The Year of the Dying Car AKA The Year I Learned to Listen to God Part I.

As promised, here is part one of our vehicular "dramady" that we were very much unwillingly cast in.

It all started...
Last year, just before Labor Day, I started noticing something "not quite right" with our car.  I did my wifely duty - you know, the one where you try to imitate the car noise for your husband -and we decided there must be something wrong with the transmission.  Now, we had just finished paying off the car after many months of stressing about  too high payments.

 Then in a matter of days...nothing.  It died at a stoplight while my infant son and I were running errands.  It was just dead.  Flat lined.  No hope of resuscitation.  My first instinct was to freak out, and I did so exceptionally well.  My second instinct was to call my husband at work and yell at him for allowing this to happen.  I did that also, but not until later. 

During all this absurdity, I was pleading with my Lord to keep us safe.  I knew He was.  He had already placed a police officer behind us - complete with flashing lights -  to protect us, a parking lot for us to push the car, a kind mom to stand there and hold my son safely off the road, and He even provided a smoothie shop for us to have a snack and a cool, safe place to wait.  The entire time, though, I was constantly worrying about the hows, whens and how muches.  That's my job isn't it?

I certainly thought it was and took to the worrying with gusto, as if I was the only one who could fix this problem - even though I had absolutely no idea how.  So after strapping the carseat in a tow truck and being dropped off at home I really let loose.  I turned on my husband, God, the finance company who we just finished paying and of course, the car.  Would we ever get a break?  What made this situation all the more worse was that my husband and I had just started talking about trading the car in to get something that would fit our growing family.  Who was going to take a broken down car now?

 As I said before, our car issues have been going on for an entire year.  I think that I could have cut that time down had I just gotten over myself and given it COMPLETELY TO GOD!  That is what He wants.  In fact, there are instructions for times like this right in the Bible.  One of my favorite resources is a book called "The 100 Most Important Bible Verses" from W Publishing Group.  One passage says:

     "When life gets busy or chaotic, it's easy to get distracted.  You wind up focusing on problems instead of the One who holds the answer to your problems in His hands.  When that happens, stop.  Focus on who God is and how much He loves you."

In the New King James Version, you can check out Psalm 46: 1-2, 10. 

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea...

"Be still, and know that I am God."

I sure felt a chunk of our life crumbling when that car died.  How were we going to go grocery shopping or get to doctor appointments?  My husband rides a motorcycle to work so he at least had transportation, but then my son and I would just be stuck at home.  And make no mistake, I most certainly did not take my own advice and dive into God's Word like I should have.  Rather, I spent a miserable several months praying for a solution, all the while trying to concoct one on my own.  I was still trying to do it my way...