Do you ever get upset because you feel like God isn't working on your time table, or because you were trying to make it work out on your own, and when it didn't you were mad???

I am fairly certain that none of you would struggle with such a miserable sin, but I do. Here is the story of how stupid I really am.

Anthony and I have been looking for a car for quite a while now. Our Nissan has been a wonderful car, but with 215,000 miles on it, we knew its quality of life was nearing an end. We have wanted something very reliable, but cheap! Of course the kind of car we were looking for was the kind that most everyone is looking for - good gas mileage, reliable, nice looking, clean, family friendly, and cheap.

We've looked at dealerships, but by the time they mark up the car to make money on it themselves, it was pretty much out of our price range. So, since right now I have more time than money, I have been scouring the internet for cars.

Guess where I found the most options (and ultimately bought this car from).

You guessed it.

Craigslist.

About 1 1/2 weeks ago Anthony and I had looked at a Honda Accord. It had been on Craigslist for about 10 weeks, and the price had come down quite a bit. We drove it and really liked it, but were thinking that they still wouldn't want to come down to our price range. The dealership called me on Thursday to ask if we were still interested, so we decided we would go for it, and I was going to make an offer on the car on Friday. When I called on Friday before I left to go to Omaha, the car had sold that morning. I was disappointed, but felt like we had prayed about it, and it just must not be meant to be.

Imagine my delight when I found a similar car on Craigslist on Tuesday for $3,000 less! It had 3,000 more miles, but didn't think that was a big deal! The seller was asking less than loan value on the car. It did need some additional work since the timing belt and water pump hadn't been changed, and the windshield was cracked, but those are all things we felt like we could handle. I called the seller and lined up an appointment to see the car. The car was in CB, so he was going to get it and bring it out to West O for us to look at it. I confirmed it with him around 1:30, and lined it up to see the car at 7:00. I did tell him that we were very interested in the vehicle. Anthony and I thought that was the one. When I called the seller at 6:30 to let him know we were running a little ahead of schedule and wondered if we could come over then, he said he sold the car 20 minutes earlier. I was SO frustrated. The seller hadn't even sounded like anyone else was interested, he knew we were making a special trip into O to look at it, and didn't even give us the courtesy of first come first served or a phone call to let me know someone else was looking at it.

That night I came home and found one other listing on Craigslist that I thought had potential. It was a year newer than the 2 we had looked at, and was still a little more than we had wanted to spend, but in their listing they said the price was negotiable. I called and it was still available, so I went down and looked at it on Wednesday. The car was immaculate! They had all the service records for the vehicle, all the work had been done at Honda Certified dealerships, and the car was super clean. It had everything that I had been wanting, and was even the exact color I had been hoping for.

We made on offer on the vehicle, but didn't get our hopes up. Our offer was almost 40% less than what they had been asking initially, but we thought that if they said no, we would be in no worse position than we already were!

Steve, the seller, said he would get back to me on Thursday night. He was going to talk to some dealerships and see what they would sell the car for and talk to his wife about our offer. After all the talking we have done with dealerships, I was pretty sure there would be no way they would sell it for our offer (a little less than private party sale value).

We prayed about it, and felt that if that was what God had in mind for us, He would work out the details.

When Steve called back on Thursday night he said he had talked to the dealers and they pretty much said he would be crazy to sell the car for that, but he said that his wife had stayed home with their 3 kids, and they had lived with limited income before, and so they would sell it to us for an amount that was $25 LESS than I had offered! He is a principle at an elementary school, and his wife is a 1st grade teacher, and he said he feels like they see on a daily basis the difference it makes when mom's are home with their little ones.

I couldn't believe it. Leave it to God to not only bring us along a better deal price wise, but to validate my decision to be home with my child. The world today sends the message that if you stay at home with your kids you are waisting your life and your talent. On top of all of that, the car needs NOTHING done to it, and it was even the color I wanted!

When we picked up the car on Saturday they had filled the tank with gas. Wow.

I felt so blessed and stupid all at the same time. Why was I so upset about that other deal not working out? Why did I lack so much faith? I am fairly certain that we would have bought that car we had planned to look at, and by the time we did the work to it that it needed, it would have cost at least $1500 more. If I had bought the one that sold the morning I was planning to make an offer on it, that one would have cost more like $3,000 more ultimately.

God is good all the time, even when we get upset about our plans not working out.