Life Lessons

--> -->Many times I think of things that I would like to be said at my funeral…. But of course those words never get on paper. Well, now I’m going to try. I’m sure I will just ramble on, so forgive me if you happen to read this before I clean it up. Here go my random thoughts:
I would like my funeral to be a “send-off”. Be happy for me. I am so excited to die. That sounds weird. I guess I should say that I can hardly wait to take that trip to Heaven. Let me tell you why.
God has given me so many neat gifts. Yes, most of them are the special little day-to-day blessings, which I recognize and thrive on. But God has given me some really big things also. Let me tell you about part of a vision/dream that I had. I am not going to tell you the whole dream here but just part of it.
BTW, when I have a dream that I not only remember when I first awake but weeks and years later and I can still recall every detail as though I had just woken up, I call that a vision… a visual piece of knowledge from God.
During this vision I saw a parade children, soldiers, sick people being raised from the dead heading for Heaven. They were very much alive and they were focused on their destination. I was so excited for them. I felt their joy. The joy that I was experiencing was nothing compared to the joy that we feel here on earth. The joy was so strong and wonderful that it welled up inside me like a balloon. The joy was so big that my soul inside of my body was joyfully singing (an involuntary act). This joy actually lifted me off the ground and I could have easily, if I chose to, joined this parade.
I can’t wait to take that trip Heaven! I got a taste of that thrill, that happiness, that indescribable joy. I look forward to experiencing it again!
The reason that I am so looking forward to seeing God, experiencing the joy and completeness of being with Him is because I’ve had a relationship with God during my life walk. He is my father and also my friend. He is in control of everything. It’s not just words. It’s truth. Here are some of the lessons that I’ve learned:
Lesson 1: God will take care of my needs.
Trust God. It sounds so simple but it is a lesson that I had to learn. Let me tell you a story.
When Jen was an infant we were really short on cash. I wasn’t working and Dave was in the process of giving up his job at the Forum and was working at A&W Motors and eventually he started to work dispatch for Cass County Electric. Back to the story….. We were going to have Jen’s dedication ceremony that Sunday. I told Dave that I needed to go to Fargo and pick up food for our guests and I also needed diapers. Dave asked how I planned to pay for it. I said, Well didn’t you just get paid? And he answered, yes, but I have bills to pay. He added, “well I guess if you have to…. Write a rubber check. I’ll deal with it later.”
Peggy, a friend of mine called. She wanted to know what I was doing. I told her that I was going to Fargo to pick up some things but hated doing it cuz we’re so broke. She called back a little later and asked me to stop by her house when I got to town. I did.
Peggy had gone grocery shopping for me. She had bags of groceries! She told me that her husband had gotten an unexpected bonus check and she just knew that it was meant not for them, but to spend on someone else. After talking to me she looked at the grocery ads in the paper and made a list of items that drew her attention. Then she went and bought them. Peggy gave me the list and told me to check it, so that when I shopped, I would know what she had gotten already. This next part is going to give you goose bumps! Peggy’s list and my grocery list were identical!! This is the honest truth….. no exaggeration! Well actually there were two differences. Some of the quantities were increased on Peggy’s list. Peggy had also thrown in a couple things from her pantry like garbage bags that were on neither of our lists.
Wow! How’s that for seeing God’s fingerprints?!! Now do I worry about making ends meet? Never. God is my provider!
One more thought on this. Sometimes Dave and are have gotten funds from somewhere unexpected, like once someone at church gave us $40. We were embarrassed to take it cuz we didn’t currently need it….. but then an unexpected $40 expense came up Violia! God had provided the funds. I love seeing God’s fingerprints. How can I not trust God to take care of our needs?
I also believe that God did not want us to be prosperous while the kids were growing up. I feel that if we had excess money while they were growing up, the kids would expect to have excess money as adults…. Like it was “due them”. Now instead, they appreciate their income and treat it differently. God was molding our children yet supplying our needs.
Jokingly, I am glad that we couldn’t afford the luxuries of snowmobiles or fast boats because Jason would have killed himself on one of them. Ha ha.
Okay, now you may wonder if I trust God in other things now that Dave and I are stable financially. The answer is yes, and I’m still learning.

Lesson 2: God will take care of our Children

This was been my daily prayer:
Dear God, for my family, I ask for:

• Provisions
  
• Peace
  
• Protection from Satan
  

And most important,

• Please fill them with faith for you.
  

Then I realized that He has given me all these things and more and yet I keep asking. So now, instead of always asking for things, I open my eyes and see that he is giving me the desires of my heart. I try to thank God more and also trust that He is doing things His way which, in time, I will understand that His way is best.
Dear God thank you for taking care of my family!!
The hardest things to trust God with are the things that we have no control over like the health or safety or faith of our loved ones. Many times I stayed up most of the night waiting to hear from our daughter, Jamie, when she was a teenager. I sat up praying, asking God to have her come home in the next ten minutes or at least get a phone call from her. God didn’t answer my prayers the way I told him to. But the desires of my heart were all answered. If only I trusted God to mold and shape Jamie into a God-loving, safe and healthy person that she has become. After all, that’s what I really wanted.
Yes, we don’t want our kids to get in to trouble, be broke or get sick. But just like these similar problems help strength my trust in God in my life, so do the kids have to experience some of these things to realize their need for God’s hand on their situations.
Learning the “trust” lesson with Jamie, watching Jen grow up was easier even though the issues Jen had were worse than those of Jamie’s. God knows me well. He gave me a vision to help me through. I will tell you about it:
Even though I was in denial when Jen was into drugs, sex and lying…..I think I knew or sensed the reality of the situation. I prayed instead of worrying. (I had learned the trust lesson J.) God gave me a vision. I was in a windowless hallway. There was a limp dying hanging plant. My heart cried for it. I wanted to remove it from it’s location and fix it. God gave me this knowledge. No I didn’t have to remove it from the location. It had sufficient (in this case fluorescent) light. I was to nurture and nutrition. God would make it thrive.
I knew that this plant was Jen. God had given me the message that I was to basically “mother” Jen. (Nurture and nourish – the two N’s that I keep in my mind.) I bought her food and talked to her daily. God was to take care of all the other details, which he did. One neat thing about a vision is that when you revisit it in your mind, different details become apparent or change. For the months that followed, when I visualized the plant, I watched as it grew in health and the neatest part was I watched as the branches strengthen and they rose upward toward God! Wow!

Lesson 3: God will protect us from Satan

Satan knows which buttons that he can push with us. Because of our sinful nature we can not stop sinning without God’s help.

1. I’ve learned that first I have to recognize the sin. (Example: Judging others.)
   
2. Then I have to make a decision to stop sinning. (This is hard because it is fun to judge others… it makes me feel bigger/better than they are)
   
3. I am not strong enough to make this change without God’s help. Like I said Satan knows which buttons to push. Once I realized my sin, it seems I’m tempted more than ever….. which is probably true.
   
4. After handing it over to God, he will flag each situation for me so that I will have to make a choice to sin or not….. God will strengthen me. (and also make me feel real guilty each time I judge…. The fun is removed)
   
5. Result: Satan backs off on this sin and it’s not a temptation any longer….But (Warning) it is an ongoing demonic battle. Satan will now focus on tempting me with another sin….
   

Satan usually doesn’t tempt me with the obvious big sins like stealing, murder or adultery. Those are too obvious. It’s the not so obvious sins like lying, over indulgence in spending money, gluttony, gossiping, etc. It’s a battle. I’m glad God is on my side!
I am going to end this article with some advice.

• Wake up every morning with anticipation on what God has planned for your day.
  
• Read a little bit out of the Bible every morning so that if God has a message for your day, you don’t miss it.
  
• Listen to Christian radio. It keeps your mind in the right place.