My Husband Wants to Know About My $15 - $20 Gas Budget

One random day, I decided to share with my husband that, once upon a time, I had gone from not-even-blinking-an-eye-when-filling-up-my-then-gas-guzzling-SUV's-gas-tank-until-it-was-very-full to suddenly downgrading-to-a-smaller-vehicle-and-being-mindful-of-how-much-gas-I-put-in ($20 here, $15 there)-without-ever-filling-it-up...and loving it!

He just smiled--because he knows that I am quirky like that.

Today, he caught me off-guard with a request:

"Later, would you share with me how you were able to enjoy just filling your gas tank with $20?"

"Okay", I swiftly replied, as we exchanged our usual sweet farewells over the phone. He had a meeting to catch.

I put my phone down.

"Why don't I turn this into a blog post?" I thought to myself. After all, I just finished reading one of my blog posts to him while he was driving in to work this morning--you know, the one about judgments being passed on to working moms, single moms, and stay-at-home moms.  I just had to pick that one to read to him today (yes, I needed to vent a little).

Then I thought, "If he is interested in knowing about it, perhaps others would be interested in reading about it, too."

I paused. "So, where do I begin?"

In the midst of vacillating between sentences I was startled by the sound of a familiar tune.

It was my phone.

Alas! An hour had already passed. My husband's meeting is over. It is time to tell him about my story.

Still undecided about my approach, I asked, "What triggered you to ask me about it? Are you running low on gas?"

"No. I'd been meaning to ask you about it when you first mentioned it. I just didn't have the opportunity."

I still needed to know where to start, so I inquired further, "Which part would you like to know? The part when I was able to change my perspective and make my situation enjoyable?"

"I wanted to know what it was like for you. I want to get to know that part of you. When did that happen?"

"It started it 2009." The mere mention of "2009" did it for me. It flashed a vivid picture in my head--a time, a place, a setting. From there, the words began to flow like a stream.

"November 2009," I continued. "At a gas station."

My tone changed. "As a matter of fact, I remember writing about this. Let me find my journal."

My husband, ever the good listener that he is, patiently waited on the phone until I could find my journal entry.

"Yup! Found it. It was in November 2009."

After having read the entire journal entry to my husband, he shared, "That's exactly what I needed to hear today."

He was referring to the lesson that I had learned from a complete stranger at the gas station in November 2009!

An older gentleman at the adjacent gas pump suddenly spoke, "You look very tired. Are you okay?"

I do remember being very tired that day--I only had 2.5 hours of sleep, it was the end of the work day, I had just unexpectedly landed a brand new project with a brand new client that initially had unrealistic expectations (and I had just moved to Hawaii), my then-youngest child had just enrolled in school and I had to remember to pick him up at a different location that day while making sure that I didn't miss to pick up my other son at another school on time (on top of multiple real estate/property issues looming ahead). I also remember staring blankly at the steep gas prices trying to recall the items that I had reviewed for the final exam that was scheduled for that evening.

For a moment there, I had lost contact with the outside world.

That stranger's words were gentle yet powerful enough to pull me back in:

"A very important Person once said, 'Be anxious for nothing'. Remember that."

Those words entered my body through a jolt in my spine followed by a chill that awakened my mind and convicted my heart. My eyes have suddenly been opened, and I found peace.

He quoted from Philippians 4:6-8:

"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." 

As God had used a stranger to deliver His message to me on that day in November 2009, likewise, God used my husband's genuine interest in my story to deliver just the message that he needed to hear today.

I never finished telling him my story just yet. Somehow, God must be saving that for another time.