the old people were right

I remember when I was a kid listening to 'old' people, which of course to my little kid brain, was anybody as old as my parents were then. Ha ha. But I remember them talking about different things like cars or appliances or anything else and they would always say Well, they don't make 'em like they used to. I remember thinking that was a strange thing to say. After all... we had all sorts of new technology like 8 track players and a TI calculator that probably cost 25 dollars. We were livin' large, lemme tell ya.

I never understood their sayings. Until now.

I guess I'm old enough and have had to replace enough things that I've begun to see that they really don't make things like they used to. We've replaced our dishwasher and our new one doesn't work as well as the old one. Drives me batty. I wanted to buy a new toaster oven when we redid our kitchen because my old one looks pretty sad... even though it works like a champ. I searched high and low for one that was even similar to the one I have now...with it's easy to use dials that actually make sense. No deal. So I'm still using my old toaster oven in my new kitchen. Our refrigerator died about a year ago. I shopped and compared and fiiiiiiinally settled on one. It doesn't cool the food as well as the old one and if you dispense crushed ice, it freezes up in the door and I about have to break the ice maker on the inside to get it unjammed. We don't use the crushed ice feature anymore, which is sad, because it's one of the things my daughter was looking forward to with the new frig. Crushed ice. No deal.

And this brings me to today. We've rented a water cooler unit... the kind that you put a 5 gallon bottle of water on.. for almost ten years. The thing was amazing. The water was ice cold coming out and didn't taste like a single thing...but ice water. (we also bought reverse osmosis filtered water from the same place) No funky flavors whatsoever! A major miracle in my book. Anyway... it stopped cooling. I had to get a new unit. So I bought one this time from the place we buy water. Well.... the thing doesn't cool very well at all. I checked the temperature and the water hovers right at 50. My old machine put out water in the high 30's...just like ice water. But without the nasty flavors.

So! I called the manufacturer and he thinks my unit is defective. Grrrr. So I'm going to return the water cooler and then I don't know what I want to do next. I don't really want another one like this. Ya know...track record and all that stuff.

I think an alternate title for this post could have been Listen to Me and seek My kingdom first... and all these things will be added to you. -God. I guess that's sort of a long title though, huh?! Well it's true. In the midst of trying to 'figure out' what to do about this water mess... I've gotten busy and used the brain God gave me for a way He didn't intend. To try and figure it out myself. I "love" it when He uses my own words to bring me to see I'm not seeking Him the way He wants me to. Not really.. I don't love it. Well, my flesh nature doesn't anyway. But I am so thankful. I know that what God wants to live out in me is bigger than a water cooler. And I got so bogged down in trying to fulfill my own wants and desires that I wasn't listening to Him and letting Him do what He wanted to do.

All of this to say.. I have a water machine sitting here that I'm still not sure what needs to happen to yet. I'm putting water in a pitcher into the frig (which I hate doing because it takes up space.. the other thing about my old frig is that it's functionally smaller than my last one even though 'technically' it's the same size)... and I'm thankful. Thankful for the weird water cooler. Thankful for being frustrated and being at my wits end. Thankful that I don't know what to do.

Because He does. And He wants me to listen... so that's what I'm doing.