Lesson Learned!

They say you often marry someone just like your Dad....well, I'm not certain that happened in my life in either instance, but there are a few traits Richie has that make me go "whoah.. OK DAD".... One of those is the cars he drives. My Dad always had a nice shiny new cadillac at home in the garage, while he putzed around town in his old, old pickup. Since I've known Richie, he's always had a shiny new pickup in the garage, while he drove around the Metro area AND delivered his 7 day paper route in a really OLD junker. Worse yet, when that old junker went down and was waiting to be fixed by parts from the nearest junkyard, Richie would just get himself another old junker to drive instead of driving the new pickup that he was paying a chunk of change to the Ford Motor Company monthly for. He would just simply call it his need to have a "backup vehicle" in case one of them went down. I look at that as an awfully big expense for a backup vehicle. Thus, this subject has caused me many a time to just shake my head and we've certainly had more than a few "discussions" over his rationale for doing so. Most recently, this has caused an argument between us over which cars will move to Moorhead along with us. Since there will be no more paper routes, I just assumed both junkers would stay here nicely tucked away in junk yard heaven. Richie???? Well, yup you guessed it... he can't let go of his junkers. He's had his KIA for 8 yrs...with 267,000 miles on it, a gazillion hours spent inside it, and every part imaginable that could be replaced having been....That would be tooooooo much change for him he says....he knows they won't make the drive on their own, but he's willing to spend the $$$$ to have them TOWED THERE! ! ! and he has no problem with them just sitting in the driveway! OMG is what my first thoughts are...hummmm........ OK... so the guy's really attached to these old cars I think. So lately, I've come to the conclusion that there is too much conflict in my life. I've tried to analyze why..... is it just my menopausal mentality? is it just life's circumstances right now? is it my husband's stubborness? is it other people's insensitivity to how I feel? Which all lead me to do something I never do...buy and actually read a book! There are two people I love to watch on the Christian TV Network and always come away with something I can use in on ongoing journey to work on my personality...One is Joel Osteen and the other is Joyce Meyers. I am now halfway through reading Joyce's book on Conflict Free Living. The one chapter that has had the most personal affect on me is the "I'm Right and You're Wrong" where she discusses this very problem she has with her husband. In this chapter, she reminds me of the principles I learned way back early on in my christian walk......but have obviously not kept in daily practice! It's far better to bite my tongue and let God convince my husband he is wrong then to try to prove I am right. So how does this all tie in with my thoughts today? Well, my answer to the prayer about "help him Dear Lord to realize he needs to let go of all those junker cars before we move" came this morning without me saying a thing! After staying up reading, and watching the storms roll thru and making sure Richie got off to do his paper routes at 12:30 AM this morning I finally crawled into bed. At 4AM my bedside phone rang. "I need you.. I'm broke down... Come get me"... hummm....in the 4 yrs. I have been here, I've always feared this call... but until today, it had never come. As I tried to focus, he explained he took the KIA on route this morning and it froze up -- Of course, on the inside I'm saying "you idiot, WHY did you take the OLDEST car on your LONGEST route in bad weather when you have a brand new SUV still sitting here in the driveway".... so rather than start that argument back up, I say "sure honey, I'm on my way... where are the keys to the SUV?" to which he says "oh no, don't bring the SUV, drive the old Chevy Lumina and head on up to Wayzata" ---- crap... bring one junker up to save you from the other junker's failure. SO! brush my teeth....throw on my sweats...grab some flip-flops and head out into the dark morning at 4AM in the junker car I so hate heading down 494 to find Richie stalled somewhere near Kevin Garnett's mansion way back in the private paths of the rich and famous in Orono. I won't go into what transpired between us from that point on :-).......... but yes, we did spend the next 3 hrs together in the 2nd junker finishing his route, and yes, I did think of my Dad often as Richie was pushing me steering the broken down KIA over into the ditch area of the road. All in all though, it was a good morning .... because? It was the timing belt that went out and the KIA is now in junk yard heaven and won't be making the trip to Moorhead and adorning our driveway! Thank you Lord!... and I miss you Dad.....Richie could have used your help and car repair knowledge this morning :-)