Dreams And Divine Guidance

The subjects of coincidence, dreams, and divine guidance are interesting to me, and I know that there are many who have had things happen to them, which had no logical explanation. I honestly believe in divine guidance, in our personal lives, and I believe that can come through dreams at times. I certainly have a deep, and abiding faith in God, but there are certain things which are way beyond my understanding of them.

I've seen the programs on television about psychics, and how some of them help solve difficult cases for the police, and yet, I've always been taught that such things are of the devil. For as long as I can remember, I have had dreams that came true, and I've just "known" things that were about to happen, and I refuse to contribute that to the devil, because I know that I want no part of that sort of thing in my life.

One nice neighbor suggested that I should pray that I stop having the dreams, but I believe that many of my dreams are spiritual in nature. If the dreams cause no one harm, or bring about no evil, then who has the right to say that they are from the devil, and not from God? I think that God, sometimes, will use dreams as a "warning" of some impending danger.

For instance, I had a dream that someone had died, and was buried. I knew that it was one of my two sons. In my dream, I was underground, right next to the coffin. I could see through the side of it, and I knew that I was trying to see the feet of the one lying there.

There is a slight difference in the shapes of my sons' feet, and I knew that if I saw which one it was, that I would know how to pray. I saw that it was my younger son. I woke up, suddenly, with great apprehension, which is what happens when I have that kind of dream. I began to pray immediately against anything happening to him.

The next couple of days he wasn't feeling well, and he came home from work sick, which he never did. I kept asking him if he needed to go to the emergency room, because I had a gut feeling that it was serious. He finally consented, and as it turned out, he was having a major heart attack...in his twenties. He now has two stents in his heart, but he is alive.

I firmly believe that it was the fervent prayer, as a result of the dream, that kept it from being the tragedy that it could have been. I could go on and on, but I won't. If others find the subject interesting, I will write more about it in another post.

I guess I said all of that to say this: In this world there is good and evil, and we need God's guidance in every aspect of our lives to help us to realize which is which, because it is not always obvious.

Coincidences

Concidence:
The occurrence of events that happen at the same time by accident but seem to have some connection.

I have read that there is no such thing as a coincidence, that there is nothing that happens by accident. Having experienced a few of my own, I have wondered about that.

I know that most everyone has experienced thinking of a particular person, and suddenly the phone rings, and it's the one you were thinking about -- or you pick up the phone to call someone, and that person is calling you at the same time. That happened just today. I called my husband on his cell phone, but as soon as I entered his number, without hearing his phone ring, I heard the sound of the cd playing in his car -- he had just called me, and we connected at the same time. The thing with the telephones is probably very common, and maybe not too much of a mystery -- but there are some coincidences that don't occur that often, and can be quite interesting.

Many years ago, we were living in California and made a trip back home to Alabama to pick up my mother who was planning to live with us for awhile. We were driving across the desert, and had some minor problem with the car. We were pulled over onto the side of the highway to check it out, and we all got out of the car, because it was so hot. As we stood there, a trucker pulled over and asked if we needed help. We stood there talking for awhile, and he told us that he was from Florida. He looked at my mother and said, "You know, you look just like my best friend. You look enough alike to be brother and sister. My mother told him that she didn't live in Florida, and had never even been there. He laughed, and said, "He's not from there, either, I think Amos is from somewhere in Georgia." My mother said, "That's my brother's name!" He asked her his last name, and when she told him, he could hardly believe it. They were talking about the same man! What are the odds that my uncle's sister, and his best friend would meet for the first time going across the desert, both headed to California?

Here's another weird one: A couple of months after I was first married, my husband and I had gone into a drugstore to buy greeting cards, and to get a sandwich at the lunch counter. After eating, we looked at cards, and on the way up to the cash register, I spotted a table with puzzles and games, and one game, in particular, caught my eye. I had an overwhelming urge to look at that game! I started toward it, and my husband said, "Come on, let's go." I said, "No, I want to see this game," and reached out and pulled him quickly toward me. Just as I did that, a huge fan dropped from the ceiling, right onto the spot where he had been standing! The name of the game? A HOLE IN THE HEAD!

Now, how about the coincidences in your life?

Be Careful What You Say

Someone sent this to me today, and I think it is worth sharing. I know that it has been around a long time, and has made the rounds, but the message is a good one, and worth reading again.

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily, gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say "I'm sorry," the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one."

Once, after someone hurt me very much with words, I wrote this little verse:

A word is such a powerful thing,

Can lift a heart, or break it.

Be very careful what you say,

Once said, you can't retake it.