TODAY THE WORDS are CHECK THE TIRES. I think that my Dad left a lingering mechanic’s thinking. He always said, “If a person keeps water in the radiator, keeps the oil and filters changed, and always check the tires, a vehicle will run forever.” I enjoy our car a lot and it has been such a good car that I haven’t done the “Arline has to have a new car” battle and I have kept this car a lot longer. As I was taught, and as my husband Greg thinks too; we change the oil, keep all fluids in it, rotate the tires and keep them balanced (in other words, check the tires). When I was in the car business, I saw the good and bad of car and truck maintenance. People would buy the top of the line vehicle only to neglect the maintenance and low and behold, they would come in fussing about how sorry the car was. Dad’s words rang clearly in my mind when this would happen and even though we, at the dealership, would go over the normal maintenance and what is recommended by the factory, they would disregard the mileage warnings, the lights, etc. and drive it as if it would go on and on without proper care. Junk yards are full of those vehicles but I was almost amused at the “deer in the headlight look” when the technician would explain the problem and what caused it. Now let me put my “dip stick” in a little deeper…….Our lives are like this……we start out healthy (normally) and we throw caution to the wind. Our bodies or our “vehicles of life” run great and we rev our motors up and run wide open. We eat what we want; we go past the normal wear and tear; we forget to change the oil and we don’t check our tires. Our ride through life starts to be rough and not nearly as smooth as it was earlier in our life. We start complaining about how it handles differently than it used to do. We start going to our vehicle “mechanic” or doctor and finally, we start changing diets, exercise more, or worse, we have to start adding medications to get it running better. Our souls or as I like to think, our engines are even more neglected if we are not careful. This is what I feel is the reference to “Check the tires”. Good tires, balanced and properly inflated, are like our faith if regularly checked insure us of a smooth ride through life. They take the road of life more smoothly, take the roughness out of bumps that we encounter. As a saintly woman said, “God smooths out the rough spots”. Today, before we start our journey, let’s be sure to check the oil, check all fluids, and don’t forget to Check the Tires!
DAILY FEATURED BIBLE VERSE:
2 Corinthians 13:5 King James Version
Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
(c) copyright 2012 Arline Lott Miller. The material here copyrighted, use only by permission.
