God Supplies Antiques Too

This morning I basically rolled out of bed and combed my hair before heading over to Good Sam's. It is a local thrift store that I do most of my picking to supply my antiques booths. I was not going to go today as I had bought a bunch of stuff  two days ago. I went anyway hoping to find a little shelf I had left behind the other day. Upon entering I zoomed straight back to the furniture section and found it.  Well, it really wasn't what I needed because it wouldn't fit the ribbon spools that I use. But there was this wonderful antique sitting room set that had a couch, two hefty chairs and  two ottomans. The wood work on them is amazing; probably mahogany. The whole set was marked at $225.00 and so I stood thinking about it; too scared about buying it because this would be the single largest purchase I had made for my antique booth. Plus, I don't know how to reupholster big furniture. Sucking wind I prayed to God. "Please God, if I'm not supposed to get this will you put up a wall so I don't make a poor decision". Well, Shirly, the lady that runs the store said she would sell the set to me for $150.00 plus a $25.00 delivery to my house. That was all it took. Now I am the proud, temporary owner of a beautiful set that needs a little love before it goes out again. A little steam cleaning and maybe some new foam for the cushions and it will be good to go.  As is, before any work is done I think it could go for $500.00. I am happy. I have been frustrated that up until now, all I had was small stuff for my booth.

Well I'm not done because while I was buying the sitting room set, I spotted an entire cart full of antique lace doilies. Shirly sold them all to me for $25.00. After they are cleaned up, they will fetch around 4 times that much.

OK, so what? Well just as I was leaving, a guy from one of the local antiques stores walks in and asks me how I'm doing. Well this old guy is a bit of a lecher and he leers at me whenever I run into him. He has a reputation among other antiquing ladies for being this way too. I told him about the couch and chairs and ottomans. I mentioned how I was a little nervous about it. Well you could see this guys brain just clicking away. Like: Darn! Why didn't I get here sooner! Indeed, I was lucky, (blessed) that I beat him to it. But it was more than that.  When I brought my cart back inside after unloading my doilies, I saw him trying to cut to the front of a very long line. A redneck in a plaid shirt and ball cap called him out. "Hey sir the back of the line is over there". And nasty lecher man said,"Well, I don't know about that! Maybe I can't see that far! Yeah, I know where the back of the line is!" and he then ignored the justly ticked off redneck. It was like he was saying to all the people in line that he was so much more important then they were.

I left thinking about all of this. God blessed me instead of the other antiques guy.  Sometimes He just likes to give me a love letter and then He lets me get enjoyment from seeing how badly this guy behaved.  That old guy said "I should be careful, there might be bedbugs in it".(The Couch). Sounds like the fox and the grapes from Aesop's Fables to me. Y'know. The grapes must be sour because he couldn't reach them.

I loved telling my kids about all of this because I wanted to show them (and myself) that God is at work in my life even when it comes to finding the good stuff for my business. So on the days when work is hard and unrewarding I can look up this post to my blog and get encouragement.

Thanks God.