Things to be thankful for
       
       Life has been a little rough for me these past couple of weeks and I 
       was feeling pretty down for a while. I suppose I'm still a little 
       upset yet, but then I began to realize that everything will work out 
       according to God's will and timing, which is always perfect. 
       Last week Friday morning it snowed a little here in Wisconsin, and it 
       was quite cold outside for November, so I started my Jeep Grand 
       Cherokee to let it warm up before I left for work. As it was running 
       I shoveled the snow, which took around 20 minutes or so. After that 
       I got back into the Jeep and tried to back out of the driveway. I 
       noticed that the gear shifter kept shifting itself back out of Reverse 
       and into Park or sometimes Neutral. After that I noticed that the OBD 
       malfunction ("engine light") was on. I decided to call work and ask 
       for the day off because I needed to arrange for my vehicle to be 
       towed. Needless to say I was very upset and frustrated because 
       something was possibly wrong with the transmission in my Jeep. I had 
       hoped the problem was less serious though, such as a sensor or 
       something else electronic dealing with the gear shifter. 
       Unfortunately, it turns out that somehow the transmission is damaged 
       (there is the presence of metal shavings in the transmission fluid 
       and it appears burnt), so I will have to pay a ridiculous amount of 
       money to fix it. My wife and I really didn't want to pay so much to 
       repair it, because the vehicle is almost eight years old, but we had 
       little choice since we still owe quite a lot on our loan for it. We 
       were very upset to have such a serious mechanical failure on the Jeep 
       when it only has about 43,000 miles on it, and I'm not hard on the 
       vehicle. I don't drive like a maniac and I don't do any heavy towing 
       or plow with it. I am thankful, however, that the Lord has provided a 
       means to pay for it for now and we can pay the money back a little 
       every month. 
       Also, I recently found out that my dad is sick as well as an aunt. My 
       aunt is in the hospital with COVID, and both she and my dad are about 
       80 years old. I have been praying for both to get well soon and 
       yesterday I found out Dad is feeling better and my aunt is not 
       seriously ill right now. She is very tired but expected to be able to 
       go home soon.
       I am also thankful for the new family/play area that we made in our 
       basement. Since we live in a somewhat small house, my wife wanted an 
       additional family/play area so that the kids have somewhere else to 
       play together besides our living room. I lost the workbench I had, 
       because it has been repurposed into an entertainment center/table, 
       but we repurposed a table that we had into a different workbench. I 
       didn't want the change to happen at first, because I don't like change 
       very much, but I am very happy with how the project has turned out, 
       and thankful to have more usable space in our house.
       I think the lesson I need to learn through times like this is that I 
       shouldn't worry and need to rely on Jesus to handle the difficult 
       situations in life that are outside of my control. I hope anyone who 
       might read this will have a happy Thanksgiving and also will get to 
       know Jesus before it is too late. I recommend starting by reading the 
       book of John in the New Testament of the Bible.
       
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