Just a Dog - Prayers Answered, Covered in Fur

What an incredible thing to look back over ones life and see God's promises coming true on your journey.   
I am brought to tears when I see God's hand in so many blessings coming true in our lives, the big and the small.  Come along with me as I share about yet another one of those we can trace back to in a fur baby.

This is one of many posts in a series about Moving Adventures!  Sign-up to receive each new blog post delivered conveniently to your inbox when they arrive.  #AllTheMoves

God's Love Letter

This is a continuation of the story that I have been telling here on my blog, and soon in my first co-authored book of God's Love Letter to me and my family.  Check that blog out here if you haven't already!

Let's talk about the life of a dreamer on The Great Adventure.

'God Knows the Desires of Your Heart'

Maybe you have heard this before, but I wanted to share this because I love how this concept is summarized in this devotional by Grand Canyon University:

"Everyone has goals in life and some we can reach on our own, but some take a little more help. There are things that we desire that only God can give us. When things are not going our way and we are turning to God for help, but He does not seem to hear us, we start to get discouraged. We feel as if He is not there for us or does not care to help us, but that is not true. He hears you and he knows the desires of your heart. He will give you everything you desire when the time is right. Source

Psalm 37:4-6 (NIV)
4 "Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him and he will do this:
6 He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
your vindication like the noonday sun."

So what are the desires of your heart?  Keep reading to hear about a few of mine over the last few years.

Dreams and Prayers

I have loved the idea of vision and dream boards as a way to visualize the passions that I have and what I desire in my life.  I find myself praying over them before, during creation, and often after they are created and hanging in my space.  I love to use these images and words to begin to see myself in those dreams, to train my brain to celebrate how I will feel when I have achieved them, and to know how God will have done miracles to make them come true.

I don't remember the exact year that I created this particular board, but it was likely around the summer or fall of 2018 based on what is on there.  This was my last board while I was still living in Oregon from the photo I snapped of before we moved on 12/30/20:



This is a close-up on the top of my vision board dream dog, a Rottweiler:


P.S. Check out the 'closeness of the match' house close-up that became our reality, seriously! #GodIsGood

And would you look at that!  2018 just happened to be when when this sweet fur bundle was in the business of being born.  This is our Ghost's baby photos (we renamed him when we adopted him via private party surrender adoption):

We didn't know of our life that was yet to come in Missouri, how or why we would get there, but God had already been preparing this joy for us there.  Our little family is now living our best life together since the summer of 2021 in a place neither of us originally could have dreamt we would end up:


Isn't God amazing in His perfect timing?

Happiness

If you know James, you know the incredible journey he has been on in his lifetime.  So you will also appreciate the pure joy it brings me to hear him laugh so genuinely when he and Ghost play.  Usually it starts with Ghost licking his face or ears, and James' unfiltered response in childlike laughter.  My heart just melts to see such happiness on James' face when they are together:

So while he may be 'just a dog' on the outside, Ghost means so much to us and we are so thankful to have him as yet another answer to prayer and testimony of God's unending love for us in the big and small things in our life.

What miracles is He doing in your life right now that are answers to your prayers?


Information courtesy of Echo Schneider

1 Comment

  1. I love this! Love the vision board! Love the story/picture of James and Ghost! Hopefully, I’ll get to meet them one day!

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Meet Echo Schneider, Chief Adventure Officer

 
Overworked, burned out, and with waning loyalty to an industry that had lost its way and was no longer true to itself.  Of course, career burnout was at an all-time high in my sector and amongst the worst in any field.  It wasn’t all even just about work, though my perfectionism often got the best of me there more than other parts of my life.  I look back and see that I was overwhelmed and questioning so many areas of my life.  Was I doing the right things? From diet to products I bought, from how I was involved in the community to time I was spending with family, and from how I was walking out my faith and showing up in a meaningful way to my world. In this craziness is where I found myself.
 
Healthcare (watch my fingers make air quotes as I say that word and use the term loosely at best) in the US had long been bought and paid for and was no longer masking their symptom management and disease maintenance focus.  It had lost its focus on health; they could give you a pill or cut you open.  But to nurture your health and foster your body’s God-given ability to heal itself, they no longer knew how to do that.  Or worse, no longer desired to be in the business of prevention and healing.
 
As so many professional people were doing in the modern economy, we, as healthcare professionals, we’re doing more with less.  Mandatory overtime, poor ergonomics, and complete lack of an environment to practice self-care were the norm.  And to make it worse?  Because of our specific industry, we added in a loss of our medical freedoms just to stay and do our jobs.  The days of job security were long gone, and I watched in fear as friends and colleagues in sectors across the board were being laid off just to help top leaders move the stock up for shareholders.  How terrifying that this could be the reward for lifelong dedication and hard work!
 
At home, it didn't feel much better.  I fought to find a non-existent work-life balance and to be present while feeling exhausted (have you ever come home from work to fall asleep on the couch and finally be awoken when your Mom calls? Tell me this isn’t just me!).  I was disappointed in myself seeing my self-care fall away, time with friends and family slipping by, and I wasn’t spending the time I wanted serving with my church family or in my community.  
 
Add to that the confusion and frustration of what should have been simple daily choices.  What foods should I be eating? Is this trendy thing something I should try?  Wait, is the product good or bad, I paid more for it, but I feel like I saw an article on them that there was a recall or they were green-washing.  So frustrating and such a time-suck trying to keep up and have the health and abundance our family deserved!  I felt like at every turn that I was running to keep up and felt like I ultimately just found more of the same lies in the name of profits, and more ways my health was ultimately paying the price, yet again.
 
How could anyone thrive in this culture when even those who were well educated and seeking out something better faced with such daunting challenges?  I know, first-world problems, but I longed to create something more, a legacy for myself and others.  To break generational chains and I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it stuck in this rat-race.
 
Set the stage for that something.  I have, for so much of my life, been interested in learning, growing, and being a student of personal development.  From an investment with top leadership development companies through their programs for years to Law of Attraction to Conscious Language and so many others, I was finding the mentorship and teaching I needed to make the changes I so desperately desired.  
 
There wasn’t an overnight shift or an immediate awareness to change, but I began to find my path slowly and as a result, was investing myself in new ways.  I was raised by a wise and visionary Mother who had shown me what it was to be an entrepreneur.  I always admired that title and was drawn to it in many ways.  As I dabbled in businesses from my youth through college and beyond, I was picking up pieces of freedom and a stage where I could work for myself to create something new.  
 
As the years went on, I kept pushing myself in that path.  I was helping others, and I was welcoming a team of like-minded friends and family to come with me.  This was possible; we were doing it!  It wasn’t easy, we were doing a side-hustle while still being full-time professionals and wives and Mothers, but we were doing it none the less.

I'm so excited to have found a platform to speak truth. To show up for others in "true health" in ways that I didn’t know could exist when I started down this path.  But I know now that we don't have to settle any longer.  Any of us, friends!  It's time to live the great adventure that you were made for.
 
Now it’s time to move beyond business beyond vocation.  Now we are building a blessing.  That has so many meanings, one being the definition of “a herd of unicorns,” in case you didn’t know.  I was given the title of ‘unicorn’ from a dear friend when she came to know me and saw what I was capable of achieving.  And now it’s my turn to see that light in you.  Join me, and together, we can create a community and movement with a vision to change it all.
 
I don't care what your background is.  What education you received growing up in business, finances, or medicine.  Those things don't matter.  We are walking a new path to freedom in all areas of our lives.
 
I'm writing a new future and destiny for myself and my family, and I won't journey alone.  A mentor taught me to carry the confidence that God has called me to rise, but I will not rise alone.
 
I'm reaching out my hand to you (don't worry, I recently used a plant-based hand sanitizer) so that you are not alone; we will do this together!  
 
You are so worthy.  
 
Your family and your dreams are worth it.  
 
Together we can do this, but you must take the first step. ðŸ‘Š

I can't wait to connect with you via text, email, or on social media!

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