Abundant Gifts

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Vonnie, a pianist and one of my clients, shared with me an incredible true story that happened to her the week before Christmas. I thought it was a perfect reminder that God is a God of miracles, any time of the year.

For years I have almost been crippled with this stabbing sensation of fear just before going on stage to perform. Even though the concerts with my group usually went well, I was a complete wreck inside before and all during the performances. No one ever had a clue how much I was suffering & would often tell me I appeared completely professional on stage.

A couple of weeks ago, I had been working on the custom Healing Code Diane gave me for the fear of making mistakes in a performance. I had not had a lot of time for practicing for this particular performance and was quite stressed about it, but the night of, by some miracle (thank you God through the Healing Codes), I actually felt calm and prepared.

However, I was not prepared for what happened at the end of the concert. Continue Reading »

I lay down and slept,
yet I woke up in safety,
for the LORD was watching over me. –Psalm 3:5m NLT

A good friend of mine, Cathy, had a near brush with death a few months ago. Here is her story.

On October 25, 2011 I had a heart attack.

The problem was, I didn’t know it was a heart attack.  Women, pay attention!  It’s true that our symptoms can be VERY different.  I woke up somewhere around 2:00 AM with ‘discomfort’ in the middle of my chest.  It was so minor that I told myself to go back to sleep.  I couldn’t.  So I got up and went to the living room wondering what it could be.  It was not pain, pressure, indigestion – just an uncomfortable ‘sensation’.

Here is the Angel part.  I decided to call a good friend who lives close to me.  I dialed her number and it rang twice and I got a fast busy signal.  Hmmm – I tried again, paying particular attention to the digits I was dialing.  I got a busy signal.  I thought about it a bit more and decided to dial 911.  I didn’t even know what I was going to say but when the dispatcher answered I told him I THOUGHT I MIGHT be having a heart attack.  Where did those words come from?  They were not in my consciousness before I said them.  When I got to the hospital I asked them to call my friend and they got right through.  She looked later and I didn’t even show up on her caller id!

IF I had gotten her on the phone, we would have talked about it some, then she would have gotten up, put on some clothes and came here.  By the time that would have taken, I was in the ambulance (they took 5 minutes to get here from the time I was talking to the dispatcher) and I already had an EKG, nitro, aspirin and an IV and we were flying, lights and sirens, to the hospital.  I was furious that I could not get her but later realized that it might have saved my life that I could NOT get her on the phone.  Thank you God!

Be encouraged; the heavenly Father and his angels are not only watching over Cathy, but you as well.

If you have a story of God’s care or a miracle, feel free to share it below or send it to diane at abundant-gifts.com.

In my work now, helping people heal their “heart issues”, I hear some incredibly sad stories.

Stories of nearly unspeakable cruelty, doled out by people who themselves are damaged.

You and I walk among wounded people. Some people hide their scars pretty well. Some do not.

One man told of being at a church gathering. Because of health issues and a son with major difficulties, the man has been on disability, unable to work. At the gathering, the usual, “So, what do you do for a living?” question was asked. The man had no ready answer. As he stumbled through the truth, he noted how the other men looked away, not sure how to handle such honesty.

The man never wanted to go back to that group again. Acceptance? No. He felt judged and dismissed. Yet another incident to add to his pile of “I’m unworthy” belief.

I heard a story told about a young woman who ended her life by jumping off a bridge. When police went through her pockets, looking for a clue as to why she did it, they found a note.

“If only one person had smiled at me today,  I would not have jumped.”

A simple smile would have saved her life.

A simple smile and a “That must be a hard place to be right now” could have turned my client’s uncomfortable situation into an experience of acceptance.

Take the time to look into someone’s eyes today and smile. Take a moment to really listen to what a person says, and let your heart form words of acceptance, of life.

Realize that nobody has their act together. We are all walking wounded, to some extent. We all long for the same things: acceptance, significance, peace, love. Hope.

Just a smile can give a small measure of these things to someone else. Energy is exchanged. I believe that positive always wins. Light always drives away darkness, never the other way around.

Give the “abundant gift” of a simple smile. A few words of affirmation and acceptance. Turn the light on.

It just may save a life.

One day in church–it was  Good Friday, actually– I was sitting in the back of the church and a dad was quietly explaining what was going on to his young son. I thought, “I never did that with my kids. No wonder they say they don’t believe in God now.” I felt guilty, and confessed my failure as a parent.

God’s reaction took me by surprise. Very distinctly in my spirit, I sensed him say, nonplussed, “Of course you failed.”

He added, “I don’t expect anything else. That’s why I died. And remember, I rose, and it’s all okay, because I’M the one who makes it okay.

“You are forgiven….”

So I know we’ll survive, and it’s my own perfectionism (and pride) that thinks I can be anything but a failure. It’s not that I’m beating myself up about it; quite the opposite.

I’m free to fail, as a parent or in any other way, because I am a sinner and Jesus is the one who took care of sin, once and for all. So now I’m forgiven and can stand in the truth that he can redeem anything.

If only I believe … but even then, if I don’t believe “enough,” that’s okay, because I can’t do that either, and Jesus believes for me.

Isn’t Jesus wonderful?

That was my personal Good Friday sermon.

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My family has always been rather fortunate with cars. We have never spent more than $10,000 out of our own pocket, and two of the cars were, essentially, free.  (My very first car was free; the story is in Abundant Gifts. )

Our latest car was not only free, but has an amazing story with it that shows something of God’s mercy and ability to make much out of little.

Perhaps one of the reasons we have been so fortunate with cars is, Continue Reading »

Since my birthday is on Christmas Day,  sometimes I decide to celebrate it later.  This past Christmas was so hectic and stressful, I’d decided to designate another day.

So it’s today. January 28.  I didn’t want it to be too far after the real date, or it wouldn’t happen. Made that mistake once. One year I never had a birthday. (Does this mean I’m a year younger?)

It’s just the morning, but God already has given me a sweet gift. Continue Reading »

It was the first snow of the season.

Beautiful.

And treacherous, as it turned out.

As I embarked on my morning walk with my Bishon, Millie, the snow was still coming down, muffling the world with quiet.

I passed my neighbors as they cleaned off their driveway. “Be careful,” warned Greg. “It’s slippery. The Big Guy already went down. Hard.”

“The Big Guy” was the man who walked, seemingly almost always at the same time I did, even when I changed the time. He was known as sort of a grump, but he often said hi to me because we seemed to share the same dedication to walking every single day, at the same time.

I picked my way carefully, but I did slip a couple of times. A few hundred yards  from my house, I passed “the Big Guy.” “Slippery,” I said. “I already went down,” he said. “Are you ok?” “Yes.”

So I walked on. I soon realized, after paying attention to where it was I slipped, that it was the smooth places that were most treacherous.

The rough places that were not cleared away were actually the safest.

It hit me: Continue Reading »

Giving thanks for obvious blessings is not difficult. Giving thanks for the tough stuff, the things that look like anything but blessings, takes real faith.

I’ve written on another Thanksgiving about giving thanks for what I call “disguised gifts” in Abundant Gifts. I wrote that when we give thanks for things that don’t seem on the surface like good things, our faith opens the way for God to turn it into a blessing.

Some things we experience are downright painful, and part of living in this broken world. Death,  for instance, is an enemy that Jesus himself cried over (then conquered and transformed).

There are other kinds of pain I think God allows into our lives because his ultimate goal is for  healing. Continue Reading »

I‘d like to invite you to listen to the replay of  the Virtual Book Tour on The Healing Code book, which took place on Thursday, October 28. I  interviewed Dr. Alex Loyd on his book, which has become a #1 bestseller at amazon.com in 9 categories shortly after its launch in June.

Dr. Loyd talked about a new paradigm mode for healing, called “The Healing Code.” Though it has had remarkable results in terms of all kinds of healing, Dr. Loyd stresses that the healing it addresses is the healing of “heart issues”–the same thing Solomon referred to when he said, “Guard your heart above all else, for from it flow all the issues of life.”

Find out what these “issues of the heart” are, why they’re at the source of just about any issue you can have, the scientific underpinnings of The Healing Code, and much more. (And if you’re interested in the spiritual foundation for this, you can go here to learn more about their philosophy. )

If you have a question of your own about The Healing Code, please ask it here.  This is also the link to register for the Virtual Book Tour, so even if you don’t have a question but want to register, sign up and say “none” in the question box. Dr. Loyd continues to answer questions in his weekly teleseminars, and I too will be answering questions on my own sites as a Healing Codes Coach/Practitioner.

You also get to download a 60+ page excerpt when you sign up and listen. You can start reading the book right away!

Though this new healing paradigm may seen new and even strange, I encourage you to at least give a listen. If you’re interested in the spiritual underpinnings of The Healing Code, I did another interview with Dr. Alex Loyd and his spiritual mentor, Larry Napier. You can access that at www.spiritualhealingcodes.com. We went into great detail about the scriptural basis of The Healing Code in that call.

Every day, I read a section of the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs.

Three Old Testament passages per day.

One theme constantly emerges: how important it is to “fear the Lord.”

It’s the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7, Psalm 111:10) . It’s a life-giving fountain (Proverbs 14:27). It characterized the Messiah’s life (Isaiah 11:2). I could go on and on.

Since it’s stressed so much, I wanted to know what it really means.

My new Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (IVP) says that there are well over a hundred references to the fear of God, as distinct from the terror of him.

So what does it mean to “fear” God in the positive sense?

A light went on for me when I read that it means Continue Reading »