One of my biggest areas of stress and failure to trust God is in our finances. We have a reasonable amount of flexibility in our monthly budget, but added or unexpected expenses really stretch me. He has been so faithful over the years so I don't know why it is still such a struggle.
As we were leaving church Sunday the gentleman parked next to us pointed out a nail in our rear, driver's side tire. It was not going flat as the nail was firmly lodged in the side of the tire. We survived the rest of Sunday and all day Monday with no trouble which of course leads me to the obvious conclusion - just leave it alone, right? Is a nail stuck in your tire such a bad thing? I bought the $3 repair kit and Tyrone went to the garage at 10 o'clock last night to "repair" the tire. Note to self...when you only have one vehicle and the tire is not flat, leave the nail in there until you get to the tire shop.
The repair kit did not do much good so this morning we drove the school drop off route on a mostly flat tire then the girls and I drove straight to Walmart. The gas light also popped on right after we left home so we were really asking to get stranded. We filled up at the gas station in front of Walmart then parked by the service center and headed inside to see if they could just repair the tire. A long shot, I know.
Let me just say tires are much more expensive since the last tire I bought about 5 years ago (through a similar situation I might add). Fortunately, Walmart did not have a single tire in our size in stock. At that moment, that seemed like a terrible thing, but little did I know what God was working out. I noticed last week when I had the oil changed how very nice the people are which is not always the case at Walmart. So the customer service rep offered to call around to other stores to find a tire while the service techs put our spare on free of charge. Money is a little tight this month and I was praying on the way to Walmart about the repair vs. replacement cost and how this doesn't fit in the budget. I gave the whole situation over to God, however, and said I trust you Lord.
Praise the Lord! the wonderful lady found a used tire at a nearby place called Tire Tracks for only $35 compared to a new one for $95. I really wanted to drive straight home on the "donut" so we could finish getting ready for our "lunch party" as Maiesha and I call it, but I didn't want to miss out on the less expensive tire God had provided. Very quickly I realized the donut wasn't going to get us very far very fast and I needed to see this through so I called Tire Tracks to confirm that they had the tire in stock and to see how long it would take to get the replacement on. He said they could get me in immediately at that moment. I let him know we would be there in 5 minutes or less. We were in and out in about 20 minutes and back home in time to finish getting ready for lunch. God is so faithful even in the everyday stuff of life. He proved once again that He along is worthy of our praise.
I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.
For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
- Psalm 57:9-10
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