Spring Break Day 1
Sunday, April 13, 2014
When life gives you a flat tire...
APRIL 10, 2014
What do you do when you have a car full of kids headed to the zoo and you get a flat tire? Head to Ross while you get your flat fixed and have the girls dress each other in crazy outfits. Good times!!
These girls crack me up. We had all just loaded in the car, finally got on the road and had stopped to get gas. For some reason, Spencer had rolled down the front window, so when I pulled out of the gas station I could hear what sounded like a flat tire. I had him hop out and check to see if one of them was flat. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, so we got back in and started driving. Same sound, loud enough that I couldn't just ignore it. Just across the street and down a block was the place where we purchased the tires, so I headed there. I pulled up and rolled down the window and told the guy there that, although it doesn't look like it, it sounds like I have a flat tire. From 20 feet away, he could tell what was wrong. There was a massive bolt sticking into my front passenger tire. It looked something like this:
What do you do when you have a car full of kids headed to the zoo and you get a flat tire? Head to Ross while you get your flat fixed and have the girls dress each other in crazy outfits. Good times!!
These girls crack me up. We had all just loaded in the car, finally got on the road and had stopped to get gas. For some reason, Spencer had rolled down the front window, so when I pulled out of the gas station I could hear what sounded like a flat tire. I had him hop out and check to see if one of them was flat. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, so we got back in and started driving. Same sound, loud enough that I couldn't just ignore it. Just across the street and down a block was the place where we purchased the tires, so I headed there. I pulled up and rolled down the window and told the guy there that, although it doesn't look like it, it sounds like I have a flat tire. From 20 feet away, he could tell what was wrong. There was a massive bolt sticking into my front passenger tire. It looked something like this:
As the guy was looking at it, he looked back at my back tires and said, "Oh no. Those are danergous." We knew our back tires needed to be replaced, but we were trying to hold out a little longer since we had to just have our engine mount replaced. He took me back and showed me how worn down they are and where wire was actually showing through. I know tire guys are prone to the good ole' upsell, but it was obvious that these were bad, and even worse than I had thought. He said, "You can't drive up to Salt Lake with all of those kids on tires like these. I most certainly wouldn't let my wife drive on these." We went in to determine what warranty was left and how much a new set of tires would cost. I hate spending money on this kind of stuff. Anyway, it was our lucky day and the tires were still under warranty. $106 for the pair of new tires! We had originally spent like $300, so this was such a relief! 45 minutes and a fun trip to Ross later, we had the hole patched and a set of new tires put on the car.
On the drive up to the zoo, I was reflecting on what had just happened. I couldn't help but think that Heavenly Father had a hand in this one. Getting new tires was something we knew we needed to do, but we had kept putting it off. It took a ridiculously large and unusual bolt in my front tire for it to create such a loud noise when I would drive so that I would actually pay attention to it and not be able to ignore it. Spencer's window just happened to be down so it was sure to be heard. It was that bolt that got me to the tire shop, but that wasn't the reason that I needed to be there. Heavenly Father spared us the tire blow out that was ready to happen at any moment. Having a car full of children, two of which weren't mine, on the freeway with a blown out tire could have proved to be disastrous.
How often does this type of thing happen in our spiritual lives? Do we keep putting off something that we know needs to be done or taken care of, but are waiting for a "better" time to do it. Heavenly Father knows better than we do the repercussions of procrastinating these things. The Holy Ghost will help subtly remind us to take care of these things, but sometimes we need to be shouted at, as in this instance. It was a real testimony builder to me that Heavenly Father knows us and is looking out for our best interest.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)