God's Tender Mercies and Miracles

Our TV broke on Monday. I had been watching the Olympics for a grand total of 4 minutes when the TV just turned off. I thought at first that the power had gone off or I had bumped the remote by accident. I soon realized that neither were the case. When Jake got home he took the back off the TV and found out that the plug and the fuse were just fine, so it had to be a problem with some internal something or other. Our decision was then laid before us: pay $75 for a technician to tell us that there was nothing they could do for us, or get a new TV.

Needless to say, we decided to get a new TV. I spent the week pricing TVs at every different store I could think of in the valley. I even looked on Ksl.com at used TVs. But when it came right down to it we decided that we wanted something that we would be happy with for a long time to come and not just a little while. The one we finally decided on was a Costco TV: LCD HDTV Sceptre brand flat panel with high resolution, great response time, and 32 inches of TV goodness. PLUS it was on sale for $150 off. The only downside? Even after the $150 off, the TV was still going to cost over $600. So we decided to pray about it, sleep on it, and make a decision on Saturday morning.

Saturday morning rolled around and Jake dropped me off to teach piano lessons while he helped my Grandma and Grandpa Troff clean out their storm drains. We had talked about our decision that morning and decided that we would purchase the TV. After my first lesson was finished I went upstairs to the computer (you could only order this TV online) and put in all of the necessary information to order the TV. I came to the screen where you click the "Complete Order" button... and got the most horrible feeling of apprehension. I decided to wait a little while longer and talk to Jake again before making the large purchase.

I went back downstairs to wait for my next student to arrive and checked my phone out of habit. I was surprised to see that I had a text from Jake since he had told me he was going to leave his phone in the car. I opened the message and was shocked to read, "Don't buy the TV. Grandpa is giving us a bigger one."

Apparently, Jake had mentioned to Grandpa Troff (who gave us our large, beautiful TV that breathed it's last TV breath on Monday in the first place) that our TV had broken. Grandpa's response? "Great! Now we can give you another one!" Jake laughed and said, "No, no. Shayla's been pricing TVs and we found one we like that we're going to buy." Grandpa insisted, "Don't you dare. Grandma Sue wants to get rid of this TV soon anyway. It's only 4 years old."

Thank goodness for the promptings of the Spirit. We now have a fantastic, 4 year old TV sitting in our entertainment center. The TV is so big that the only room left in the TV space once you put the TV in is 2 - 3 inches on the top. I wish I had a camera so I could post pictures of it on here. But the best part? God takes care of his own, and we saved almost $670. I am so grateful for the generosity and love of a wonderful family who has always looked after us. Our whole apartment is filled with the loving donations of family members who wanted to help us out.

But that is not all. It would not be fair to end this post without saying a word about some more incredibly generous and loving people:

1) I have been doing some work for my Aunt Michelle and Uncle Lee this summer and I stopped by their house yesterday to pick up my paycheck. I mentioned to Michelle that Jake's PDA phone had gotten fried by accident and was no longer working. Without missing a beat she went to her garage and pulled out an LG VX8300 Verizon Phone, a car charger, and a wall charger, and said, "If they can't fix your phone, just have them activate that one." Wow.

2) Jake's brother Steven was all set to move to Ogden on Saturday so that he can attend Weber University. When Jake called him up and asked for his help in moving the TV to our apartment he dropped everything and spent a few unplanned hours in the service of his older brother.

3) When we were still thinking of purchasing the Costco TV we went to Costco to look around. (That is how we found out you can only buy a Sceptre TV online.) Because you have to have a Costco membership to purchase anything at Costco, my Grandma and Grandpa Dunford met us at the Sandy Costco (even though it meant my Grandma had to miss some of the Olympics) and made sure that we could use their membership if we needed to. In the end, even though we decided to not purchase any of the TVs we saw, we still didn't leave empty handed. Grandma Dunford treated us to berry smoothies and pizza, and we ended up enjoying a free date night dinner.

I am continually amazed at the love and kindness that surrounds me. The examples of so many wonderful people in my life encourages me to be the very best person I can be, and to share in the abundancy of my blessings whenever I can help someone in need. We are so truly blessed in so many ways, and truth be told, I could go on forever in the ways God has poured out his blessings on our lives. We are so grateful for the amazing people that we have the privilege to call our friends - to each of you reading this blog, to those we see and talk to frequently, as well as those we see only on rare occasions.

Thanks to all of you for continually being blessings in our lives.

Love, The Bentley Family