Empowering & Transforming Families, through Purposeful Parenting & Teaching Life Skills that lead to Giving & Social Change

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My husband and I have been married since 1994 and on our 10 year anniversary, my husband planned a phenomenal trip to Victoria Island and Tofino, British Columbia. We had arrived at the resort and were all unpacked, including ALL my books (Lee Strobel’s, Case for Christ, Spiritual Personality Types using Myer’s Briggs, and a myriad of C.S. Lewis Books) that I had brought to read and of course, share with Kirk. He was relaxing in the balcony and I came out to read TO him. Today was C.S.Lewis, Mere Christianity, one of my all time favorite books, written for people like me with especially questioning and scientific type minds. I had only been a Christian for maybe 5 years and my husband had grown up in the church, unlike myself. However, my husband had strayed from his faith and well, he needed my newfound wisdom, vision and passion to help him see the light again. As you can imagine, it was beyond annoying for him and the light, well it was a giant spot light shining right into his eyes, blinding him to the beautiful visions that God was gifting me with. Finally, as I said, honey, you really need to hear this, he said, why do you always have to have an agenda? Can’t you just let it go and relax?

Well, I went to go lie down as it was not going as I had hoped. I had faIlen asleep and that is when the dream or vision came to me. You see Kirk and I had been struggling lately with him taking on being spiritual leader of our family. It was just not how I would do it or how I heard God telling me to do it…and was really struggling with trusting Kirk to do things his way. I must have fallen asleep and that is when the dream or vision came to me. We were hiking and Kirk was leading and I was following. First we went over a wooden bridge that was not as stable as I would have liked. Then we came to a fork in the road. To the left was a narrow ledge that wrapped around the mountain and looked inviting, adventurous, but risky. To the right was a steep mountain with a lot of trees and I already knew which way my husband would choose. He said, come on, lets go this way, it looks like fun, the other way looks like a lot of work. I dug my heels in and said I did not want to go. He held my hand and said come on, you wanted me to lead, I got this. As soon as he stepped out onto the ledge, it turned to sand and began to give way. He was falling and I was holding his hand and now I did not want to let go for fear he would fall into the abyss below. I was beginning to fall and God said, let him go. I got this. This is not your saving, it is Mine. Clouds shaped liked hands formed and came down below him and God said again to let him go and I did. The hands lifted my husband up and placed him at the foot of the mountain. The clouds lifted and an eagle flew out and headed up the mountain, indicating we were to follow. We held hands and began the steep hike together, side by side.

I woke up and knew I had to let go and let God do His work. Kirk was His to save…not me. God had to do it the way that was unique to Kirk and how Kirk was gifted and wired. God spoke to me through prophetic dreams and visions and direct communication through intense study and prayer and I was gifted and wired to receive that. We had different gifts and different purposes.

We left Victoria and began the four hour drive to Tofino, British Columbia. We had plenty of time to talk and I shared my vision from the morning. He liked the sound of what I had to tell him…that I would be letting go. So I began the work of letting go. When we arrived at our room in Tofino, we sat down at the table and there was a painting above the table of two eagles on a branch, getting ready to take flight and they were at the face of a mountain. We smiled.

When we arrived back home and I had told a friend about our wonderful trip and my vision, she asked me tell her the name of the resort that we were staying at in Victoria and I told her again, it was the Aerie Resort. She asked me if she knew what an “Aerie” was and I said, “Nope”. She let me know that it was an Eagle’s Nest. God was ministering to me there in the Eagle’s Nest and bringing me to the end of myself and bringing me to Himself and He intends to carry my husband and I on the wings of Eagles to reach His fortress at the top of the mountain, which is also “Aerie”.

Exodus 19:3-4

Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said,

“This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel:

⁴‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

That was nearly 9 years ago. There were times where I have felt that we were back at the base of the mountain and we had not really climbed yet at all, but truly we have climbed and have covered ground. I just need the continual reminder that it is in God’s time and not my own. I also need that continual refuel of the Holy Spirit to keep my strength and perseverance up so that I won’t grow weary of the climb.

Isaiah 40:3

but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

For the lord God is our Light and protector. He give us grace and glory. No good thing will the Lord withhold from those who do what is right. Psalm 84: 10-12

At the age of 14, the Scottish born St. Patrick was kidnapped and taken to Ireland and forced to be a shepherd. Patrick was surrounded by evil people and as he watched sheep all day and night, he prayed that his love for God would grow.

When he was 20, he had a dream about escaping by going to the coast. As the story goes, when he awoke he escaped and was reunited with this family in Britain. Later, he dreamt about the people of ireland and was called by God to tell them about Christ. He shared the love of Christ through the use of the Shamrock with many people.

Patrick was able to be courageous to face his enemies and return to a place that had caused him a lot of pain and hardship, because he knew that God was in control. He was more afraid of people dying without Christ than he was about facing the risks and rejection.

God sometimes uses the strangest experiences to grow our faith in Him. I am just thankful that it does not take me getting kidnapped and being forced into slavery and spending a lot of time praying alone with a bunch of sheep…although, I have to admit that last part does not sound so bad. Anyway, I share the the story for a reason and it is all just too coincidental that this would be happening about the same time that I was getting ready to sit down to write our “Easter/St. Patrick’s Letter” back in 2005, since once again, I couldn’t get it out at Christmas.

One day, Sammy and I were out looking for four leaf clovers, which I can tell you, I had no real intention on actually finding any. I had never found any before and I spent a good deal of time looking as a kid. Sammy announced confidently, that she would find one. I warned her that they are very hard to find and as I was continuing my commentary, she bent down to the very first patch she came across and picked up the first clover that her eyes discerned. She excitedly announced, “I found one, I found a four leaf clover.” Of course, Mommy chuckled and said, “Oh, now check carefully, because sometimes the three leafed clovers deceive you. You have to really count the leaves very, very carefully.” She counted again and said, “Yep, it is definitely a four leafed clover, I knew I would find one.” I thought to myself, “Ah, the faith of a child.”

I said, “OK, let me see it.” I counted the leaves three times and she was right…I was utterly amazed. I told her that she was very lucky and that Mommy had never found one in all of her life. Of course, I had to look down in the very same patch, which of course, would be silly, because what are the odds that we would find two, let alone in the same patch. Well, an inch over from where she plucked hers, I plucked one of my very own. “Well, what do you know, I found one too, it must be our lucky day!” I was truly amazed and knew it was a gift from God, to be able to share this experience with my daughter and I had been having a very hard time in the recent months…so I knew it was a gift and I just had to fully unwrap it to know fully what God was trying to tell me.

When we got home, I pressed the clovers and went right to the internet to learn more about four leaf clovers and Shamrocks, especially since St. Patrick’s Day was quickly approaching and knew virtually nothing about St. Patrick, or how he became a Saint, until I found the story that I shared earlier. I also learned that the Irish tradition, thanks to St. Patrick, says that the Shamrock or the three leafed clover represents the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. If a clover is found with the fourth leaf, that represents God’s Grace. That was the Gift God was trying to give me. His grace…my daughter and I were covered in His grace and nothing anyone else said or did or believed could change that. I had been in a crisis of belief recently due to some experiences that were continually bringing doubt to my faith through pharisaic and legalistic belief systems that were damaging to my daughter’s quickly and organically growing spirituality and my own and I had been in constant prayer asking God to once again to further grow my faith and hope in Him and Him alone. He most certainly did. My daughter was 7 then and had asked Christ into her heart around 6. She is 15 now and still has a beautiful growing faith and heart.

Know that when you earnestly seek God and His will from your heart and ask him to grow your faith in Him, know that He most assuredly will and you just never know what He will use to do it…Bible, Saints, dreams, visions, friends, children, circumstances, coincidences, seashells, creation…or maybe a four leafed clover.

I pray that we can all Live Life Abundantly and Harmoniously under His great umbrella of Grace..Trusting in Him alone, Michelle Solberg

“So let us come bold to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it. ” Hebrews 4:16

Four Leafed Clovers — St. Patrick, The Luck of the Irish and God’s Gift of Grace

Monthly Archives: March 2013

Eagles and Letting Go of my agenda and Letting God do His Job