On August first 2009, Katie and I wed on the beach of South Padre Island.  It was a beautiful wedding and a beautiful day.  When we returned from our honeymoon, I started Spanish language school and Katie started work at UTRI.  The beginning of our married life has not been all easy, but it has been great experiencing life together as we learn.  I want to share one of our challenges.

We used some of our wedding money to buy ourselves a mattress.  We wanted to spread our money a little further so we decided to buy a new, low-end mattress. We had been told that the one thing we shouldn’t skimp on was the mattress, but we thought it would be fine.  As I signed the receipt I read in bold letters, “No Refunds, No Exceptions.”  It wasn’t long before I observed that these mattresses were not the quality that we had thought initially.  We began to feel stupid thinking that we should have listened to advice. And after sleeping on the mattresses for a few days, buyer’s regret had fully set in.  We slept fine on them, but every time we looked at them we felt like we had made the wrong choice.  And we knew that they would not have the longevity of a higher-grade mattress.  We just wanted to start over.

I posted the mattresses on Craig’s List.  I got dead-end emails and then finally, after a couple of weeks. I got in touch with a lady who wanted to come buy them.  I was so eager to get rid of them that I even offered to deliver them to her house.  She came out and said she liked them and she bought them for just a little under what I had originally paid.  As I drove away from her house I felt so relieved; we could finally go out and buy a mattress that we didn’t feel guilty about.  The next day at school I got a call.  It was from her.  I was just not at all glad to hear from her.  I answered and she told me that when her husband got home he hated the mattresses.  He thought they were cheap and he told her that if the kids jumped on them that they would break right in two.  He had told her that they couldn’t keep them.  They had paid cash for them and everyone knows that on Craig’s List you buy “as is.” I offered to pay her fifty dollars just to keep them and be happy, but she refused.  So I sadly and disappointedly told her that I would take them back. “We are going to be stuck with these cursed mattresses forever,” I thought to myself.  After a few hours of sulking I got a call from a guy who wanted to buy my mattresses.  I called the lady and told her that if she was going to bring them back she needed to be there by 6:30 because I had a guy coming to look at them at 7:00.  I called her at 6:30 because she hadn’t come yet and she said she wasn’t going to make it until at least 7:30.  Frustrated, I told her, “No later than 7:30!”  She agreed. The guy, Jacob, was very easy going about it and agreed to come later.  Eight O’clock came and Jacob was almost here but the mattresses were not.  I had to tell him that he was going to have to wait because someone was returning them and they had not made it yet.  He became a little concerned about the mattresses but said that he would still come.  He got to our apartment and there were no mattresses, but he was still surprisingly chill.  He asked what we did and we told him we were missionaries.  He got a big grin on his face and told us that he was a believer.  He said that God does all things for a reason and that it was worth the trip just to fellowship.  He told us about his story and how he was separated from his wife, but God uses hardships like that to get your focus back on Him.  He said that since then he had been really seeking God and to be a better husband.  We talked for fifteen minutes before the lady finally arrived with the mattresses.  Jacob helped me unload them and then the lady continued to tell him how bad the mattresses were and how her husband told her that they would break right in two.  Finally she left.  Jacob tried out the mattresses and then, very pleased said that he would take them.  I was astonished.  After all that and he wants to buy them.  He said that he thought it was God’s will that he take the mattresses off our hands.  As he was leaving he told me that if I ever needed anyone to talk to I should give him a call.  I told him we should go out for coffee sometime. 

This story was very encouraging to me.  God really used it to show me his faithfulness and care for us.  It was hard giving that lady her money back.  In the business world it was a poor move, but God blessed us for it because we were doing what was right and not trying to watch out for ourselves.  It is encouraging because He was telling me that He is watching out for us and that if we trust Him, He is going to take care of us wherever and whatever the situation.