The Day Before We Became Rich

By Debbi Dougherty

The Day before We Became Rich answers the questions that shaped the spiritual struggle facing Deborah Dougherty and Kevin, her husband. For several years, they had asked God the questions on the lips of many other Christians: When will our prosperity break come? God, when will we be rich?

You hold in your hand the answers God gave, the answers He chose to reveal. In this collection of blog-like reflections you are invited to join the author on a journey shaped by honesty, guided by conversation, and alive with hope and expectation.

The entries, used as a kind of guide, offer short, embraceable reflections that draw upon the authors experience and the wisdom of the Scriptures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Dec 8, 2017
• ISBN: 9781973608318

Debbi Dougherty

Deborah Dougherty studied physical sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, and worked as a paraeducator in the local school before retiring after three decades. Her love for the Word led her to become a certified lay preacher and to serve churches across Vermont. She and her husband, Kevin have a blended family with 6 children and 17 grandchildren and became ordained ministers. They host a home fellowship for prayer and worship and coordinate Beautiful Gate House of Prayer.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 Debbi Dougherty.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

All quotes from the Amplified Version, Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631 unless otherwise noted.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-0830-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-0829-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-0831-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017918197

WestBow Press rev. date: 12/05/2017

Contents

1.     Foreword

2.     Acknowledgments

3.     The Wisdom Tree

4.     Seedlings

5.     In the Second Beginning

6.     A Proper House

7.     Noise

8.     The Real Treasure

9.     Vessel Lessons

10.   On Purpose

11.   Whose Day Is It Anyway?

12.   Loved to Pieces

13.   Future Tense

14.   Fervent Expectation Day

15.   Pressed Down, Shaken Together, Running Over

16.   A Living Question Mark

17.   The Bird’s Life

18.   Stages

19.   Route 68

20.   Secret Millionaire

21.   A Couple of Fortresses

22.   Green the Whole Year Round

23.   The One Thing

24.   Perfect Purse

25.   Fast-Forward Button

26.   What a Character!

27.   Flooded

28.   Friends in High Places

29.   Unwrapping the Much

30.   Just Green Paper

31.   Are You Going to Tithe It?

32.   I Need a Fat Soul?

33.   Curiously Wrought

34.   Hey, Little Sheep

35.   Lots and Lots of Lists

36.   Don’t Stretch Me So!

37.   Pause for an Identification Moment

38.   Anything I Want?

39.   Rough Country Road

40.   With a Capital P

41.   A Higher Thought

42.   Creeps That Steal

43.   Um, Do I Have To?

44.   My First Million

45.   Watch, Watches, and Watching Time

46.   Are We There Yet?

47.   Weeds

48.   Remedy

49.   Inwrought with Gold

50.   Let Him Be Your Gold and Your Silver

51.   Note to Self

52.   Intense

53.   Upside Down

54.   Under and Over

55.   Cadence

56.   Work of Grace

57.   Charge ‘Em

58.   Sofa University

59.   What Are You Full Of?

60.   The Move!

61.   Overloaded Camels

62.   Perspective

63.   Heart Treasures

64.   Perseverance, Garbage Bags, and All

65.   Oh, Table!

66.   Growing Pains

67.   The Chiffonier Saga

68.   Immeasurable

69.   Chalkboard Lessons

70.   Seismic Shift

71.   Let Him Choose

72.   Oh, My Heart

73.   The Loss in Inheritance

74.   Heiress

75.   In the Bequeathing

76.   Occupied by God

77.   Price Tag

78.   Terrifically Faithful Guardianship

79.   Notified!

80.   Honestly …

81.   Not Enough

82.   Not Meant to Last Forever

83.   Through the Turnstile

84.   What Has You?

85.   Invisible Assignment

86.   To House or Not to House?

87.   The Blog House

88.   God Is My Yellow House (The blog posting)

89.   Bursting!

90.   Tiny House Vermont

91.   Faith It

92.   Transitions

93.   Ruffle the Balloons!

94.   Caught with Old Thinking

95.   Not as Easy as I Thought

96.   Stuff or Staff?

97.   Crabapple Escapades

98.   Front Porch Reflections

99.   Simplify

100.  Deep Well

101.  On the Corner of Walmart, as in Heaven

102.  Coffee Cup Inspiration

103.  Enough to Make Me Sing

104.  Rest Stop Wisdom

105.  A Bit Dazzling

106.  Look Up

107.  Jericho Stones

108.  Thinking Rich

109.  The Humbling Discovery

110.  Created for This

111.  What Are You After, Lord?

112.  Breakthrough Is a Person

113.  Revisiting the Wonder

114.  The Really Hard Part

115.  Author to Author

116.  Our Prayer

117.  Epilogue

Dedicated to my parents, John and Barbara Boone, who all of their lives were examples of faith and good stewardship. Their lives were truly rich in all ways.

[They are living memorials] to show that the Lord is upright and faithful to His promises.

—Psalm 92:15

Foreword

I have known Debbi Dougherty for many years as one of my dearest and most trusted friends, but, more importantly, I am giving this endorsement as I believe she is one whom God is entrusting to share things from the heart with all of us who love Him, and are seeking to know more of Him in our daily lives, both in our triumphs and in our heartbreaks.

Yes, she is a gifted and engaging writer and blogger, but more importantly, she has an authentic voice, as she shares from the things that she sees and the things that she lives through. As she shares, we see more of the heart of God as He reveals Himself afresh in her daily life, and she invites us in so that we can share this journey with her. She often takes a particular situation or set of circumstances, which she surveys in a kind of panoramic picture or vista, only to end the narrative with a glimpse of something that God is showing her, which could so easily get lost in the details, just as in our lives we often can’t see the woods for the trees. The focusing in on the one thing is the point of it all, and I believe there is a true anointing in her words to see afresh and anew with the eyes of wonder, and the heart of the child, without which we are told we cannot truly see the kingdom of God come in our midst.

—Jocelyn G., Vermont

Acknowledgments

Since any kind of complex or (almost complex) technology is totally off my grid, I depend upon my very techie husband to edit my writings and blog posts and save them from extinction. Without his encouragement, patience, and input at each stage of this book, I would still be writing it! Thank you, Kevin!

I also happily acknowledge my sister, Diane, who faithfully read through my manuscript, giving me good advice, encouraging comments, and lots of smiley faces.

I am also thankful for the many faithful blog readers who continue to encourage me by reading and enjoying my sometimes quirky musings.

Most of all, thank you, Jesus! You gave me the idea, highlighted Your truths, and granted me wisdom and understanding in chronicling this ongoing journey. Without Your help, this would never have happened.

The Wisdom Tree

When this book was almost done being typed, I began to consider some details to add before publishing. Since I had small minichapters, as well as the regular ones, I really wanted to have a way to designate them with a graphic drawing as a symbol above each. I craved some inspiration; I prayed over and over about it, but nothing came to me. The chapter and small segments needed to have symbols that pointed to what I was really saying. This was a struggle. I sighed and rolled my eyes and prayed, and gave up and went on to other things.

One day, while driving through town, I was thinking about the designations for the small chapters again, and I heard seedlings in my spirit. What? I had no clear connection to that word, but there was something appealing about it. I could imagine the graphics for it—like a little baby tree. How do I connect seedlings with a book about our personal financial journey? There was no immediate answer to that query, so I got busy again and went on to other things.

Days later, as I was climbing upstairs one morning, a phrase stopped me midstep, Wisdom is a tree of life. I love Proverbs and knew where that came from, and, suddenly, I connected the wisdom tree with seedlings. God’s wisdom is living—it grows in us from a seedling