| Things to be thankful for | |
| Life has been a little rough for me these past couple of weeks and I | |
| was feeling pretty down for a while. I suppose I'm still a little | |
| upset yet, but then I began to realize that everything will work out | |
| according to God's will and timing, which is always perfect. | |
| Last week Friday morning it snowed a little here in Wisconsin, and it | |
| was quite cold outside for November, so I started my Jeep Grand | |
| Cherokee to let it warm up before I left for work. As it was running | |
| I shoveled the snow, which took around 20 minutes or so. After that | |
| I got back into the Jeep and tried to back out of the driveway. I | |
| noticed that the gear shifter kept shifting itself back out of Reverse | |
| and into Park or sometimes Neutral. After that I noticed that the OBD | |
| malfunction ("engine light") was on. I decided to call work and ask | |
| for the day off because I needed to arrange for my vehicle to be | |
| towed. Needless to say I was very upset and frustrated because | |
| something was possibly wrong with the transmission in my Jeep. I had | |
| hoped the problem was less serious though, such as a sensor or | |
| something else electronic dealing with the gear shifter. | |
| Unfortunately, it turns out that somehow the transmission is damaged | |
| (there is the presence of metal shavings in the transmission fluid | |
| and it appears burnt), so I will have to pay a ridiculous amount of | |
| money to fix it. My wife and I really didn't want to pay so much to | |
| repair it, because the vehicle is almost eight years old, but we had | |
| little choice since we still owe quite a lot on our loan for it. We | |
| were very upset to have such a serious mechanical failure on the Jeep | |
| when it only has about 43,000 miles on it, and I'm not hard on the | |
| vehicle. I don't drive like a maniac and I don't do any heavy towing | |
| or plow with it. I am thankful, however, that the Lord has provided a | |
| means to pay for it for now and we can pay the money back a little | |
| every month. | |
| Also, I recently found out that my dad is sick as well as an aunt. My | |
| aunt is in the hospital with COVID, and both she and my dad are about | |
| 80 years old. I have been praying for both to get well soon and | |
| yesterday I found out Dad is feeling better and my aunt is not | |
| seriously ill right now. She is very tired but expected to be able to | |
| go home soon. | |
| I am also thankful for the new family/play area that we made in our | |
| basement. Since we live in a somewhat small house, my wife wanted an | |
| additional family/play area so that the kids have somewhere else to | |
| play together besides our living room. I lost the workbench I had, | |
| because it has been repurposed into an entertainment center/table, | |
| but we repurposed a table that we had into a different workbench. I | |
| didn't want the change to happen at first, because I don't like change | |
| very much, but I am very happy with how the project has turned out, | |
| and thankful to have more usable space in our house. | |
| I think the lesson I need to learn through times like this is that I | |
| shouldn't worry and need to rely on Jesus to handle the difficult | |
| situations in life that are outside of my control. I hope anyone who | |
| might read this will have a happy Thanksgiving and also will get to | |
| know Jesus before it is too late. I recommend starting by reading the | |
| book of John in the New Testament of the Bible. | |
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