Dreams Really Do Come True

I am a bit of a dreamer or a ponderer, not sure which, maybe they are very similar to each other.  But I do love to day dream, I dream about revival, I dream about praying for people to be healed, I dream about seeing peoples legs grow out from stumps, I dream about receiving huge lumps of money and giving it away, but I also dream of other things like getting a bigger house, seeing the world, being able to eat and not get fat (come on girls, we all dream about that!), Tele Transportation Star Trek style and being able to go to Disney World Florida as many times as possible.  Now some of those dreams seem quite reasonable, some of them seem a bit far fetched but some of them also seem a bit frivolous. But I believe that all our dreams are important to our Father God and he doesn't distinguish between those that are, in our eyes, far fetched or frivolous.  He loves for us to dream, he loves to hear all about our dreams and he loves to full fill our dreams.

About a month ago I put on Facebook that I would love to go to the Star Wars Weekend in Disney World, mainly because I knew the kids would soooooooo enjoy it, but I also knew we would all have so much fun! I thought it was impossible and it was just another day dream, but somebody commented on the status and said 'Why don't you go in Half Term?'.  This set me thinking, and thinking and thinking - a bit like Pooh Bear 'Think, think, think'.  I started to think, why don't we go in Half Term, is that even possible?  So I say to Steve 'Wouldn't it be amazing if we could find a really cheap deal and go to the Star Wars Weekend during Half Term - but it would have to be really cheap which I don't expect is possible!'  There it was, I had thrown down the gauntlet to Father God, Steve and to myself, was this possible?! For the next few days there was an awful lot of internet searching and investigating, I didn't really hold up a lot of hope as it is half term and when I was saying cheap, I was meaning really cheap (in Disney terms anyhow).  We found out about a budget airline (Monarch for those interested) and we started to put in dates and see what came out.  Half Term was, as you would expect, very expensive but amazingly the week either side of it was half the price and possibly affordable.  More research was done, more figures calculated, more day dreaming! Before I knew it Steve had produced a spreadsheet with how much it would cost to the penny.  There was quite a large deficit between what was saved and what we needed, but I started to look through the budget spreadsheet and pull together money from all the little corners we have, and low and behold, we had the money!  We couldn't quite believe it, we checked our figures a few times, we checked the prices with the airline quite a few times to make sure there weren't any hidden costs we didn't know about and then we came to the conclusion, we could go!!!!

Sadly then we started to have a crisis of confidence - just because we can afford to go, should we spend all this money on one week! This is a slightly mad and frivolous idea - we could do so much else with that money.  I have to admit I felt embarrassed that we might go and spend lots of money on another holiday having only just been to Rome and what would people think! But then I started to remember my dream of being able to take the kids to the Star Wars Weekend, and of being able to go to Disney World many times and knew how excited the kids would be and I wanted to be able to give them this amazing gift of going for one mad week to do something that they will remember for ever! I began to get an inkling of what the Father must feel when he gives great gifts, we couldn't wait to see the kids faces when we told them, that not only were we going to Disney for the best weekend ever, but we were going in two weeks time!! As I thought about the joy that this was going to give us, I began to realise how much joy it must be giving the Father to be able to give this gift to us as a family.  I could feel his smile and love shining down on us so we hit the 'Book it' button!

I have to say we had the best fun ever!!!! It was such a blessed week and despite coming back completely shattered, it was definitely the right decision.  Making memories with your kids is so important, full filling their dreams is so amazing and letting God flood your life with blessings and full filling your own dreams, however frivolous they may seem, is fantastic.  So looking in from the outside it must have seemed like madness to go for one week, but from our perspective it was the hugest blessing from our Father, heaped on us with all his love and a fullfillment of dreams, because,as they say in Disney, dreams really do come true!

Soooooo, I prayed for a Slow Worm today!

Ok no laughing, it is true I prayed for an injured Slow Worm today, (well, you can giggle a little - I did, when I felt a prompting to pray for it!).  You may be wondering why I would do such a strange thing, well it is all perfectly reasonable really, and I shall explain why.  A while ago I made a list of dreams that I want to see fulfilled, I listed 20 things and actually to date a few of them have already been achieved!  But one of my dreams is to pray for someone without a leg (or arm, I'm not fussy) and see it grow back from nothing.  I can't wait to see the joints form and then the foot (or hand) and then down to the toes and fingers! I cannot even begin to comprehend what that would be like, I just really hope I have the presence of mind to take a 'before and after' photo or video the whole event!! But for this to happen I am going to have to pray for people without limbs and this is quite a scary prospect.

So this brings me back to the Slow Worm, I was in the garden and there was an injured Slow Worm on the path, he wasn't moving at all and the end of his tail was missing, it still looked red raw so I can only assume it was a recent injury.  I watched him for a while thinking he was dying and not sure what to do!  So I did what all sensible people do and went and hung out my washing.  But as I was hanging out the washing I felt a nudge from the Holy Spirit to pray for it, and yes I did laugh!  Me being the obedient sort of person I am, I carried on hanging out the washing and went to go back inside but I had to step over the Slow Worm on the way, so I stopped again to see how he was doing.  He still hadn't moved and he didn't look too well, so before I knew it, my hand was out and I was commanding life and health back into the creature!! I declared everything I would have done over a person - no more pain, complete healing, life and a new tail plus a few other things more Slow Worm related.  As I watched he started to move and his tounge started flicking about and before I knew it he was trying to get back down between the pathing slabs.  I would love to tell you that his tail grew back, but sadly it didn't (this time), but he obviously felt better after a bit of a touch from the Creator!

So why pray for the Slow Worm, other than being prompted too - because it was practice!  It is definitely easier to pray for a Slow Worm in my back garden where nobody knows anything about it (until now, of course!), and the Slow Worm is none the wiser as to what I was praying about, than it is to pray for somebody in public without a limb who does know what you are praying about!  I have heard people who are all fired up about raising the dead, saying that you should go and practice on Road Kill, so this was my take on that!  I expect it brought a smile to Father God's face as well - it did to mine.