A little history... Our house is about 35 years old. We bought it three years ago so the garage door opener is somewhere between 3 and 35 years old. How old exactly? I don't know. When we moved in both clickers were giving me trouble but I was able to get one working (It involved scotch tape). And it's worked for 2 years. But not anymore. And my wife is not going to park in the garage if she has to get the kids out of the car, open the garage from the inside and then pull it in. I had to get the clicker working or my effort at cleaning the garage was going to be wasted. But hey, it could just be the batteries. We'll start with getting new batteries and go from there.
So we get to Sears and what was the first thing I looked at? Garage Door Openers. Not even clickers, I was looking at the whole she-bang! I could install it myself, right? Then I looked the clickers. There's a universal for $35. Boy it would be nice to have a new clicker. They even have the keypads you could mount for $40. That would be nice to have too.
Why did I start out looking at the garage door openers? I don't need a new garage door opener. Mine is working just fine. What am I doing looking at new clickers? What happened to buying batteries and seeing if that took care of the problem? Batteries cost $5. Even if the batteries don't work I'll have extra batteries for a new clicker. Right now all I need to get are batteries. But I wanted a new garage door opener. At a minimum I wanted a new clicker.
"And my God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 4:19
Too often we get focused on what we want instead of what we need. God's Word has said that He will supply all of our need, not our want. Do I need a new car or want it? Do I need that tub of ice cream or want it? Do I need that $300 Coach purse or want it (my wife might argue this point...)? Before you get upset that God isn't supplying all your need take a look at whether the object is a need or or a want.
A few months ago my wife and I realized that we needed a minivan. We looked around and decided that we wanted to get a Toyota Sienna. We loved them after we test drove them. We liked the interior layout. They had great resale value. And there was the problem. Any Toyota Sienna we found in our price range would not have been in a condition that we would want. But we needed a minivan. So what happened? We got a minivan. My wife found a 2003 Chevy Venture online. We drove 3 hours to Illinois, paid only $300 after our trade-in and we have a minivan, paid in full. God supplied our need. We didn't get exactly what we wanted, but we got what we needed.
Giving in to your wants can be more dangerous than you realize. God is supplying your need. But can you afford all your need if you decide to start buying your wants? Looking back to our minivan. According to our bank we could have afforded a Toyota Sienna. The loan was approved and all we had to do was find the minivan we wanted. But we would have been eating beans and rice for a long time. We could forget about a date night at the movies. We realized that while we wanted a Toyota Sienna, it wasn't what we needed. We needed to find a minivan that we would be able to pay off with the purchase. Once we changed our focus to our need instead of our want, God supplied it.
So I didn't give in. I bought the batteries and went home. And with the new battery the clicker works just fine, scotch tape and all. And since you have to buy batteries in pairs I put the extra battery in the other clicker, the one I couldn't get to work, and now I've got two working clickers. Woo Hoo!
No comments:
Post a Comment