Praising God for provision

So we recently broke down and purchased a 'new' vehicle. It is new to us, but it is a used 2004 Ford Taurus. It was actually an excellent deal, we got it for $7500 and it only had 38,000 miles on it! Well, we also have a second vehicle which is a 1995 Pontiac Grand Prix. Of course, with an older vehicle you expect to have a few things fixed on it. Most recently we had discovered that the water pump was leaking onto the serpentine belt, and causing one of the pulleys to squeak badly. We were told that it was going to cost us about $400 to repair this. Well, the car that we were replacing was a 1995 Ford Escort with over 100,000 miles on it, in terrible shape. We were considering just junking it out at a salvage yard and only expecting $50. We were also considering donating it or selling it to an individual and either making nothing or maybe $200-$300 at most. But we decided we didn't want to give someone else the headache of a vehicle with so many problems. Our last resort was to take it to CarMax, the outfit that buys and sells used vehicles. I have to tell you , I was not at all hopeful. I figured we'd get laughed out of the showroom. But Ken went ahead and emailed them and explained the situation and we were told " if we can drive it in, they will make us an offer". So we went. We had to wait about half an hour for them to look over (and I'm sure laugh at) the car, and I think the half hour actually was more like 45 minutes or so. The gentleman had told my husband that the least amount they will offer is $50.00. Okay, so that's not too terrible I thought. He comes back at the end of the 45 minutes and says "okay how about 10 times the amount I had mentioned?". They offered us $500 for that thing!!

I go through that story to say that we had just found out about the cost of the repair to the water pump of our other vehicle that same day, in fact, that morning. After past experiences with faithfulness from God, I firmly believe that this was another way that He was able to provide our family with a way to help make the repairs to the other vehicle happen. Now, of course, we are learning the hard lesson in humility that we still need to be faithful in return, in being good stewards with what has been provided to us. We had used some of the money to get another carseat for our daughter, which we had been needing. We won't have to front the entire $400, but we are also having to still take some out of pocket because of our failure to be good stewards ahead of time (i.e some of that money was already spent before we even knew we were going to have it.).

Thanks, Lord, for your provision. Thanks also for the reminder that once we are faithful in the little things, you will continue to entrust us in the big things.