Dreams sure are powerful, aren’t they? They can make you smile while sleeping or startle you awake with irrational fear!

We blame them on the food we ate, the TV show we watched last, a recent conversation, certain stressors or worries, subconscious issues…

Let me give an overview of mine last night- the highlight reel if you will:

1. Definately a dream inside a dream (maybe inside yet another)

2. My mom had brought my dog to church and he ran onto the platform at the end of the service causing me to chase him and answer questions like “where is the leash? why is he here?”

The answer being…”I dunno.”

3. Walked up the stairs with the dog running into a pew to where a local teen if mine sat and she could grab him. That was when I was about to walk out when I saw my dad’s dad sitting there so I figures I should say good bye to him.

Ummm..he passed away when I was 14 or 15.

But there he was. Plain as day. Exactly as I remembered him.

I walked up behind him and said “grandpa?” He turned and smiled and hugged me.

I cried like a baby and held tighter.

4. Flash to “home yet not home”….sort of a blend between my childhood home and our camper…Definately more my mom’s house.

5. I wake up early to an alarm but am suddenly startled that my oldest may not have come home since we did not give him a curfew…so I went into his room to see if he was there. It looked like his bed was completely empty so I said his name loudly. That, now, startled him as he incoherently woke up to my rapid fire apologies…

6. I go to take a shower while he gets up to start to straighten the Tupperware cupboard – because that is what one does at 5 in the morning, right?

I can’t tell which is the soap or the shampoo so I send my mom to get my stuff from my “house”…

7. She pulls the shower “slider door” (?) shut as the teen from church walks in because apparently I am taking her with us to Mackinac Island for a band festival that day.

8. I see my oldest straightening the cupboard and am riddled with guilt because my fear/anxiety had woken him up- and once he is up, he is up.

9. My mom returns and tells me it’s ok to take her car to school that day because she doesn’t need it…does she not know I am driving to Mackinac Island with it??

My alarm suddenly goes off and I cannot tell if my husband is in bed still as I do not remember him kissing me good bye…why was my alarm going off? Do I have to go somewhere today? Shoot- am I to pick up that teenager too?? Is my oldest upset with me?? Why am I thinking of my grandfather???

Who am I?

Where am I?

What’s going on?

Know that feeling???

Hard to shake the disorientation and find firm footing with all those emotions triggered inside me suddenly!

Whether it is anxiety or the pizza from last night, finding a solid foundation is essential in the morning…I have a loooong day ahead of me if I do not.

What do I do?

The next thing I know to do and can trust…

I took a shower. I made coffee. I let the dog out. I picked up my devotionals and Bible.

I don’t know what else to do anymore when life feels uncertain…

Calling or texting my oldest sounds like a ridiculous idea at 5 in the morning so I can have some false reassurance from him that we are fine based on my manifestation of an issue..

Calling or texting that local teen,again at 5 am, seems mean to see if I am supposed to pick her up today- since we are not going to Mackinac Island I really don’t think it’s an issue!

Being upset about my dog running loose in church won’t get me anywhere…

Hugging my grandpa….well, maybe that was a gift given to me and I should accept it as such- he used to hug me tight as a kid so it was nice to be hugged by him…

Do what we know to do…don’t react based on how I feel…breathe deep and settle down…

Isaiah 25:4 tells us that God is a shelter for the poor, a refuge for the needy in distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.

I don’t know about you but I am needy.

When I am unsettled, be it by a crazy dream sequence or life in general, I am needy for some refuge, protection from a storm, and shade in the heat.

Sounds pretty good doesn’t it?

How do I get that?

By doing what I know to do and to trust in the consistency of that discipline.

“Isaiah says God is an accomplished of what He plans…You are not responsible to accomplish everything on your own. Your first purpose is to love and glorify God…He then enables you to accomplish everything else that He has planned for you.” (The 365 Most Important Bible Passages for Mothers)

Love and glorify God, eh? And then He works the rest out?

He will settle me.

Protect me.

Shade me.

Give me that firm foundation I am seeking.

Sounds pretty good to me.

I feel better already.