A Tough Break...

Have you ever made an honest mistake that had pretty rough consequences? Well... I just did. I have been working really hard in this one area of my life to be organized and stay on top of things and have given it to God as a matter of faith and am trusting Him to bless my efforts. Hardships and unexpected trials have come and we just persevere. We continue to trust God's provision, and He never fails. And then I go and miss one thing which becomes like this huge thorn in my side and when I try to correct it, I mess up again, not out of neglect, but just an honest oversight. It's so hard to keep everything in this limited brain of mine, and even though I thought I was doing everything I needed do, something just slipped past me. And now I'm having to pay the consequences...And I just want to throw up my hands and quit. That's certainly not an option... but it's just overwhelming sometimes. And in the grown-up world, just saying you're sorry and made a mistake but you'll fix it, no matter how much you mean it, doesn't always give you a second (or third) chance. Sometimes you just have learn lessons the hard way. Or can I beg for grace? Grace = unmerited favor. I know it was my mistake. It's not like anyone owes me another shot at it... but this really was an honest mistake. Not neglect, not avoidance, just a mistake. Does Kohl's administer grace? I sure hope so.

Sigh...

I've become a very frugal shopper. We've really stuck to our new budget, and rarely do just "fun shopping." Well in November, we went to Kohl's to buy Mike some desperately needed new jeans. We found a great deal and even had a coupon for 20% off if I used my Kohl's card (which I've had forever but never use). So we decided, let's do it and we'll just pay it off as soon as the bill comes. $36 was our grand total. That's pretty good for 2 pairs of jeans! Well for the next couple weeks, I kept an eye out for the bill but we never got it. Time passed on, it was Thanksgiving and then Christmas and as you can imagine, I just forgot about it. I never saw the bill. Well last week I got a phone call telling me that we had a bill that was overdue by 2 months and had $50 in late fees. $36 jeans now cost: $87.16. I explained to the girl on the phone that I'd never seen the bill and it was just an honest oversight. It turns out that since I hadn't used the card in about 2 years... the e-mail address on my file was like 3 addresses ago and apparently way back when, I had opted out of receiving paper statements. So email was it. She agreed to drop half of the late fee so long as I made the payment that day. Now the jeans will cost $62. So much for a great deal... So I hurried online, logged in to my account and sent the payment. Then today, I noticed that my bank account hasn't shown that transaction so I went back to Kohl's page to check it out. The $25 late fee was removed, but now there is a new $25 returned check fee and no payment has been made! What?!! That stupid account. I didn't check which checking account it was going to debit... and sure enough it was the one I had BEFORE I got married, which we closed a few months ago. ARGGHHHHH!!!! Can I possibly mess this up anymore?! Now we're back to $87.16. And I am just frustrated beyond belief. Do I call back and explain again and just beg for grace? Or do I just say that some lessons have to be learned the hard way? This time at the tone of $50. Big sigh.... This calls for another handful of the mini chocolate chips I have stashed in my desk drawer!