prayer – The Calling

Christian Inspiration, Dreams, flowers, Life, Nature, Parables, Transformation

A Parable of Flowers

October 21, 2021October 22, 2021 Debra Worden

-Written in 2004

The Dandelion

Most of us look at Dandelions and think of them as weeds not worthy of fertilizing. Yet the Dandelion starts out a stunning shade of yellow like that of the Sunflower. Children are drawn to its bright, beautiful color and believe it to be a delightful flower worthy of picking. To a child, the Dandelion is a perfect masterpiece as it is. They are ignorant to the fact it is just a weed.

What is the fate of a Dandelion that no child reaches toward? The once beautiful structure turns grey and is blown by the wind never to be seen again. The Dandelions are much like the lost souls who are suffering in our world without a relationship with God. They are born as a masterpiece of beauty. They begin as precious, innocent babies. Any adult child of God would be drawn to love them, ignorant to the fact the child may be headed for a life of pain, powerlessness, nowhere, nothingness….

What is the fate of the lost souls that no one chooses to reach out to in our world? Feeling unloved, they may be blown by the winds, growing old and grey without knowing a way home to The Father.

The Phlox

The Phlox has a tiny stem. By itself it doesn’t look like a flower of magnificence. Its petals are few and its center is tiny. Do not be deceived by the power of this precious, little flower. This flower can be planted among the rocks and the worst of soil and still flourish and spread. Perhaps it is their tiny roots working together in community to seek their way down to find water in the soil together is what gives them nourishment to multiply the way they do.

If you’ve ever seen a bed of Phlox, you know it can hardly contain itself. No boundary can withhold this flower from spreading its beauty. Each person who has found God is just like one of the Phlox. It is hard to comprehend that one little person in God’s flock can do so much for the rest of the flock, but it is harder to be filled with the Spirit of God when you’re walking the journey alone. By bonding together and gaining nourishment and strength from each other and our source, our cups overflow onto those around us and inevitably we extend our boundaries. Like the Phlox, most who have found God can hardly contain ourselves and we just want to spread God’s Love for the sake of everyone around us.

The Sunflower

The Sunflower has a stem so thick it looks more like a stalk. It is full of the strength needed to uphold its massive flower. The Sunflower does not need anything to lean on like other tall flowers. No fence or trellis is required. The only thing the Sunflower seems to yearn for is the Sun. It looks to the source of its strength every moment of every day, its face obediently turning and following the Sun as it arcs across the sky from East to West, never wavering.

Can you picture how hard it must be for that stalk to bend and follow its source of strength and yet still fulfill its duty to support that enormous flower? When I think of a Sunflower, it reminds me of Jesus. Like the Sunflower, he was so full of the strength needed to uphold his massive mission. He leaned on no one. He always turned to his source, The Father, as his supply of strength. He never wavered.

Is there another flower that has a center like the Sunflower? Its heart is so huge and so full of seeds to be spread on the earth. Likewise, I can think of no other man whose heart was as large as Jesus’. Whether you believe in him or not, you have to admire how big of a heart he had. My heart aches and wants to break over the thought of just one of those that I love not making it to heaven. This man’s heart was so huge his heart ached at the thought of any soul not making it heaven.

He must have been full of sadness for each and every one of us to wish to endure what he did and die for every last one of us. Perhaps he didn’t just go into solitary places to pray but to cry his heart out seeing how far so many were from home. I believe he is watching our world and still crying…….

While he spread so many, many seeds upon the earth to bring souls home to The Father, there are still so many Dandelions in our world who need the Phlox of Gods children to love them.

Faith Without Works

What would happen to the Phlox if each one became comfortable? What if they thought they were safe just by being part of the massive bed? What if they let the others do all the work of extending their boundaries? What if they stopped drawing from their source of nourishment believing they would be nourished by the work of others? Their mass would dwindle and become sparse. Their brilliance would fade since the Phlox are most admirable for their beauty in numbers.

What would our world look like if each one of us who believe in God became comfortable? What if we believed we were safe just being part of the masses but never trying to practice what the mass teaches? What if each of us believed there were others to do the work of extending the boundaries of God’s love and left that work all up to them? How would we treat others if we stopped drawing from the source of our own love from the Father?

You see, that Son flower must still be crying because there are still so many Dandelions out there … lonely, suffering or feeling unworthy, not knowing the love of The Father. They have no one who cares to reach out and fertilize them with love as any young child would do for the Dandelion.

How many in the flock of sheep are too comfortable in our self absorbed world? We must become like little children who run to the Dandelions and proudly say “Look, Daddy, a flower!”. We must run to the Dandelions of our world and with a great sense of joy and pride say to our Heavenly Father, “Look at the precious lost soul I have found and have loved!”

A Prayer for You

To the Phlox: The next time you see a Dandelion, may you be reminded of this parable. May you pray for a soul you know is suffering or feeling unloved to come into the flock of God’s sheep. May you be reminded of your innocence when you were a child and ran to the Dandelions. May you feel deep in your soul you are helping this person, pride within your heart for doing so, and God’s love shining upon you in gladness. Whether that Dandelion is young, bright and yellow one or an old and grey one… please pray, for even children find something worthy in the old and grey ones. In fact, if that Dandelion is an old and grey one, may you take a risk and feel like a child again, pick it, and make a wish upon it for a lost Dandelion of this world.

To the Dandelions: May you know that you are loved by God even if no one extends love to you in this world. May you know that you are beautiful just as you are. May God introduce you to one in his flock who can help lead you into the knowledge of the fullness of God’s love. May you enter the journey of becoming one of those in the flock who can help other Dandelions, for you can identify with the lost souls more then anyone else. You are the least threatening to them and can do the most to reach them since you’ve been one yourself.

To Those Striving to be Sunflowers: May you never give up in your determination. May God give you the strength to endure the rest of your journey and the answers you need in order to get there. May you pray earnestly for the Dandelions of this world. May you feel the sadness that comes with knowing they need your prayers but still not lose sight of the joy. May you pray for those in the Phlox of our world to yearn to be Sunflowers, for just imagine what the world would look like if everyone in the flock of God’s children strove to be as obedient to their source as the Sunflowers. It would be Heavenly!

Spencer the Squirrel

Spencer the Squirrel: Sharing Some Squirrel-ness

July 14, 2021July 15, 2021 Debra Worden

July 14, 2021

Hello there,

Pleasure to make your acquaintance! My name is Spencer. Debra gave me that name. I live in a tree in her backyard. The tree is so very kind to open herself up and provide shelter for my family. Did you know that it makes trees happy when animals live inside of them? Trees are nurturers.

Come along with me and I will show you about me and the nice home I have for my family!

Here we are! I make this trip up the tree many times a day. You can actually see the tunnel of my home bulging out from the side of the tree on my right. We’ve dug all the way down into the tree. The entrance to our home is that hole up there at the top where I’m headed!

Some people have been trying to convince Debra she should take the tree down. They say it is not safe if its hollow inside. While I understand they have Debra’s safety in mind, I know the strength of this tree. My instincts will tell me when it is time to vacate and now is not that time. This tree is FULL of life despite the fact it holds space for my family inside.

I see Debra looking at the tree when it is windy and stormy. She sees how strong the tree is and that its limbs barely sway in the breeze. I am really grateful Debra listens to her own intuition and not the people who mean her well. My family would surely hate to lose our home! Debra feels the same way. She is worried about her house because climate change is eroding her property.

One night, Debra prayed to the trees around her house. There are three of them. Two in the back and one in the front. She was very upset and crying in her bed. She reached out to the trees with her heart and mind and communicated to them. She asked them if they could please help support her house. She envisioned the 3 trees and their strong roots getting stronger and thicker. She saw them in her mind meeting up with each other underneath her home and intertwining.

Debra has LOTS of faith in her prayers!!! The trees heard her. The one I live in told me so. I bet you didn’t know that we animals and trees can communicate with each other. Science is starting to explore this. If you’d like you can read more about that in the link below.

Acoustic communication in plant–animal interactions – ScienceDirect

Some day it would be nice if you humans could communicate with nature too. After all, we are one big happy family of creation co-existing on this beautiful planet!!! It makes us all so sad in the nature kingdom to know we can all hear each other… and you, but you are all so busy and blocked to hear the sounds of nature. It’s magical!!!

Did you know we love our family members just like you do? Yes… we do. Debra has had the pleasure of witnessing me in action. You see… we know when we are going to have a really hard rain that might flood our home. I, Spencer, come to the rescue when that happens!!!

I get busy gathering leaves to fill the entrance of our home. I make dozens of trips up and down the tree mouthful by mouthful blocking up the hole. I use my nose and push the leaves way down and pack them very tight! You would be surprised how strong and durable this furry little nose is! My head looks like a jackhammer slamming concrete! I become Super Squirrel!!!

Don’t I look fantastic! I was so happy to pose for Debra. I felt so good inside when I was done building that blockage! I spent a LOT of work on that. I did it because I LOVE my family.

Then I felt Debra’s sadness. She wondered what I was going to do. She realized there was no way I could be inside with my family during the rain storm. It was up to me board up the hole and then find a safe place to ride out the storm!

Here is where I spent my time. I was there for hours. I nestled up to another tree on a very small branch. I needed to keep a lookout from someplace way up high so I could see the tree where my family lives. I knew they were in good hands in the beloved tree that keeps us warm and safe in its limbs. I actually took a nap!

Some day I hope to be able to communicate with Debra and reassure her she does not need to be sad for us squirrels. We are doing just fine. It is we who are concerned for humanity. I know Debra is working on that. I hear her thoughts when she sits under the tree where we live. We are all rooting for her! Even the tree!

Transformation

Transforming Anger with My Children

August 2, 2020July 15, 2021 Debra Worden

January 2, 2011

… and that’s what I did this morning.

Our household was like a war zone last night. My kids were treating each other absolutely atrociously. They were screaming at each other at the top of their lungs and calling each other vile names. It was so upsetting. In an attempt to regain order and peace in the house, I stepped in. Much to my regret, I added only more anger to an already chaotic situation.

When all was said and done, I grounded them and told them if they could not communicate with each other properly, they could not communicate with others. I removed all cell phones, laptops, xbox live, ipods, etc. they use to text and talk with the outside world. Of course, this was not received well at all. All kinds of remarks were hurled at me… making me feel like as a parent… I have completely lost control (as if we ever really have any right?).

As I went to bed, I pondered the whole situation realizing that some of those remarks hurled at me were in fact true. How could I expect my children to treat each other with love when they’ve witnessed very little of that between their own parents lately? How could I expect them not to lose their temper and display anger towards each other when I was capable of doing the very same thing in my attempt to regain order?

Then other questions came to my mind…

How could I expect them to improve their communication by taking away all their means of communication?
Am I asking too much of an 11 and 12 year old to have a healthier relationship when they are siblings and probably need to be able to vent their anger somewhere?
How healthy is it really to ask your kids not to display such anger for each other if that is truly what they are feeling?
How unhealthy is it for them to repress these emotions for fear of losing their stuff or to fake happiness with each other in order to earn it back?
Don’t we already have enough problems in this household with people being unable to express their feelings and those feelings not being heard?
How effective am I really being here by diminishing such opportunities because the feelings are simply ugly?
And finally… God, how do I make this better… what can I do differently?

After my meditation this morning, an idea came to me which I’m hoping was a gift from God… an answer to prayer. I decided that in order for my kids to earn their stuff back, I was going to have them do an exercise. I wanted it to be a journaling exercise that would allow them to get in touch with their feelings and to really feel them and express them… to discover what was behind their anger…. to challenge them to look at themselves… and to put an intention in black in white about how they could do things differently.

So I asked them to each get a notebook and a pen. While they were doing that, I asked God to PLEASE direct me on the questions I should ask them. I then asked them these questions one by one…

What are all the things that bother you about the other person?
Why do these things bother you?
How does it make you feel that the other person does this?
How does it make you feel when you express your anger towards them in return?
What good things do you see in the other person? (they both said nothing and refused to write)
So I asked… what would you miss if the other one was gone?
What can you do differently to express your anger in a healthier way?
How are you going to treat each other better in the future?

When we were done, I asked them to exchange notebooks and read what the other one wrote. Neither could decipher each other’s writing so I volunteered to read their answers to each other one question at a time (another blessing by God I think).

Well let me tell you… it was an experience for all three of us!!! While both children had done the writing with total attitudes, a hesitation to be open to the other in any way, and a conviction they were still in a place of justified anger for the other… it all began to melt as I read their answers and added my own insight to what I was reading on the paper… to what I saw they were really both saying… since they are much too young to understand that behind their anger is pain and hurt.

It was just so sad to read it and I tried to keep myself composed emotionally as I read and conveyed what I saw. Rebecca was angry with Frankie because he stares at her and he is loud playing his video games and will never let her play with him. Frankie was angry with Rebecca because she makes fun of him when he looks at her and she threatens to humiliate him and tell people about his Tourette’s if she doesn’t get her way.

So I explained first to Frankie that what I see is that Rebecca cares about you and just wants to spend time with you and alligator tears began to form in his eyes. Then I explained to Rebecca that Frankie cares about you and wants to look at you and Frankie’s began to cry harder. Then I said… what I see is they both have a desire for connection with each other and love each other and Rebecca began to cry. All of this was too much for me and broke my heart as I realized that I am living in a household full of people who just want love and connection to others and cannot seem to have it with each other and it broke my heart and I began crying too.

After I was done explaining the rest of their answers, I told them they had one final exercise to complete in order to get their stuff back…. that they had to do the 30-second hug therapy which we had all seen posted on Facebook. It was a video of two young kids whose father had made them hug for 30 seconds as therapy, which seemed like an eternity to me watching it, and was so touching.

I had asked my kids to do this the last time they had a brawl and they flatly refused but this time, it was a condition of getting their stuff back so they were willing. I told them I would only do 10 seconds (my thought was eventually to work up to 30 seconds if we needed to do this again). As the seconds clicked away, I couldn’t get enough of seeing them hugging. Since they couldn’t see the timer and are too young to be really aware of time, I let the timer go… and go… and they got their 30 second hug therapy without even knowing it.

So long and short, my kids have their stuff back. I have no idea if any of what I did will change their behavior. But for me… the miracles that happened were that both my kids were crying… in touch with their feelings… expressing them not repressing them… and the feelings were sadness not anger… a longing for love and connection… not hatred… and they each got the opportunity to be heard, even if it was through the voice of their mother…. and finally… watching them have a piece of that loving connection in that 30 second hug.

May God please guide, bless and direct my family every day… as he did today.