Blessings from God

Sometimes I wonder whether God is paying attention to me at all. Things just aren't going my way or something happens and I have to just say out loud "What's UP?" Last Thursday was one of those days.

I HATE spending money. If I need or want to buy something, I nearly always use a coupon if possible or try to get it at a discount. I've tried bargaining with the associates at Wal-Mart (note to self: don't try that again). I even have a hilarious story about getting my $3 worth at a fair (ask Tommie about that one!). Maybe I'll post it someday... One thing that I hate spending money on more than anything else - my van (well, insurance is probably a close 2nd)...

Thursday, I was driving home from Harrison's surgery, stopped in at the pharmacy and when I drove away from CVS, my check engine light came on. Man! Could we add insult to injury? I had just spent way too much money traveling to Iowa earlier in the week, it's time to buy Christmas presents AND we've got to save money to travel back to Illinois for Christmas this year. The last thing I needed was to spend money on car repairs.

Well, I took the van to the shop and listened (not so politely) while the service guy told me that it would cost $92 just to figure out what was wrong (and another $92 to figure out what is wrong with my power locks & windows - they have been out of service for over a month). YIKES! After much fretting, he recommended that if I am tired of constantly repairing my 2005 minivan so much, I should trade it for another vehicle and purchase an extended warranty next time. Thanks, pal... just what I wanted to hear.

So, I went home and looked up vehicles on the internet for 4 hours. We just owe too much on the van to make it worthwhile to trade it right now. But, desperate times call for desperate measures. You have to understand that we've been doing the Dave Ramsey thing & trying to pay off debt (including vehicles) as quickly as possible. The next morning, Tommie told me to call the guy and have them fix the check engine light (which I didn't want to hear). I knew that Tommie was speaking with wisdom - even though I didn't want to pay the money to get it fixed. So, I called him. (I did tell him to ignore the power problem... I'll just suffer through until after Christmas).

Later that day, the service guy called me to report that they had found the problem and that it was part of a recall... so they fixed it at no charge to me. WHAT?!?! No charge to me! Thank you, Jesus!!!! God knows how to take care of me, even when my stubborn self resists wisdom.

I think the lesson that I'm supposed to learn from this is to quit wasting time on the internet and spend more time asking God for wisdom. :o)