Something About Angels

There are angels in our midst! Now I must confess that these are unusual angels in any sense of the word, but what else would you call someone who will stand in the rain, direct traffic, help you get all your stuff out of your wrecked vehicle, and then bring you breakfast the next day? What do you call someone who drives you to the hospital and sits in a waiting room full of violently ill people for almost 3 hours until you get checked out by the doctors? What do you call someone who makes arrangement for you to have a vehicle and someone who provides that vehicle free of charge? They may not be angels, but Mike and Sandra Clemons, Richard Batchelor, and J.B. Dye are certainly the kind of friends that remind me what it means to have a church family. Thank you to these wonderful people as well as to all who prayed for us, called us, and offered us vehicles and food following our accident. God has truly blessed us.

Be Careful What You Pray For -- or You should have listened to your wife

Well, we are finally home from our trip down to South Alabama. We went with several purposes in mind: to bring my pickup truck back home, to check on Sonya's mother, and to spend time with our girls (and Jon and Rob). We were almost 100% successful. We checked on Sonya's mom and had a great time with the girls (and Jon and Rob). The bringing the truck home didn't work out too well. Let me give you a little background. Jon and Ashley borrowed my truck to take a large dog from North Alabama to South Alabama. That was months ago. When they started to bring the truck back, Jon decided to get the oil changed. On the way, he gave me a call and asked, "Does your truck always overheat?" The answer of course was, "No, it never has!" To make a long story short, a belt had broken and the water pump wasn't working. They got it fixed, and it worked fine. We arrived down south on Sunday, and Sonya drove the truck on Monday. The belts squealed and the air conditioner didn't work very well, so when she got back, she said, "We probably should take the truck somewhere and let them check it out." Prophetic words, to say the least. Like a husband, I responded, "No, it will be okay. We'll get it checked out in Decatur." So we left Friday around 11 a.m. to head home. Before we left, I prayed, "God, please just give us air conditioning all the way home." Not, "protect us while we travel." Not, "take care of the truck all the way to Decatur." "Just give us air conditioning all the way home." Now understand, He did just that. We had a/c all the way to Bay Minette where we stopped at Burger King. We had a/c all the way to the Rabun/Perdido exit. But then the truck died, and we barely limped into the gas station. But the a/c worked. The lady from the car dealership in Atmore came to get us, and the car had a/c. The car we bought in Atmore had a/c all the way back to Summerdale and all the way back to Decatur. So God answered my prayer. Now I just have to forever put up with, "I told you you should have had the truck checked out." I say forever, because the statute of limitations never runs out on "I told you so." At least in our family it doesn't. Now it is usually said in fun, so it really is okay. But I just have to wonder -- what would have happened if I had just listened to my wife.