16 years ago when me & Neil met and were just dating we often had to deal with our jealousy towards ‘two car couples’ at bible college. We were a ‘zero car couple’ which felt unfair at the time but just meant that we spent A LOT of time walking around the block, grounds & village of Mattersey. In hindsight this wasn’t a bad thing for our fledgling relationship or to help keep weight off from our carb loaded uni diet (2min noodles were life). We’ve always been very blessed with our cars through parents, friends & precious people who have given us deals, gifted us cars or helped us to save up for purchasing cars. We’ve never bought new, we’ve never financed cars, we’ve always bought outright within a modest budget, within our means and stewarded what we had the best that we could. This last week through amazing generosity and God’s timing we’ve been able to, for the first time ever, become a ‘two car couple’.
From the outside it could look like a snap decision, but in reality this week’s decision started about 5 months ago when we started to notice the NEED for another car. We started to take note and physically log every time that we had to ask for a lift, or turn down an opportunity or change our plans significantly because of having one car. We were already intentionally saving but we began to talk about what we NEEDED, what kind of second car would suit us, what budget would be sensible and affordable and I began to pray. Car buying for me is one of the most stressful things on the planet as it’s a high stakes, high finance investment that if you get it wrong can really make life difficult and we take stewardship of the money God has trusted us with seriously. So on Tuesday when a precious, wise and dear friend talked to us about a car that suited our needs, was in our price range and was available now it was a no-brainer decision to pull the trigger and purchase our first ever second car.
Reflecting on the process of becoming a two car couple this week and re-visiting those early days filled with walking and zero cars reminded me of a few things…
1) Never underestimate the kindness of people, they are God’s greatest treasure and most of our blessings come packaged as people.
2) You may look at the overnight success or blessing of someone else and it’s easy from a distance to think ‘Well it’s alright for them’ but the longer our path stretches on, the more we press into our unknowns, the more I’m coming to realise that ‘overnight successes’ can often take months if not years.
3) Tithing and thoughtful stewardship of the resources entrusted to you is always a good thing and helps create the ground for blessings to be released.
4) Comparison will have you making decisions and taking actions way before the right timing for your life. If we’d bought two cars when we wanted them we would have been in serious debt all because we were dissatisfied with where we found ourselves at the time.
5) There’s always gold to be discovered right where you are. For 14 years since me and Neil had our first car we’ve shared literally thousands of journeys and hours talking, laughing, crying, singing, listening and dreaming together in the one car. Sure it’ll be a bit easier getting to the places we need to, but I’ll forever treasure those 14 years of shared car journeys. That’s time and investment into our relationship that can never be replaced and I’ll always be grateful for it.
So today wherever you find yourself, whatever life looks like for you remember that there is gold to be discovered, if you can just look hard enough.
Treasure in the Trial 