I have always been proud of myself that I have learned to change a tire as a teenager. As a young woman, I felt like I was a rare unicorn. I was independent and loved it! Of course, I had multiple cars that for multiple flat tires as well as clutch problems, engine problems, radiator problems. You get the point. One of the reasons for these poor cars having so many problems was that I didn’t keep up the required maintenance. I would even drive on bald tires sometimes. There, that’s my confession and I feel much better for saying it.

Now, onto my AAA lesson with a little bit of side stories. It’s been over 39 years since I learned to change a tire and like I said, I have had some beat down cars but this story isn’t about me directly. It’s about my husband: my reliable, responsible, dependable, kind, cute, funny – oops, I do tend to carried away when bragging about him. John really is dependable and take good care of the things we have. So, imagine our surprise when we got a flat tire, in pouring down rain that just started as soon as the indicator light went off on the console.

Yep, we have a stuck in the rain flat tire story. Good news is we had just left the house and only needed to turn around to get back home. Yay! that was a relief. Another relief was that I had signed us up for AAA just a couple months ago. We submitted a maintenance request and went inside to watch The Simpson’s. Oh, those Simpson’s are always a good laugh!

The request estimated that the AAA employee would be almost 2 hours. No big deal, we had Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie to keep us company along with a whole town of amusing characters. So, imagine my surprise when the AAA truck was at our house in less than 20 minutes! Like, what?! Go AAA customer service and no, I do not work for them in spite of being pleased with the unexpectedly good experience. Don’t even get me started on customer service these days. Yeesh!

The guy pulled into our driveway and had the tire changed in 5 minutes! Again…like, what?! It takes me 5 minutes just to unlock the trunk and find the spare tire. My spare tire changes take an hour and here this guy took care of our problem in 5 minutes!

This experience got me thinking. We had already had a crazy day of running errands and bad Atlanta drivers, the whole AAA tire change experience felt like we caught a break. We both took big breaths of relief, knowing that it was done.

Through the experience I learned that sometimes we have to be willing to wait for good things, like the AAA service. We have to do what we can for ourselves while we wait but sometimes, what we need comes early. It’s all in God’s hands. When what need need comes before it was expected, there is inevitably a feeling of gratitude that attaches itself to the experience.

I also learned that we need to be willing to let others help us. When people, like the AAA mechanic help us, they come prepared. They have all that is needed to make things a little easier if we just let them. My husband didn’t try to help or give the mechanic instructions, he let him take care of us without interference. This is like how our relationship with God should be. We need to let go and let Him work. He has infinitely more knowledge, tools, and experience than we ever will! It’s hard to let go and not want to help, give instructions, or take care of problems on our own but when we let others help, there will always be a sigh of relief.