Ok so here is another good testimony of mine that the Lord did for me. It was a test I see in retrospect, and I passed it by the grace of God! SO I felt extra good. Now uh, managing money isn't really very hard to do if one makes wise decisions. It's called budgeting, and there are some things that are allowed in a budget and some things are not allowed, lol. The ability to make wise decisions with money takes good judgment, and practice. Then you get experience in budgeting money. So good judgment xomes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgment. (Lol!) But now that I am officially retired disabled, I survive on an extremely tight budget. But it's easier than running a Mechanical Contracting business for sure because I have so much come in once a month, and it takes so much overhead to run the house (Utilities, Food, Taxes and all that).
I thought being retired would be fun but it's not. It's like being on welfare financially. (Didnt I say I was divorced, lol). But I digress. The thing is, some months I can order out for food at least once. Other months, no way. But there are many things that I simply can not afford any more. So whenever I do come across some extra money somehow, from a gift or a side job or whatever, that is when I splurge and try to buy something (useful) that I normally could not afford. So I had a nice wind fall from those Stimulas checks that came out. My household budget was cover by my SS check so it's time to pretend living the dream again Lol! (I went through soo much money when I was in bussiness!)
So it was the biggest check from stimulas and it cleared my bank one morning and so today is the day to buy a toy. I started out flush in the morning and was gone all day spending money. I didnt come home until I was literally broke (budget money notwithstanding. A guy has to eat). And when I got home broke, I walked in the door and took my shoes off and put some things away and so forth, made some coffee and went downstairs to finish the laundry... and stepped into the laundry room to have warm wet feet suddenly. My Water Heater was leaking at the tank. I couldnt hear it, but that's what I do and it had a hot spot so I knew it was indeed leaking and would need to be replaced. And then it hit me...
I had the money to buy a new water heater this morning, and I dont now because I just spent it! Now what am I going to do?! I dont have the money to buy a water heater. I might have to wait a month before I can buy one, another payday.
And then what do people usually do? Try to bame God? I was thinking, the Lord knew this was going to happen and He didnt let me know before I spent all my money! (I know, I know. sounds embarassing) and I did thank God that He gave me the urge to do all the laundry before it went out (for a month?) so that was good. I was all freshly showered up that day too so that aint too bad. I can live a month with running hot water. But I thought, why didnt God tell me? I felt like this was something the Lord should have said something to me about! We have a good relationship I think. But as I stood there in my wet stocking feet, I saw the futility of the situation and realized that so at the worst I am going to be without hot water for a month. And so I actually laughed at the situation and I said out loud, Lord, I don't know what you're doing, but...I trust you. And I shut of the feed to it and forgot about it. (which is code talk for took down the model & serial so I could buy the replacement unit exactly so I would need minimal materials to install the new one. In the trade we call that a slip fit. Many of them the only thing to use new is two couplings to reattach the water lines to it. I have a torch and coper pipe and all that stuff and needed to keep the cost at a minumum. It is a Rheem 40 gal gas water heater. So the next morning I called up the local Rheem supply house and asked about a new unit. I had to know just how much money I would be looking at to come up. I wanted the same unit so I gave him the model number and he asked for the serial number too. But I know how to read serial numbers and this one was 5 years old. Just out of warranty. (Figures)
And he says yeah we have that unit and it is under warranty! I said but it's 5 years old? He said 5 1/2 actually but Rheem has a 6 year warranty on their units. And I suddenly understood what was going on with the Lord! Praise the Lord! I think He just wanted to test my reaction and I had chosen wisely and had the best reaction I think!
The thing is though, I was in Business and the trade for a long time and I did know that Rheem had a 6 year warranty because I used that as a selling point to Customers...But nevertheless, when I saw my WH leaking and the serial number, I had 5 years in my head. I did not remember the 6 yr warranty. I mean, all the other compaines that manufacture new water heaters for the industry (There's only about 7 companies making ALL the different brands of water heaters, just with different labels!) and Rheem is the only company which offers a 6 year warranty with their standard model units. Rheem is proud of their equipment (and rightly so!) So I figure the Lord restrained my memory from remembering that it had a 6 year warranty, lol. Just for the test.
I love to pass tests. I like to test at anything. Pass or fail, you get the score and can see where youre at at least. I go to website called Queendom.com and they have about a zillion different types of tests there. But passing a test from the Lord is very satisfying to me.
