Tithing Blessing

Back in December I got rear-ended. I had dropped the kids off at school and was in the car- in my pajamas, with Max who was also in his pajamas, when a teenager in a full-size truck didn’t stop in time and slammed into me, pushing me into the car in front of me. It was traumatic and the van was totaled. Our van was a silver 2004 Mazda MPV with 115K miles.

The most upsetting thing to me was that our van had been paid off for 7 months and I had planned on keeping it for at least 3 more years. I knew our van wouldn’t be worth a whole lot and I was highly concerned about the possibility of adding a car payment to our budget. I was right to be concerned. When the insurance company called to tell us the amount the van was worth, it was depressing. A couple of weeks after the accident I was looking at vans in Atlanta (because there were no import vans available in our price range here in Hattiesburg and we don’t drive American) and stumbled across a listing for a used silver 2004 Mazda MPV with 103K miles. It was being sold for less than our low settlement from the insurance company (thank you “Cash for Clunkers” and a saturated used car market). I called Ernie’s parents and asked them if they would go to the dealership and test drive it for me. They did and we bought it. After taxes and registration, the purchase of the vehicle was almost exactly what the insurance company had given us as the settlement.

I have reflected on this a lot. Ernie and I tell the kids that our replacement van is our “tithing blessing”. Ernie and I have always paid our tithing and I believe with all my heart that choosing to do that has protected and blessed our family through the years. Our new van and our old van are the same color, same model, and have almost the exact same number of miles. Most people don’t realize that we have a new van at all. It is a significant blessing to me that the Lord restored our family to the way things were before the accident and with minimal disruption to our lives.