A couple months ago we were blessed by an old pick-up truck being given to my husband. The lady that gave it to us refused to take a dime. She said it was only a lawn ornament, sitting unused at her house. The person who she had gotten it for couldn't drive now. She knew my husband was often on call in the winter for work, and needed a reliable way there.
It was a blessing that meant so much! And, sure enough, my husband has been called in to plow snow quite often!
On Saturday, my husband and I were hesitant about buying a vehicle. We have limited savings. I felt that morning that, if at all possible, I wanted to avoid debt and payments.
I wanted a minivan because a car just doesn't seat enough bodies. Minivans can be more expensive than a car or SUV. I worried I would have to settle for something that would just fit us instead of what I felt our family needed.
Needless to say, options were limited. We went to a car lot where my brother-in-law works because he has access to the best trade-Ins. However, options in our price range were limited. Most of the vans we had spotted on the dealer website were being sent off to auction because they had too many issues to make a profit. One van we tried to look at seemed a bit rough, but we never could look inside. The salesman couldn't find the keys (not his fault).
There was one option. My husband kept looking at the one van the lot had available. We took it out for a test drive. We headed back to see what else they had, only to be told there was nothing else. My brother-in-law wouldn't even show us an unsafe or unreliable vehicle.
We bought a van that was older than we wanted. The Carfax showed a one-owner, well-serviced van. Despite the age, it has been well maintained. Since vans of this make and model tend to last 300,000 miles if taken care of well, My husband and I knew we stood a decent chance of having a reliable vehicle for a while.
I even saved enough from what we had budgeted for a van to get brand-new tires.
Many times over the last several months my husband and I have been tempted to get a loan for a vehicle. When you are walking with a seven year old home from the grocery store carrying three days worth of food in the cold, a loan for reliable transportation seems worth the debt.
But it's not!
A vehicle, even an older one, that is completely paid for, means freedom! I don't want to be the slave to the lender. No want to owe no one anything except love.
My husband and I have been through the financial ringer over a several year period of time. We never had any credit cards, but we did have debt. We lost big time when our home was discovered to be full of mold and making us quite ill. We now avoid debt like the plague and believe what the Bible tells us about the curse of debt.
God was with us through the last trying year. He was with me on the walks to and from the store. He provided amazing Christians to step in and give us rides when we needed them. And, to make sure we didn't buy a van with major issues, He made sure they were sent to auction.
God is good.
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