The Alignment

     My husbasnd, Mark, and I had to get our van fixed, and God used that to teach us a lesson.  The lesson was; Don't judge before you know for sure, and even if you think you know for sure, don't judge.
     We needed new tires on our van.  The tires that were on the van weren't very old, but they were bad.  They were wearing on the sides.  We took the van into the tire store A.  We had planned on getting new tires and an alignment.  We told the mechanic what we wanted done, and we left the van to be worked on.  We went across the street to get some lunch.  We took our time and got back about two hours later.  When we got there the mechanic told us that he didn't do the work, because he noticed that the tie rods were bad.  We only had enough money for the other work, there was no way we could pay for tie rods too.  The mechanic also told us that if we just got thetires and alignment, the tires would wear out quickly.  So we waisted one whole day. 
     We purchased short term insurance when we bought the van.  We checked the paperwork when we got home, and found that the tie rods would be covered.  We took the van into the dealer the next morning and we left it there all day.  We went to pick it up in the evening.  The mechanic at the dealership said that the tie rods were fine.  New tires and an alignment would cost more there, so we decided to get it done somewhere else.  We waisted another whole day.
     The first thought that came into our minds was that tire store A tried to cheat us.  We had just seen a story about mechanics cheating people on the news, so we knew that was happening to us.
     On day three, we called around to find the best price.  We took the van into store B.  This time we stuck around to watch.  Store B said that we need new tie rods!  They even took the time to show us.  We couldn't believe this, now we really knew who was trying to cheat us, it wasn't store A, it was the dealer.  We went ahead and got the tires at store B.  We were deternined to go back to the dealer and have them fix the rods.  We both felt awful about the terrible thoughts we had about store A.  At least it wasn't a total loss of a day.
     It is now day four.  We take the van back to the dealer and leave it for the whole day.  This time Mark called the dealer before we went to pick the van up.  And again, the dealer said that we didn't need new tie rods!  So our first thought was store A and store B  tried to cheat us.  Mark and I talked about it for a while, we were both tired of the whole thing.  We decided to let the dealer give the van an alignment.  We felt we couldn't trust anyone else.
     Mark called the dealer back.  He told the mechanic to go ahead and do the alignment.  Then Mark asked, "If the tires go bad right away, like they did before, will you replace them?"  There was a long scilence, and then, "Yeah, okay."
     When we got to the dealership to pick up the van, the mechanic came out to talk to us.  he told us that he went ahead and replaced the tierods.  He assured us that they weren't bad, but he said they might go bad soon.
     Four days, a lot of stress waisted time, and jumping to conclusions, but we finally had our van fixed, and our lesson learned.  The lesson; even when you are positive that you know something, you could be wrong.  I guess it wasn't just the van that needed an alignment, I needed an attitude alignment.  I try to remind myself of these four days every time I start to jump to a conclusion, or make a judgment.