Get Yo’ Blessing! How God Blessed Us to be Rollin’ Again!
(A stoetry about our recent blessing and what happened when our car, diagnosed as a lemon, finally died.)
Before I share my stoetry (poetic storytelling), which has a bit of a hook that a rapper or songwriter may want to hit me up to use (I’m just sayin’), let me first set the stage.
My husband, Alvin and I, bought a brand new Chrysler Town and Country mini-van in 2008 and our troubles with that vehicle began within a week of driving it off the car lot. The car’s battery was replaced a few times in the first year, remote keys swapped multiple times, lots of work on the electrical system and more before we finally sought legal help.
In the end, we were basically told that our car was a lemon. However, lemon laws had recently changed which meant the dealership, Ron Tonkin Chrysler Jeep Dodge RAM FIAT, was not required by law to replace our van and instead gave us a check for roughly $4,000. The SUV cost us $45,000. Way too much money. Especially for a lemon.
Recently our lemon took it’s last putt-putt. I mean dead Honey Chile. The motor is shot and we need a new transmission. We refuse to put another dime into our lemon that (despite countless repair jobs) is not making lemonade.
We started borrowing our son, AJ’s car quite a bit, which he ended up giving my husband for Father’s Day. What a blessing! It was an around the city kind of car that got us from Point A to Point B. During the summer we put over $900.00 into that car.
Well guess what? Earlier this month THAT car was pronounced done after being in a car wreck. (Thank God no one was hurt!) Those ends from the car’s small settlement (which my son generously shared since the car was still in his name) helped to pay for us a temporary rental. But Chile you KNOW that money runs out fast because car rentals ain’t cheap.
Before getting the car from our son, our transportation situation involved getting rides from our daughter and friends, riding our bikes, taking public tranportation and using Uber from time to time. Since I have asthma and fragrance sensitivities, the last two options were risky and unpredictable for me. Nine times out of ten, the Uber rides were VERY fragrant. One day I canceled a ride three times because I couldn’t breathe.
We wanted to be able to drive and to come and go as we pleased.
So I decided that I would just ask at large via Facebook if anyone had a car sitting around that we could rent until we could purchase another car. Hopefully in a month or two. I made this request on Facebook last Saturday and by Sunday, I had received several responses, some via Messenger but one in particular sounded like a possibility.
Many of the details are in my poem below but in short, thanks to Sista Terri Lawrence Potts and BIG THANKS to her husband, Brotha Arthur Melvin Potts, Jr. (whom we’ve known for decades from the church community), within a few days of my post, we were returning our short term rental car and renting a car from Potts at a much lesser cost.
WON’T HE DO IT?!?!?!
I finally drove the car yesterday to drop my husband off at work. I wrote this stoetry right afterwards while sitting in our new blessing.
Get Yo’ Blessing!
I got a nice rental car without going to a lot
Sista Terri shared my post with her husband Potts
Brotha Potts saw the post, said “Let’s see what’s up.”
We don’t have a lot of money but we hustle and grind
Try to be good stewards of our money and time
So when I got on Facebook and dropped that line
A sista knew that she had limited coins and dimes
We ain’t poor, oh no, because our Father is rich
My husband followed up with Potts about my vehicle pitch
Potts said, “Bro, come to the house, ‘cause I know you’re legit”
And Slim told Potts all about our car’s predicament
When the praises go up
We come wit’ it
Then the blessings come down
We go get it
Come wit’ it, go get it
Come wit’ it, go get it
Get yo’ blessing
Yeah
Now our Chrysler Town & Country was a lemon of horrors
From day one, breaking down, not worth the money we paid for
With our blood sweat and tears
Had that car for ten years
Oftentimes I would drive with anxiety and fear
‘Cause that car broke down over and over again
On the outside our car looked like a million bucks
Well, maybe not quite a mil’ but it looked good to us
We felt cheated when we bought it, guess we had bad luck
Countless breakdowns, yet we’re safe, so in God we trust
So when the praises go up
We come wit’ it
Then the blessings come down
We go get it
Come wit’ it, go get it
Come wit’ it, go get it
Get yo’ blessing
Yeah
We had three decent years with a full warranty
We knew buying a car had no real guarantees
But we hoped to fulfill more of our car-fantasies
Like taking family road trips in our purchased treasure
Drive in style, run errands and go on drives for pleasure
Without having to make a call to roadside assistance
Yet without this test I wouldn’t be sharing this blessing
I remembered a bible verse often quoted by my mother
”You have not ‘cause you ask not, so ask your Heavenly Father.”
And when we asked, we believed
We had faith, we received
And now we’re driving a mini-SUV, a Mazda
Sharing with you this stoetry about what God’s done
Through His daughter Sista Terri and through Potts, God’s son
So when the praises go up
We come wit’ it
Then the blessings come down
We go get it
Come wit’ it, go get it
Come wit’ it, go get it
Get yo’ blessing
Yeah
Since our lemon car died we were in car-bereavement
But our brother helped us out, said, “I know you need this.”
So we talked things out, wrote up a fair agreement
Got insurance, got the key, and then we graced the cement
So if your life has been full of lemons and horrors
Know that God’s got a blessing, know He’s right there for us
Just ask and receive
Have faith and believe
And when your blessing comes
Like Potts said, “Pay it forward!”
So when the praises go up
We come wit’ it
Then the blessings come down
We go get it
Come wit’ it, go get it
Come wit’ it, go get it
Praise Him now
And get yo’ blessing
Copyright September 28, 2018 * Angela Braxton-Johnson * All rights reserved