God Wants To Be Included In The Big And The Small Decisions

On Friday evening, January 4th, 2008, I was sitting at the kitchen table reading through the classifieds. I decided to see if there were any Treadmill’s for sale. I had been wanting a treadmill for awhile. When my friend Terry had asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I told him money because I wanted to save up to buy myself a used treadmill. He was kind enough to oblige. I stashed his money away until the time came to buy a treadmill. I wasn’t normally looking in the paper for treadmills because I knew if I found one, I wouldn’t have enough money to buy it yet and I knew I needed someone to go look at it for me and pick it up.

This particular Friday evening I decided to look anyway. I found one new ad that was selling a treadmill. On Saturday morning, I decided to call and get some details. It was a year old, never been used, just sitting in the basement. It was a free spirit sears model. It had all sorts of features, a fan, pulse, calories, miles, up to 10/mph, up to 10% incline, cup holder and book holder. It was also a fold up type. I looked up similar models in the Sears catalogue. It looked like it would be a very nice treadmill.

They were asking $800.00 o.b.o. It was originally $1,300.00. I asked her if she would take $600.00 cash. She said if someone I know had a truck and could come and pick it up then sure. This was a good price I felt. I thought about it some more. I was still unsure as this is still a large investment for me. I also wanted to be sure I don’t buy something that won’t work very well or something I won’t use much.

I decided to pray about it. I didn’t know if the Lord would help me with this decision since it isn’t all that important. I prayed about it anyway and asked Him if he could let me know if I should go ahead with this or not and then I put those thoughts aside.

Now it was time to read the daily devotions with Justin. Justin read the scripture part from his bible and I began to read the “Daily Bread” part. This is how the devotions began for this particular Saturday morning:

I walked as fast as possible. Worked up
quite a sweat, in fact. After about a mile,
I broke into a jog and then ran as hard as
I could. Finally, after about 25 minutes, I
stopped. My heart was pounding, my shirt
was soaked, but I had gone nowhere, I had
just done miles on the treadmill.

I could not believe what I was reading. The very day I prayed about confirmation on whether I should buy this treadmill or not and there it was in black and white. I was somewhat surprised that the Lord had answered my request for help on this decision. God so often uses the devotional stories from “Our Daily Bread” to answer my questions or speak words of encouragement to me. This was the confirmation I needed.

I went ahead and made the plans. Gerry (ex-husband) had a truck and he was willing and available to pick it up the next morning. I had enough money since my GST cheque had also came in which is like unexpected cash, cash I don’t rely on. Everything fell into place very nicely; I knew it was blessed by God. They could have easily sold it before I had a chance to send Gerry over there. They could have refused to lower their price.

I am now the proud owner of a very nice treadmill. Now I can keep up my walking regime over the winter. I have placed it close to the TV and I like to walk while watching TV or reading.

God is so amazing and so good to me. He is my loving father and I am so glad I can go to Him and ask Him for help in not only my major life decisions but also in all of my decisions. I am so blessed.

If you have ever wondered if God cares about the seemingly smaller decisions in your life, He does, He absolutely does. He wants you to include Him in every part of your life, every moment of your life, big or small.

And The Healing Begins....

The Horse Is Led To Freedom

(This dream occurred during my first year as a single mom. If you have read my other posts in my blog then you already know how I feel about dreams. If you have not yet read my March post titled, "Dreams and the Scripture," then it would be best if you read that post before continuing to read this one.)

(In this dream, I am still married)

It is late fall and my husband is gone away on a hunting trip. He returns home with his hunting buddies. They are unloading the weeks' kill off their trucks and hanging the skinned, gutted corpses from the hind feet in our cold garage to dry. I notice they have also brought back with them a live horse. I ask them why and they tell me the farmer was going to put it down because it is too skittish so they asked if they could have it. They unload the horse and tie her up in the driveway beside our house. She is a beautiful horse, chocolate brown with the only white on her being a stripe down her nose. I get as close to the horse as she will allow which is not too close. I start to sing to her and she seems to be calmed and soothed by my presence and my singing.

My husband's hunting buddies untie the horse and take her to the back alley. My husband tells them, "No, you can't kill the horse yet, remember the farmer said she has to have a good morning run before we shoot her, otherwise her meat won't be any good to eat." His buddies say, "Oh, that's right, then we will leave the horse in your back yard for the night and let her loose in the morning for a good run before we shoot her."

I am completely distraught upon hearing this news. I start to cry and I scream, "You can't kill this horse!" My husband and his hunting buddies just look at me and laugh. I am running in and out of the house trying to figure out how to save this poor horse from her unfortunate circumstances. My son is in the house and he asks, "why are you crying mom?" I explain it to him.

At this point I wake up from my dream to find that not only was I crying in my dream, but I was also crying out loud for real in my sleep which is what woke me from my dream. It was one of those gut-wrenching type of cries where your entire stomach feels like it is in one huge tight knot. I sat up in bed and my stomach was so tense it felt like I had just finished doing about 100 sit-ups.

THE END

(Translation of this dream)

This was one of those dreams that I woke up from, knowing it meant something. The intense emotions I felt during that dream remained with me for weeks. I often pray and ask God if the dream had any significance and to please help me translate the dream so I could understand what it meant. The following is my interpretation of the above dream.

Dreams are often very symbolic and I know in this dream the horse repesents me. That is no big surprise since I love animals so much and horses have always been one of my favorites. The horse is skittish, afraid of people. That would describe me in a lot of ways. That is most likely why, I believe, I developed the panic disorder I now have called "Agoraphobia." I have been hurt by many people in my lifetime and I learned from a young age that people could not be trusted. While growing up, I always liked animals better than people. I knew I could trust animals, it was people I had a problem trusting. I was also an extremely shy young girl and I still am to a point.

When my husband and his hunting buddies are laughing at me, that would represent how I thought they felt about me. I felt like they, mainly meaning my husband, see me as disposable and useless. This would explain my feelings about my husband leaving me. The horse being tied up and in an unfortunate situation symbolizes how I felt in my relationship with my husband. In my marriage I had felt trapped, isolated and alone.

I knew this dream had meaning but I did not know this was a dream from God until later that same day when I was checking my email. A christian friend of mine from across the globe had sent me an ecard. I opened the card and I could not believe my eyes. On the card was a picture of a horse, a chocolate brown horse with a white stripe down the nose. It was exactly the same as the horse in my dream. There was one huge difference between the horse in my dream and the horse in the card. The horse in my dream was trapped. The horse in the card is at peace, running "free" through a lush green field, beside a sparkling stream with flowers budding on the trees. I had not told my friend about my dream.

When I saw the horse running free in the ecard, the emotions I had felt in my dream came flooding back with tremendous intensity. I could not help but cry. I reached out and touched the horse on my computer monitor and whispered, "You are free now."

I feel that God used my friend from across the globe to send a message to me regarding my dream. I feel He was telling me that "I am free now, free from the toxic marriage" and He is filling me with his perfect peace. Think about it, my friend from across the globe sends me an ecard the very same day I have this terribly sad dream. The horse in the card looks exactly like the one in my dream only it is running free and at total peace. This is not a coincidence! This is a message from the Lord and I receive it loud and clear. He is taking such good care of me.

I am attaching a link to the ecard I had received for you to enjoy. If you click on the "read" sign at the bottom of the card and read the words, then at the end you will notice a sparkling effect above the stream.

http://www.riversongs.com/Fla/ways.html

He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters.

Psalm 23:2

God still uses dreams to speak to us

I believe the Lord can and will speak to us in our dreams, giving us messages of hope, prophecy or peace to name a few. If we pay close attention to our dreams, they will sometimes have very clear messages for us. The reason I believe this to be true is purely backed up by scripture.

Numbers 12:6 (NIV)
He said, “Listen to my words:
When a prophet of the LORD is among you,
I reveal myself to him in visions,
I speak to him in dreams.”

Joel 2:28 and Acts 2:17(NIV)
"And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.”

One of my favourite examples of this in scripture is the story of Joseph and his dreams of prophecy.

Genesis 37: 5-9 (NIV)
Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.
Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

This is a wonderful example of a dream of prophecy. It is another example of the symbolism I spoke of earlier. In Genesis 42, Joseph is now the governor of the land, selling grain to the people during the seven years of famine. Jacob (his father) sends his brothers to go buy grain from him. When his brothers arrived, they bowed down to Joseph, not knowing who he was. Joseph recognized them immediately. Joseph’s prophetic dream is brought to completion.

In the New Testament God speaks to Joseph (another Joseph) in a dream to explain his fiancé’s pregnancy.

Matthew 1:20 (NIV)
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”

And then again God warns Joseph in a dream when baby Jesus’ life is in danger.

Matthew 2:13 (NIV)
When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

There are many more examples of dreams in the Bible; I have only mentioned a few. I am speaking from personal experience when I tell you that God still speaks to us in dreams. Check back here every once in awhile and you will see new postings of some of my own personal dreams and my interpretations of those dreams.

You may be saying to yourself, “I don’t dream” or, “I can’t remember my dreams.” Everyone dreams, it is just a matter of training yourself to remember them. Keep a pen and paper beside your bed. You are most likely to remember your dreams when you first get up. Just jot down key points or words. Sometimes you may find yourself waking up in the middle of the night from a very vivid dream. Grab your pen and paper and jot down key words. I did that once in the middle of the night. My room was completely dark. I fumbled around looking for my paper and began writing words down in the dark. I had no idea if it would be legible in the morning, but when I woke up I was actually able to read my chicken scratch. When you have more time later in the day, come back to your notes and, to the best of your ability, write or type out your dream.

When you are writing out your dream, try to remember the key events, key characters, colors, sounds, music, feelings you had in the dream, etc. Once you have finished writing out your dream, you can begin the process of interpreting. I find there is a lot of symbolism in dreams. For instance, something like a bird or other animal may symbolize you in your dream. Ask God for help interpreting your dream. Ask Him if this dream has any significance and for understanding and guidance.

I am not in any way saying that all dreams are messages from God. Some are just what I like to call yesterday’s trash. Some can just be leftovers from watching a movie or television show the night before or too much pizza, spicy food or chips before bed. I am talking about the dreams where you wake up with strong feelings or emotions. Sometimes those emotions stay with you throughout the day.

I just recently came across a website where another Christian has posted a write-up called, “Dreams: God’s Forgotten Language??” I have attached the link below if you are interesting in reading more:

http://www.actsweb.org/daily.php?id=1663

I hope you have enjoyed this post. God bless you.

Flower’s For Valentine’s Day

A heartwarming true story of God's love!

It was a cold winter day on January 23^rd, 2004, and my non-believing husband had just moved out and left me. He broke the news to me the night before. I was not heartbroken because the years leading up to his moving out had been full of strife. He had emotionally checked out of our marriage long before he decided to physically move out. Before my husband moved out, I used to lie awake in bed and think to myself, "It is lonelier being married and being ignored day after day than it would be to actually live alone." It turns out I was right. After he had moved out and I had settled into my new life as a single mom, my life became more peaceful.

The days following my husband leaving left me feeling completely devastated. I wondered how I was going to support myself and my seven-year-old son. How was I going to earn an income and pay my bills? Being a full-time mom, out of the work force for seven years and having Agoraphobia (a severe panic disorder that has left me housebound except for the small comfort zone of about a 10 block radius around my home that I can drive) had put me at a huge disadvantage. I focused on getting the basement suite fixed up and ready to rent out as soon as possible, which would help pay my bills. My parents came into town one weekend to help. They spent over a lot of money out of their own pocket, helping me renovate the basement suite. I am truly thankful and blessed to have their help and support.

Now Valentine's Day would soon be here and I was thinking about this being my first Valentine's Day as a single mom. Even though for the past few years my husband had stopped celebrating Valentine's Day with me, just the thought of not having a valentine seemed very sad. One day I found myself standing in the Safeway grocery store, staring at the beautiful variety of fragrant, bright, colorful flowers. There was a tiny yellow rose bush that caught my eye. How cheerful and bright it looked. I wanted to buy it but I knew that I had to keep myself on a tight budget.

I had been praying and leaning on God throughout this whole process and I knew He was listening and caring for me. I have an Easter Lily plant that has been hanging in the same spot and in the same pot for the past 10 years and it has never bloomed, not at Easter or any other time. On the morning of Valentine's Day, I woke up and I noticed my Easter Lily was in full bloom, with not only one beautiful Easter Lily, but two on the end of a very long stalk. I was in awe, I didn't even see the stalk growing leading up to that; it was like it grew overnight. It wasn't until later that week that I realized how significant that moment was. I realized that God had sent me those two lilies for Valentine's Day to show me how much He loved me and that he was caring for me and hearing my every prayer. Not only that, but I believe He sent me two lilies on the end of one stalk to tell me that He will take care of my son and myself and that I should not worry because He loves me and He will meet our needs. I was filled with so much peace; it was like I could feel His loving presence all around me.

That wasn't the only message I received from God that weekend. During my morning devotional reading from "Our Daily Bread," I could not help but feel like the message that day was meant for me. It was titled, "Starting Over," and it was about a mother and her son named Justin, who was in the first grade. My son's name is Justin, he is in grade two and we are starting over. Those feelings I had before of God's loving presence, they were back now in full force as I read the devotional reading that morning.

Once I put all of the pieces together, I stared at those lilies for a very long time. I took many pictures, one is attached below. I wanted to seize that moment and keep it close to my heart forever. I felt so special and so loved. The feelings I had that day were overwhelming and still surge through me as I write this message. In the midst of my personal chaos, I am at peace. For my God is the God of comfort and peace. I know God is at work in my life. Everything that is happening in my life, God can and will use for His greater purpose. I just have to be patient and wait for the calm after the storm. Our God is an awesome God!!

Over the years I have found that God often confirms things for me by either using "The Daily Bread" devotionals or His Living Word. There have been many times now that I have been wondering or struggling with something and the very next day, there it is in black and white, my answer.