Then that’s what we’ll do,” she said, giving him her full trust.