LOVE HAS GOT TO BE 

A LITTLE MORE CAREFUL

  © Kathy A. E. Jones – Chicago 2014

 

This morning started out much like the others on our month long Mission’s tour in Florida.  Get up, grab a quick hotel breakfast, check out by 11: oo am and then hit the road.  Normally if we make stops to visit other churches or friends in the state on the way to our day’s end destination we arrive round 4::30 pm.  Today’s destination is Clewiston FL.  When we arrived it was closer to 5:00 pm. We were hungry and wanted to get a least a half hour of sleep before heading to a church meeting that night.  As you can imagine resources were limited and being prudent was high on our priority list.  When we entered the city we checked out a Holiday Inn and several other two and a half star hotels.  They were running $149 to $189 dollars a night.  So we decided to look for a Motel 6 or Supper 8.  Needless to say we didn’t see any of them. We saw a Sony’s Bar B Q, and decided to eat first.  When we walked in the door it smelled like cat or dog urine.  I wanted to walk out, but my husband who had done all of the driving that day was tired and hungry.  So he ate there anyway.  You know I didn’t order a thing except for a glass of water that I checked thoroughly before drinking.  We found a hotel that looked half way decent for what we thought would be within our price range.  By the time I got out of the car the lady was showing my husband the room right next to the office.  My husband beckoned me to take a quick look at the room before he got it.  I stuck my head in the door and quickly looked around.  It should be ok for just one night I thought and it was only $49.99.  I guess I was in a hurry to get to the Popeye Chicken place down the street so I could at least have something in my stomach before service that night.  So I left and let Spencer take care of the details of paying for the room. 

 

When I came back, and really walked into the room I knew I had made a horrible mistake but it was too late.  My husband had crawled into bed and I had given my “it was ok” to get this room before I left. The first thing I noticed when I turned to close the door was one of those cheap door guard chains. Then as I walked to the table on the other side of the room I almost tripped and fell. The rug was not properly put on the floor. Florida’s winter is normally in January and February. I expected it to be a little chilly during our stay but not cold enough to need heat.  You guessed it. It was around 36 degrees on that day.  I went to the wall unit to turn some heat on and there was no heat for the room.  Not having heat wouldn’t make life any better for me because I had already been trying for two weeks to get rid of a severe cold/sinus infection.    I knocked on the hotel’s office door (clue # 2 – Their door was already locked and it wasn’t dark yet) to ask where the heating unit would be located.  I was told that there was no heating unit in the room and that they would bring me a small portable heater shortly.  In a few minutes the man knocked on the door holding an electric heater that he placed on the only small table to work on in the room.  When I asked him could we put the heater on the floor he said no because the carpet might catch on fire.  Then I was told to leave it on the table.  So I did. I wondered how to make the little space left on the table work out for my lap top.

 

It was nearly time to leave for service. I asked my husband were the bathroom was.  He laughs and said we don’t have one in the room. Given what I had seen so far I could just about believe that.  Then he pointed to what looked like a closet door.  To my surprise when I opened the door there was a very nice size bathroom.  There was a window that let in lots of sunlight and the walls had a nice light colored tile on them. There was even a good size boxed in counter that you could use to store needed items.  Well it was time to take the “dump”.  I sat on the “thrown” and looked at the bathroom from a lower vantage point.  Because the beds in the room were so uncomfortable (I felt like the mattress springs will pop out and stab me at any time) my first thought when I walked into the bath room was I’ll just sleep in the tub.   From my lower vantage point I thought I would pull back the shower curtains to see if this would even be possible.  It was then that I noticed the ceramic soap holder in the wall had its towel bar broken off.  When I looked to see how the bathtub faucets were placed I noticed that they were not set into the wall but had quite a bit of open space behind them.  My first thought was, I can’t sleep here. I don’t know what might come crawling out on me in the quite of the night. I quickly closed the shower curtains and removed myself from the thrown.  Once I washed my hands I reached for a towel to dry them.  It was then that I noticed the old rusted out and pealing towel rack. I decided to dry my hands on some toilet paper instead.  On my way out of the bath room I noticed another door.  I opened it. It really was a closet. However the floor tiles they used on the walls did not appear to be glued on.  Instead they were loosely hanging on the walls.  I was afraid to touch them for fear they might fall off.  I closed the door and headed into my chamber of horrors with its 1960 phone and TV. I should not have been surprised when the TV remote didn’t work.  I called the front desk and he came to reprogram the TV so it would work with the remote.   The only thing modern about this room was the micro wave and small refrigerator.  Thank God both of them worked.  It was now time to go to church.  I think if I were bad sinner I would not have rejected going to church that night just to get some peace of mind.  Once church was over we came back to the “Hotel from Hell”.

 

I wanted some ice. I went to the service window to ask for some.  You guessed it. There was no ice. (clue # 3 the man would not open the window but about 3 inches.)  I should have known that the worst was yet to come.  I went back into the room to try and get just a little work done before retiring for the night. I put the cheap chain on the door and went to bed within an hour of coming in.  I prayed hard to be able to sleep, but as soon as I started feeling like I might actually fall asleep I began to hear a man and a woman screaming at each other outside my door.  I peeped out the window to see if everything was ok and it was then I noticed that the curtains hanging in the room looked like they had never been ironed or sent to the cleaners. 

 

As I crawled back into the spring filled bed I heard the still small voice of the Holy Spirit whisper to me that He would keep me in perfect peace if I kept my mind on Him. Then He reveled to me another equally important message.  The message was; this is how so many men and women get caught up in wrong relationships.  Just like Spencer and I made a terrible mistake in choosing the “Hotel from Hell” because we were tired and hungry, many men and women make the same kind of terrible mistakes in choosing a companion.  

   

                                    LOVE HAS GOT TO BE A LITTLE MORE CAREFUL. 

• Love can’t afford to make bad decisions based on the fact that its    

         temporary need for satisfaction is not being met.

• Love can’t afford not to take the time to check out the small and not           so small details staring them right in the face.

• Love must consider the background and environment that the

       desired companionship offers before it settles down with them for    

       life.

• Love must remember that it takes time to discover the hidden beauty         or fake treasures in an individual.

• Love must look to a higher source of power to make sure what  

        appears on the outside is truly there on the inside.  Man looks on the         outside, but God looks at the heart.

• Love must learn from its mistakes.  It can’t keep doing the same  

        thing all the while expecting to get different results.   

• Love must be patience, kind, tenderhearted, long suffering of each  

        other and forgiving.

• Love must own up to its own fought.  (I was the one who gave the  

       ok to stay at that Hotel; I had to suffer the consequences of my  

      decision).

• Love must seek to make things the best they can be, given the  

        circumstances that stare them right there in the face.

• Love must seek the advice of those who know God and His will for  

        happy, healthy relationships.

 

As I end this article I want to address some of my readers which would say “You Get What You Pay For”.  My response to that in regards to this article is this had little to do with the price we paid and more to do with our present state of being at the moment we made payment.  Just a few days earlier we stayed in the Travelodge - Davenport FL.  We paid $44.99 per night plus tax.  It was clean, up to date and we had the feeling of being safe there. Shortly after our experience at the “Hotel from Hell” we stayed in the Crestwood Suites Extended Stay Hotel in Lakeland Florida for $47.00 per night. The room was comfortable and spacious. I thank God for every place I’ve been on this tour and for the people who opened their beautiful homes and those who blessed us to stay at places like the Holiday Inn in Lake Placid FL. (608 S. Lakeview Road) It was simply beautiful and their hotel staff including the hotel manager Charles were awesome . People no matter how they come packaged when it comes to love always deserve a closer look.

 

HOTEL FROM HELL – LOOKS DECENT FROM THE OUTSIDE!!!!!

 

 But the second look on the inside tells a totally different story.    

I've got pictures to prove it. Copy and paste the link to KDJ -mag below to see for yourself.

            https://files.secureserver.net/0s5HcEy6pkRXEH

The West Express Inn – 433 W. Sugarland Hwy, Clewiston FL. is the Hotel from Hell/

 

Until they value their customer enough to do more than just take their money, take my Godly advice and pass this one by.