I know you’ve heard the expression, “when it rains, it pours”.  Well, that’s been our weekend.    Our van has been out of commission for a while now, but now so is our truck and our dryer.   This is one of those times when I’m very thankful for my faith in Christ because I don’t know how in the world I’d be able to stand up under the pressure when things start getting this tough. 

1 Corinthians 10:13 says:

“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.  And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” 

God promises His children that He will not give us more than we can handle, and that as long as we keep our eyes and faith focused on Him and let Him take care of the details everything will be fine.   Does this mean that we should be lazy and do nothing?  Absolutely not.  This means that we need to do what we know we should do and not necessarily what we might want to do. 

In our case, we know that God does not want us to be in debt (Proverbs 22:7 – “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.”)  so we need to pay cash for all of our purchases.  

The truck’s water pump went out which, thankfully, Brian can fix himself.  He had to work for a few hours today and then pick up the kids, but then he will be fixing the truck this evening.  The van will have to wait for a bit, though, but that’s okay.  We have one working vehicle, and that’s what’s important.

As for the dryer, I hang most of our clothes out anyway, so this is not too big of a deal at this time, but there are times when I do need my dryer.   So, we will be saving up to pay for a new dryer.  Normally, we would have this money already put aside, but we’ve been hit pretty hard with extra expenses the last few months, so we don’t have the extra that we normally would. 

Also, before we purchase a new dryer, we need to start (and finish) the laundry/pantry room remodel  so that we can move the dryer inside and out of the storage building.  But, to do the remodel, we need replace the bathtub fixtures, replace the hot water heater (which is pretty old and has been acting up for a while) and the floor underneath the hot water heater (ruined from leakage from washer over the years- most of it prior to our moving in here), and do a small remodel to the wall connecting the bathroom and pantry.  My washer is currently in the bathroom and we want to move it to the pantry (basically flipping it around to the other side of the wall), but to make it fit, we have to move the wall a bit to create a little more space in the pantry so they fit.  

I’m very thankful that my husband is very handy and can do remodeling and plumbing, AND he’s a certified electrician!  Praise God for a handy man for a husband!  It’s so nice to not have to hire out all of these projects!!   It has saved us lots of money over the years!  God has provided us with a handbook on how to handle these types of situations, and through faith and prayer, He will guide us in the directions that we need to go.

Am I worried?  No.  How many people have no vehicle at all, or no home, or electricity, etc.  I’m blessed beyond my comprehension, and I’m a little inconvenienced by all this, then maybe there’s a lesson in all this that I need to learn.  So, I’m  going to leave all these  so-called “problems” in God’s hands and let Him “take care of His business” and I will try to stay focused on what He would have me to learn through all of this.  

So, how do you handle these types of situations?  I’d love to hear from you!