$0.74 vs $3.96 - How does your perspective change your decision making?

Thermal Cutoff: $0.74 fix for a $75.00 problem

Have you ever got something in your head so strong... that you failed to see the bigger picture?

How I refused to pay $3.96 to fix a $72.41 problem, all because it wasn't $0.74.

I hate heat! HATE it! Passionately hate it. I grew up in 125*F summers and I would rather live in snow than heat. Apparently the one thing I hate more is spending money on something I cannot eat. So, I've driven around in 80-90 weather with the windows down, so I could save less than $5. This is SO sad looking back on it.

$0.74 vs $3.96

I've known since BEFORE summer arrived that the air conditioner in my 2001 Honda Odyssey was broken. Worse yet, I've known exactly what to do to fix it. This video, here, describes the issue in perfect detail. It describes the part, a "Transistor Assembly", as a $72.41 part. At my current budget, that's a LOT of money.

But wait, the third time I watched the video I noticed a link that I'd been ignoring to this companion video, here, describing how to fix the Transistor Assembly for less than $1. Yes, that's right, a $72.41 repair becomes a $1 repair. So you can go to to DigiKey.Com and order this Thermal Cutoff for $0.74, yes 74 cents. I got that "less than $1" part stuck in my head.
 
However, the part will require $3.22 shipping...

So... I'm excited to find a $0.74 fix to a $72.41 problem, then thrown off by $3.22 shipping. My mind could not get over paying $3.22 to ship a $0.74 part. Even though, if shipping were free, I would have been happy to pay $10.00 to fix a $72.41 part. I even would have been satisfied to pay $3.22 shipping for a $10.00 part. However, I couldn't bring myself to pay $3.96 (total with shipping) for a $0.74 part.

Delay. Procrastination. Fear. False Perspectives:

These are all too familiar companions in my life.

I know... I know... that sounds ridiculous.

And it is.

It's now August and I'm finally bringing myself to buy it. There are 100 other reasons I've had not to buy it. Maybe not 100, but at least 10-20. But they all amount to excuses, procrastination, fear of loss of money, fear of being wrong about the fix, etc, etc.

Isn't it worth $3.96 to attempt the fix with the possibility of comfortable driving? Sure, when you put it like that?!

Change Your Perspective

So, today I realized I was also doing this in bigger areas of my life. I was treating my kids as a chore, rather than a blessing. Spending time with them was an obligation to be endured, not a privilege to be cherished. It was a internal emotion, not a reasoned thought. But it was affecting my decisions, and creating a poor atmosphere for their growth.

I was choosing TV or Facebook, and brushing them off to "go play". The underlying message they were getting was: "You are not worth my time, go away".

I would have said it was stress, or being tired... but is the result for them any different based on my reason or excuse?

Maybe I could choose gain a new perspective, on purpose. Maybe I could choose to see my family from a different light, and then I would be able to participate in their growth... rather than observe it from a distance.

The Solution

As I continue to learn how to #BeStillBeLed, I'll become a Father more like My Father in heaven! (Tweet That!)

And now I leave you with a question:

What portions of your life could use a new perspective?

To Respond Leave A Comment on This Post

*PS: I got this message after I ordered, so it ended up being cents cheaper!

Your total cost is $3.70 in U.S. currency, including $2.68 postage.

*PSS: It didn't work; however, I tried! It's better to know than wonder.

By Darrell Wolfe

About This Blog, and Darrell. 

This Weeks Resource:

• Supernatural Prayer Life, By Nancy Dufresne

"Christians create great difficulties for their own lives when they don't take time to speak in other tongues and gain clarity from God in their own spirits before moving forward in a particular direction. They marry wrong people, get into bad business deals, make wrong career moves, allow wrong people around their children, and create a host of other problems for themselves, all because they don't take time to know the mysteries of God about their own lives through speaking in other tongues."

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