In the past, I’ve had some fascination with vacuum performance.  (I know…we all have a unique side to us.)  I’ve owned everything from one of the upper-end Rainbow sweepers to pure junk.

I was totally sold on the Rainbow sweeper until I got a hold of a friend’s newest Shark.  I did my own unofficial duel between her Shark and my Rainbow (contact me privately if you are fascinated to hear about the unscientific tests that I put these two sweepers through) until I discovered that her much cheaper Shark could perform as well.  That’s amazing considering that a new Rainbow can cost between $1,500 to $3,000!

I’ve now succeeded in running at least two Sharks into the ground.  All the drywall dust from our house remodel just about finished my current one off!  But I bought new filters and duct taped the cracks in the hoses and kept babying that thing along.

Last week we got the opportunity to make some extra money cleaning a house for my friend.  She had moved away and did not have time to leave her old house clean, so she hired us.  The old carpet was shot, so we got the bright idea of tearing out all the carpet and padding.  Once again, my faithful taped-up vacuum was dealing with sweeping up construction.

This finished it off…the poor, abused thing!

If you’re amazed, I’ll admit that I was also.  But it was true…this sweeper was totally shot.

Yesterday, I thought and thought about vacuum sweepers.  I looked online.  I read reviews.  Since we no longer have any carpet in my house, my needs are not the same as they used to be.  But I still need a vacuum, I think.

I have a friend who owns a Eufy robovac that she loves.  While she is doing other things, that robovac will vacuum and mop all of her vinyl flooring.  Doesn’t that sound exciting?  I looked at robovacs.

I got the cheapest robovac I could find, knowing that I may really regret that decision.  Most of you know that I am a cheapskate, sometimes to my detriment.  There are times when spending an extra $20 would have been a good idea.

I justified the extravagance of a robovac by telling myself that it was a birthday gift from me to me.  But I felt like I still needed a traditional vacuum also, so after work I ran to Ollie’s and got the cheapest thing I could find.  (I mean, it needed to be cheap, right?  Especially since it was the second vacuum I was buying in one day!)  This vacuum would be more of a backup vacuum or a “help quick I have an emergency spilled here” vacuum.

When I got home last night, I walked through the door with my new cheap non-Shark vacuum.  I could see my family’s shocked faces.  Todd called out to everyone, “She bought a vacuum already!”

“I bought two of them!” I told them triumphantly.  Then I noticed that some of them looked pretty crestfallen.

“Why would you buy a vacuum when you knew that your birthday was this week?” my daughter asked.  “No offence but that sweeper looks like a piece of junk.”

“We spent two hours researching sweepers today to buy for you as a surprise,” another child said.  “We even read reviews!”

I now felt a little guilty since I had ruined all of their plans.  I didn’t know that a new vacuum had been in the plans for me for months!  They had tried to send their dad to the bank yesterday to pull out money so they could go to the store.  But yesterday was Juneteenth, and the banks were closed.   They had all discussed it.

“Since you’re willing to give a couple hundred dollars,” one of them told the other, “then the rest of us can at least give fifty from our account.”

This touched my heart since most of them do not have steady income coming in.

“Mom, the sweeper we were going to buy was a much nicer sweeper than what you got,” I was told.  I had no idea.  I’m not used to getting anything for my birthday, and I’m definitely not used to expensive presents.  I only knew that I needed a vacuum, and so I worked it out myself.

I don’t want to do that spiritually.  Sometimes we try to figure out God’s plan.  Is this going to happen?  Or is that going to happen?

Last night in devotions, my daughter told me, “I don’t want to figure out what God’s doing.  He wants me to wait patiently.  He’s promised wonderful things.  When those things don’t arrive when I think they should, I don’t want to get on Amazon.”

Thousands of years ago, Abraham proved that working something out instead of waiting for God’s timing can be a mistake.  He had a son with Hagar and dealt with the mess that was created by getting ahead of the Lord.  God had something better for Abraham.

God has something more wonderful that He is wanting to give us.  Let’s not get impatient.

But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.  Romans 8:25