I have a story to tell.....

It all started last Thursday. My husband, John, went to his regular Thursday night event, which is a men’s Bible study. About an hour after he left he called me; looking at the caller ID my first thought was…whaaaat??? What’s happened????. He was all “A-twittered”; our daughter, Aly, had called him. Her car broke down a few blocks from her apartment. It shuttered and stopped. She managed to get it to the side of the road. She first called her boy friend who told her she needed to call her Dad (she should have called him first), that statement didn’t bode well in our books, even though it was correct. We are 4 hours away. John told her to call James. James is a friend she made in her church about a year ago. James recently married a girl from his home town in KS. Sweet James came over after work to take a look at Aly’s car. He noticed a spark plug was missing (how in the world did that happen and apparently a car won’t run if a spark plug is missing) and oil was in the spark plug well (or whatever it is that the spark plug sits in). Where was the spark plug? James couldn’t find it anywhere. He and Aly go to buy a new set of spark plugs; starts up the car, it runs a few blocks and then dies again. James takes another peek and sees that it needs new spark plug wires (apparently they go bad). He tells Aly he will come over to fix it on Saturday; he needs to get home to his new bride. Saturday after work, James comes back. He replaced the wires, the car starts up and runs great. He tells Aly to take it to have the oil changed, which she does after James leaves. Aly asked James how much could she pay him. He tells her 20.00. She pays him 50. It would have cost much more if she had taken it to a mechanic. But this is not the end of the story. For you see there is always more to a story than just the facts.

Here’s the rest of the story. What is a parent to do when their collegiate daughter, who is a 4 hour drive away, calls and tells them her car is broken down on the side of the road? Well the first response is usually to worry, I hate to admit it but that is where we started. With all the descriptions given, the car shuddered and died, the missing spark plug and oil in the spark plug well, it didn’t sound good. My husband knows his way around an engine too and he was thinking the engine had blown and would need major repairs in the ballpark of 2-3 grand. Frankly, the car is not worth that much. We began to consider other options, a newer car or fixing this one was not one of the options. We finally calmed ourselves down and began to pray. Aly called her “Life Ministries” group and they began to pray. I felt much calmer and knew a favorable solution would happen (which did as told in the first paragraph). In the end, it only cost us around 130.00. The car is running great. Praise the Lord. But that’s not the end of the story.

James (remember he is newly married, his wife is new to that area and hasn’t found a job yet) told Aly after she had paid him that he needed the money for groceries. I was so regretful that we didn’t pay him more. But God knows what James and his wife need and He provided that need. It’s hard to grumble about a broken down car when that very event brought about help for someone else. Not only did God use it to help James and his wife but it also taught Aly a lesson. We keep telling her to check her oil, anti-freeze, transmission fluids and all the things that keep a car running smoothly but she seems to have the attitude that it will run and keep running without anything required from her. Needless to say, her attitude has changed and that’s a bonus too.