Parking & Contentment

At the start of this month, our local council decided to put in meter parking outside our apartment. So now, unless we want to pay 7 Euros a day for parking during the week, we have to park our car at least two to three blocks away, sometimes much further away. When it first happened I was quite unsettled. We already avoided going out with the car during the day because we may not find a park when we got back, now it would be even worse. I thought I wouldn't ever want to go out during the day. I started looking for another place to rent - somewhere with a garage or a driveway (and with an extra bedroom so we don't have to have all four children in one room).

After looking for a few weeks for something else to rent, we have discovered that there is nothing available (well, unless you include the house that would cost double our current rent). I have come to realise that actually God has provided us with a great apartment, in a great location and it is actually really hard to beat - even though it is without a parking space. We have a renovated apartment with big rooms, a great park 100m away, a school one block away and preschool three blocks away and the centre of the city is five minutes' walk. We can survive really easily only using the car occasionally during the week. I can be content with what God has provided for us and be thankful. And even when I go out on a weekday with the car (only once this month during the day), it is actually easier than before because now I know there is no car park and I am expecting to have to walk.

So I have learnt a great lesson in contentment. God is good and he has provided for us abundantly and will continue to provide for us in the future - with or without a car park!