I'm Giving Thanks...for Difficult Circumstances

I posted the other day about my Tahoe breaking down on the way to work and how Trevor came to my rescue.  Sadly, the story doesn't end there but continues on to include a brand new transmission.  In years past, this would have sent me into a frenzy of worry and stress about how the amount of money in our checking account would cover the final amount of the bill.  About which credit card we were going to max out to supplement our inadequate savings, and then about how we would pay our bills that month (and conceivably the next).

But when we got the news about this expensive repair, my first thought was not about any of those things.  It was to thank God for providing for us in this economy, and for sending a renter for our house in Texas.  The first rent check could not have come at a better time, and because of some financial decisions that we made a few months ago we had money set aside for just such an emergency.  God is teaching us to be good stewards of our money.  He's teaching us that He is capable of taking care of our every need.  He is teaching us that the end game for everything that happens to us in this life is for our good and His glory.

The money we have to spend on this unexpected repair is not without it's own set of difficulties.  It sets us back in our savings, and it lengthens the amount of time it will take to reach our financial goals but those are such temporal things.  The eternal lessons we have gleaned are far more important and so today I am giving thanks for difficult circumstances and the way God grows us when we respond in faith, joy and thanksgiving.