Good morning…
April 15th comes every year. An anxious date I used to hate, now I kinda enjoy tax season. In recent years, I have noticed that preparing taxes blends really well with Lent and Easter, winter tipping into spring, and my March 23rd birthday season. Since beginning my own small business as a daily blogger in 2015, I have gradually learned to like tax season. Here is why.
Being an everyday blogger has built-in expenses. The cost of sending a Mailchimp email every day. The upkeep of my computer, which has needed some extra loving care recently. Investing in a monthly spiritual direction session and spiritual growth training to keep God’s Spirit flowing into our writing. Paying our web designer to perform monthly updates to our web site, to be my support person when technical difficulties unexpectedly arise, and to improve our site to reflect our expanding ministry. (You simply must check out the fun enhancements blossoming this year at suetoyou.com.) These are our annual expenses.
Every single day, you might read at the bottom of our email: “Enjoy these free daily posts? Give a Gratitude Gift.” We have played with the wording over the years, and many of you have expressed a desire for me to remind you periodically that our daily blog runs solely on the generous financial support of our subscribers. People often forward our messages onto their friends and family members, who forward them on to friends and family members. Our most popular posts are enjoyed by over 1,000 readers across the globe.
Now, let’s get back to why I like tax season.
Throughout the year, a variety of people donate to support our written word ministry. Suetoyou.com is not established as a non-profit, that complexity is too much for my non-detailed brain to joyfully manage. Instead, I trust the Spirit to nudge a person to give whenever, however, whatever amount. Gratitude Gifts quietly trickling into the PayPal account attached to our web site or directly to me through Venmo, personal checks, or cash donations.
It is not until tax day is nearing that I actually sit down to add up what people have kindly contributed. What comes in miraculously covers what goes out from my business account, as the Spirit of God mysteriously cares for our written word ministry. Most years we break even. In 2023, we received $5,200.00 from 29 generous donors, which almost exactly matched our 2023 expenses of $5,271.90. I am pleasantly surprised by God’s provision, year after year.
Our everyday blog works much like the manna which fed the first God-followers in the wilderness years ago. Remember? Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will cause food to fall from the sky. This food will be for you to eat. Every day the people should go out and gather the food they need that day. I will do this to see if they will do what I tell them” (Exodus 16:4, ERV).
As God rains down nourishing nuggets of wisdom in the middle of the night, we each go out and gather the food we need for that day. As a written word community, we feed off these morning messages like mouthfuls of manna. The key question then becomes, “Will we each do what God personally tells us, day after day?”
When April 15th rolls around annually, I gratefully marvel at this fact: we have gathered just enough. This is what I appreciate about tax season.
…Sue…
