I like to share what God has to say to me because I know that what happens to me is quite often applicable to others as well. Also, for me it acts as a confirmation that what God said in the Word, He meant quite seriously.

My wife, daughter and I were driving home from a day-long outing in Nashville, Indiana. (Yep, Nashville, Indiana--not Tennessee. It is an eclectic tourist town with all kinds of artistic shops). We had set up on a street corner and sang to our hearts content, sowing God's seeds, helping people who walked by think about our Savior, Jesus Christ.

We were on our way home when the conversation turned to the past, and suddenly we were heatedly discussing what we each thought had happened, surprised that we didn't remember it exactly the same. It covered child discipline which was an important issue that we were still dealing with in the present as well. We were both getting upset.

Suddenly from the back seat came Kristina's voice, "Mom, Dad, can we stop and pray and praise God?"

We looked at each other then thanked Kristina for God's wisdom that she was tapping into. Before she led a heartfelt prayer, she said, "Mom, you need to keep your eyes open because you're driving, okay?" After her prayer, I wanted to visit my prayer closet, so I leaned my seat back and closed my eyes for a time and remembered a dream I'd had the night before. Its meaning instantly became very clear to me now.

I was pursuing a girl that appeared to be someone I wanted to date. As I sidled up closer to her, I asked her how old she was. She said, "14." I said to myself, "Oops" and moved on to another lady that was obviously older and more mature. That was the dream and I somehow knew it was related to something that would happen the next day. All day I'd been anticipating that somehow the dream would be made clear in some situation and, finally, as we were driving home, it happened.

That evening, I shared the dream with Eva and what I felt it meant…and I share its meaning with you, now. Like many of you, I spend much time in fellowship and getting to know God, both personally as well as Biblically. It isn't surprising to me that once in a while God speaks to me in dreams. This assures me of His love for me and encourages me in my walk with and toward Him.

We are the Bride of Christ. I was pursuing a state of mind (as the Bride of Christ) that turned out to be immature (when Eva and I began to have a heated discussion). It was "Oops, sorry God" when Kristina, in her wisdom, suggested we pray. This was our turning point in which I realized that I was choosing to pursue a state of mind more in keeping with a mature "Bride of Christ."

I thanked God for His message and spent some hours in prayer for the next two days concerning our dispute.

I know that when I think God is uncaring or deaf, I have a tendency to choose to argue or get upset. If God IS uncaring or deaf, then obviously I can't trust Him. If I feel trapped as such thinking makes me feel, I become like a jungle animal. I may attack and emotionally injure the other party (and myself) by my words. But these assumptions about God are wrong. By my impulsive, rebellious behavior, I have not even given God a chance to heal the situation.

The dream showed me three things:

1. It showed me that, initially, I didn't trust God. I thought my perception was right and Eva's was wrong. Of course, Eva felt similarly about her perception. As "immature" Brides of Christ, no resolution was possible. We were merely stomping on each other's POV (point of view) only managing to hurt one another's feelings. Christ within us is given no opportunity to have His way when we are determined to forge our own way to a carnal, human solution. This is a mistake, an attempt to utilize our limited immature perception to work out a solution. It completely disregards God. Sadly, in this world, aggressive arguing is often applauded. But it leads to self-sufficiency, not God sufficiency. It leads to greater human pride, not humble awe of God's Wisdom.

2. It showed me that, after our initial disagreement, we really wanted to trust God and, ultimately, we did spend time in our prayer closets giving the problem to Him rather than focusing on it ourselves. Only He can solve our problems completely. In fact, until problems are solved through Him, God in His sovereignty, and in His mighty wisdom, will be sure to have them crop up again and again. Once our salvation is assured through accepting Jesus as our Savior, He leads us in a journey of opportunities to learn. As we mature, we will increase our ability to relinquish every burden to Him, while we reside here in our pre-Heaven existence.

3. It showed me, too, that God wants to be given first opportunity to handle these differences in opinions. If we are feeling upset, we are only fueling the fire when we heatedly take this burden on for ourselves. When we first feel angry or frustrated, we must turn and relinquish all pain to Him. If we choose to keep the "but he/she is wrong about this" mentality, we are being immature Brides of Christ. He will be unable to help us regain the peace He longs to give us, as His children. We must be willing to give it ALL to Him. If it takes an hour of prayer to do it, we could not be spending our time in any better way. It is Satan who would urge us to get busy doing something other than pray. He revels in our pride and in our set, rebellious "I can handle this myself" attitude.

Rev 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let the one hearing say, Come! And let the one who is thirsty come. And he willing, let him take of the Water of Life freely. (MKJV)