The last couple of days we have been making our way through the steps of owning a 'new' car.  Thanks to CraigsList, we have seen many used cars for deals that are just above a fair price.  Tuesday we got several crisp, green bills together and handed them to a man for a 1990 Honda Accord.  Looks just like the car pictured to the left except it is blue.  (Picture from KBB)  It is a 5 speed manual transmission with just over 85k miles and after driving it I realized how much it was actually worth what he was asking... we brought $200 less than what he was asking.  Nevertheless, we told him we had the cash in our hands if he would take it.  He did.  Turns out, he is a master mechanic and has offered at least twice to fix any problems we have for less then we can get at any other mechanic.  He believes that being nice to people will come back and bring him good.

So far, it seems his being nice to people scheme has worked.  He has three houses (I think) at the end of a street in North Fort Myers, owns his own roofing business that has not laid off anybody as of yet, and has several children which are getting into racing cars.  I have always heard that nice guys finish last, but there is some evidence of the opposite.

What is all this about, you may wonder.  Well, I wanted to share another reason for my family to be thankful for the way God has provided for us.  He has provided many things that we really hadn't 'needed' but make our lives so much easier.  He has provided a house that we have made a home, a motorcycle one day before my Kia died, a van when we were ready to upgrade from the little black car, chickens when we pictured having fresh eggs for breakfast, an awesome, safe vacation to Colorado and Kansas and all the states between, a car when we decided the motorcycle trend has run it's course.  None of these things have been all that hard, probably because God knows that we can't handle the stress... or maybe because He wants us to make sure we are thankful for all we have.

I don't know, I am just so thankful for all that my family has.  Maybe in a few months we can have a party at my place and enjoy fresh eggs and do the chicken dance in the back yard by the coop.  If you have a problem with dancing, you can come and we will not dance.  I do not want to offend my brother or sister by doing something that they whole-heartedly believe is sin and therefore, instead we will not do the chicken dance.

In Other News:

Isn't it lovely weather we are having?  Sure the mornings are cold, but the days are sure nice.

• Budgeting - That's how we got a car.

http://www.iGive.com/welcome/warmwelcome.cfm?c=2695&m=657847

It's The Fuzz!

We have more things to be thankful for than we can even know.  If you're reading this, you have a house, a computer, the internet, friends, and so on.  I'm going to make sure to add one more thing to your list.

Yesterday, during Sunday School, a police officer drove his car slowly into our church parking lot.  He slowly went around the parking lot stopping once or twice for no apparent reason.  He continued around and headed for the exit real slow.  He stopped a young man (reasons unknown) and then continued on his way as slow as a the bacon is cooking next to me while I feel like I'm starving.

The Sunday School class I was in was watching out the window.  There could have been a few ideas as to why that police office was there, but one thing that I and the rest of us knew almost for certain, is that he had no intention to come into our church and stop us from worshiping.  We were not afraid for our lives.  We did not quickly put our Bibles under our seat cushions or wait shaking for the police to do a thorough search of our building and drag some of us out for questioning.

We should be increasingly thankful for our freedoms here in America.  Our freedoms may seem to be under attack or diminishing, but our freedoms are still here.  Let us continue to give thanks for our freedom to worship God without fear and continue to pray for those who can not worship "freely" as we can.  Be thankful that the government can not tell us what days to worship, and pray for those who have to abide by the governments schedule of worship http://www.persecution.com/public/newsroom.aspx?story_ID=MjAz .

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/webhostingreview/ / CC BY 2.0