Provisions and other

Well there is much to say, but I guess I will talk about the recent car buying experience....

Well for the past month or so I have been scouring the internet, doing research on what the best vehicle would be for my family who now has 2 kids. Small SUV....mid size SUV... maybe even go with a van? I didn't know. I would change my mind everyday and spend way too much time looking up info about cars. It became my "idol" for a while. ( Scripture says " you shall put no other gods before me" Exodus 20:3) Nontheless, I went down that road thinking I would figure it all out... get the best fuel efficient vehicle with the most room.... and all that stuff.

Then two Sundays ago, God convicted me of this and I decided I would take a week off from looking or thinking about vehicles. By his strength, a week went by and I didn't look or really even think about any vehicles. Then after a week, my mom calls and says she may have a Honda element with 60,000 miles for 8,000 dollars. By the way we were wanting to spend 8,000 so we thought this is the answer. I felt like this must be because I obeyed and now he is providing. However that fell through and the lady had quoted 8k before talking to her husband. She then found out the car was 2 yrs newer than she thought and they were asking 13,500. Well we were kinda crushed. We thought He has provided for us perfectly. I guess that is what happens when we think we know what God is doing. We don't see the bigger picture.

Fast forward a week and we are traveling to Marietta to look at a highlander. It was a disaster. I could talk to you about my failed attempts to be a godly husband as we were stuck in traffic trying to get to trader joe's ( that place ended up being pretty cool by the way) but I will not go into that. Let me just say I did get a little road rage and if I lived in ATL you would not want to ride with me. Atleast not on that day with an infant and a 2 yr old. Anyway, the Lord help me calm down and we went to trader joes to shop.

Well, the guy we are meeting about the car was supposed to meet us at 5 p.m. I got a call from at 4:50 and he said he would not be back in town until after 6. So then we went to " the big chicken" where we were going to meet him. I was tired from a long day with family and I told Jana I just want to go home. "I don't care about the car... I don't want to wait on him". Well my wise wife convinced me to stay and several hours later we drove away with a new car. ..

The crazy part was I just spent a lot of money and I had peace about it. I loved the family we bought the car from. They were from Lithuania.  .... By the way, I never have peace when buying or selling anything. I am always nervous and I am running around. It was God's provision. I am thankful for the experience.


Addendum: When I speak of God's provision here I do not want to come across as though I think God will provide everyone with material possessions they want. Even in this situation, I am not sure we " needed"  this new car. We could have lived without it. It is not essential for us to live, for us to have a relationship with Him, for us  to walk in obedience with Him. The car is simply a (+) to me. It will help us to achieve certain things such as allowing my wife to go to the park with her double jogging stroller without the difficulty of getting the kids in/out of a 2 door toyota tacoma extra cab. This is one minor luxury that we are thankful to have now, but to be certain it was not a need. It was a want that will decrease some stress physically and emotionally for my wife. (To decrease this stress will hopefully allow my wife more energy to focus on teaching, raising, instructing, and disciplining our children in the way of Lord)