This is Why We Pray

As many of you know, I spent this last Saturday visiting and touring potential apartments to rent that would be closer to my new job (that I started today!).  I saw a few different places and was honestly impressed with what I saw.  In the end, I narrowed my selection down to two apartments.  After describing both apartments to Ian and Amanda and to my parents, everyone agreed with me that the slightly more expensive but significantly closer apartment was the better choice.  I had all but made my decision to apply when I remembered that I hadn't yet prayed about the matter.

Once I prayed, I got a confused feeling.  There was some more to do on the matter before I applied.  I felt prompted to look at reviews online and boy am I glad that I did.  All of the places I looked at had low scores from tenets (the highest I saw was a 36%).  While each one had unique problems (unresponsive management, thins walls, towing risk within the parking lot, etc,), all of them had a similar problem: infestations.  Most mentioned mice and roaches, but the one I had my eye one also had a bed bug problem.  If you know anything about bed bugs you are probably aware that they are incredibly hard to exterminate completely.  Most people simple throw out much of what they own when bed bugs are discovered.  I don't care what the location is or how nice the place looks, I'm not risking bed bugs in everything I own.

As frustrating as this information is, it's still comforting that I avoided a huge potential problem.  Imagine if I signed a leased and had to deal with bed bugs.  All completely passed over because of a simple prayer.  I am very thankful that my Heavenly Father is watching out for my welfare and protecting me from harm.  And while this means that I'm back to square one for finding my own place, learning about what could have been is making me reconsider what I'm willing to put up with.  Maybe I'll have some roommates for a few months; I really wanted my own place, but maybe I just need to get closer to work first and then take my time before I'm truly on my own.  At least I avoided sharing an apartment with uninvited guests.