Thursday, September 29, 2016

Nothing is Impossible with God by Teresa



My husband of nearly 30 years passed away from cancer in 2010.  Since then I have had to make many decisions. One of those decision was what to do with his precious 24 foot cabin cruiser.  He just loved that boat and took very good care of it.  I was very hesitant to sell it because of the sentimental value I had put on it.  However, I knew I could not just let it sit there and slowly deteriorate.  So in 2012 I decided I was going to sell it.  I licensed the boat and I started to clean it.  I talked to some coworkers and did some research on what it was worth, searching to see if anyone was interested in it.  I had a couple of people come and look at it.  A couple of weeks passed and the anxiety I felt over selling the book took over my emotions and I could not sell.  I believed God wanted me to let go, but I just could not do it.  I was very upset over the anxiety I was experiencing. I was very upset with myself that I could not go forward with what God was putting in my heart.

In 2014, once again, I felt God put on my heart that it was time to sell the boat.  I felt God gently pushing me to let go of the boat.  I knew it wasn’t about selling the boat, but it was about healing my heart, letting go and moving forward.  I realized I could not move out of the mourning phase. I also realized God was thinking of my emotional health.

So, of course, I made a deal with God.  I told Him that if He wanted me to sell it, He was going to have to help me make it happen.  All the anxiety I felt in 2012 came back.  I really didn’t think I could sell it.  I made a to-do list in order to prepare the boat.  The boat was stored in our 40’x36’ barn so I had to work out a plan to pull it out.  I needed to find someone to pull it to a boat shop, so I could have it thoroughly gone through.  I was going to have to post an ad.  Then there would be the test drives, which meant I would have to have help pulling the boat to the river.  Who knows how many times I would have to do this?  Further, in my heart, I had 3 issues I was concerned with.  I never shared these 3 concerns with anyone, they were just heavy on my heart.  The first one was my concern whether someone would want me to finance it, or pay with a check, because I preferred to receive cash and not worry about receiving a bad check.  My second concern was that the name of the boat would very likely be changed.  You see, the boat was named after me, so it was special.  My third concern was that some individual would buy it and not take good care of it.  I was hoping it would end up with a nice family with children and they would truly enjoy it like we had.

Through everyone one of these steps, I would ask God to help me because inside I wanted to back out.  Let’s just say that I was digging my heels every step of the way.  One day I made the comment to God, that “if I could only find a boat mechanic that would come to my house”.  I was not having any luck finding someone who could pull the boat out of the barn and haul it to a boat shop.  The boat shops I had spoken to were not willing to come and pick it up. 

A few days later, out of know where, I received a call from a young man.  He introduced himself and told me that he had acquired my cell number from my son.  This young man had stopped at Office Depot to have business cards printed up for his new business.  It just happened that my son was working at Office Depot in the print shop and he assisted this young man (who also had attended high school with my older son).  It also happened that this young man had been recently laid-off from work and he was starting a mobile boat mechanic business.  My son shared with him that I was looking for someone to help me with preparing my boat to sell.  We settled on a time for him to come over to my house.  He truly was a God sent!  He pulled the boat out of the barn.  He went thoroughly through the boat and completed all the needed maintenance.  He then offered to meet with any of the potential buyers and if necessary, take them out for a test drive.  I offered to give him a commission, but he did not want one.  Of course, he was going to get a commission even though he did not want one.  I felt blessed by his presence and he felt blessed by my presence because he was trying to get his new business off the ground.

I was preparing to go on a month long vacation at the beginning of June, so I had decided that if I did not sell the boat by then, I was taking it off the market.  I placed an ad at my place of employment.  After 1 week, I decided to put it on Craigslist. I was very reluctant to do this just because I was not familiar with it and felt uncomfortable dealing with a broad audience of strangers.

So Easter Sunday was right around the corner and I had many activities I was involved in at church and had not checked my e-mail for days.  Saturday night (day before Easter) when I arrived home and was getting ready for bed I decided to quickly check my e-mails.  There I found several e-mails from the same individual very interested in the boat.  He had been e-mailing me since early Thursday.  Though, since Easter and all the activities leading to Easter were very special to me, I had already decided that I was not going to deal with the boat during this time frame.   I just felt it was not appropriate.  However, God had another plan.  It was 9:45 pm when I e-mailed this individual that if he wanted to get a hold of me he was going to have to call my cell phone, however I did not want to deal with the boat until after Easter.  It must have been 3 minutes within the time I sent the e-mail he was calling me.  I could not believe that he was on-line at the exact time I e-mailed him.  He was very persuasive and I agreed that I would meet him at 6:00 Sunday afternoon.  At least my Easter Sunday activities would be coming to an end by then.

When I arrived at my house at 6:00 pm, he was already waiting for me.  He was so excited going through the boat.  However, he was asking me questions that I could not answer.  I called the young boat mechanic who had helped me prepare the boat.  After apologizing to him for bothering him on Easter, I asked him if he would talk to the man over the phone.  He instead said he just happened to be near my home visiting family and he was just going to come over to my house.   The mechanic hooked the hose up to the boat and ran the motor. There was no need to take the boat to the river for a test drive.  The man made me an offer, which I accepted.  He offered all cash.  At this point his wife got off their vehicle to look over the boat. While the buyer was walking around the boat, he made a comment to his wife that the boat was already named after her.  It just happened that she and I shared the same name.  His wife shared with me that they were wanting a larger boat so they could take their adult children and grandchildren out boating and spend the night on it.

I was in complete awe on how God’s hand was in selling this boat.  I was so touched that God addressed all three concerns I held in my heart.  This entire process started mid-March and on 2014 Easter Sunday the boat sold. Nothing is impossible with God.  I learned that God gives us the ability to do things that we believe are impossible. I learned that when God is for me, nothing can come against me. I learned that God cares about every aspect of my life.  I can’t even express in words the growth I made in my walk with God because of His hand on my life.  There were so many others little things that occurred that I did not mention that were evidence of God’s love and presence in my life.

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