Category Archives: God Taps

These posts talk about the way that God speaks to you to confirm that you are headed in the right direction and following the plan He has for you.

Tears of Joy!

Posted on: October 10th, 2014 by Sue Anderson - Leave a comment

Last week I traveled 4 hours away to help a client of mine that had moved out of the area a few years ago. Although she tried to find a professional organizer in her area to help her, the one she found was new and was just as overwhelmed with the situation as she was. So much so that she has since gone out of business. Unfortunately, there are no other professional organizers in her area, so she reached out to me for help. Her initial email to me said “I know it would be a lot to ask you to come and help me, but I’m fairly desperate and have lost all pride”. How do you say no to helping someone when they say something like that, no matter how far away they are?

Since she had only unpacked the essentials, and left everything else out in the garage when she moved in 3 years earlier, I knew we had to start in the garage. As with any organizing job, finding the place that “clogs” up the rest of the home and unclogging it is crucial. The garage took the longest amount of time to complete, but it was also one of the most rewarding spaces because of that. Now all of the stuff that was in her house that really should be in the garage was able to be filtered out into the garage zones once we had them established.

Garage – Before & After

Next we moved on to the kitchen space, then the closets, the living room, the master bedroom/bath, the laundry room, the guest room and the home office. We worked for 6 straight days, all day long and got through the larger part of her home. Letting go of things you love or thought you might use someday is always difficult and that was no different for this client. But with each passing day, she gave up more and more. She even went back and let go of things she had decided to keep only the day before. I was so proud of her and all of the hard work she invested in this process.

Kitchen – Before & After

Home Office – Before & After

She had shared with me before I came that her master bedroom and bathroom were the areas that were bothering her the most. She couldn’t find peace anywhere in her home. She felt overwhelmed, stressed out and beat down – something I commonly hear from our clients. I knew the sense of relief she would feel when her master bedroom and bathroom were clutter-free and organized and so I didn’t let her see things changing as I was working. I wanted her to see it ONLY when those spaces were completed.

Once I had the areas organized, I let her look. Her mouth immediately fell open as she blurted out the words “I think I could cry”. With that, she threw the entire upper part of her body down onto her outstretched arms on the bathroom counter and began crying uncontrollably. I began crying. I knew how much relief I had brought to her life. I knew how long she had wanted that space back in control and peaceful. But her reaction was priceless and beautiful!

Bedroom – Before & After

Once my client stopped crying, she stepped back and stared at me in disbelief and exclaimed “this is definitely your ministry, a life-changing ministry at that!”. I know it seems funny to most (and even to myself sometimes) to leave all of your financial security behind to follow what you believe God created you to do. But knowing you have the ability to use what you love doing to change people’s lives in such a dramatically positive way and choosing not to go for it makes absolutely less sense!

Her Smile Said it All

Posted on: August 30th, 2014 by Sue Anderson - Leave a comment

I find myself today at an all too familiar place as of late, the bedside of my mother who has been sent home to die. We have had a very unusual relationship almost my entire life. Somehow, somewhere, early on in my life, I took over the parenting role. Not only parenting her, but also trying to parent my siblings as best I could.

Mom

Her health has been declining rapidly each day. Today as I watch her lying there confused, in pain and scared, my heart breaks for her. My biggest concern since she was diagnosed with cancer has been that I wanted to be sure that she knew God in the close, personal way that I know Him before she died. Unfortunately, from everything I can tell, and every discussion we’ve had, I’ve gotten the impression that she still doesn’t. She can no longer carry on conversations. So I quietly pray at her bedside for her.

The one sign of hope that I do have is that she was raised Catholic and I know that it has been very, very important to her that a priest visit with her so she can give her last confession. Because she has not been super active in church, we’ve had a hard time getting a priest to make that visit.

Moments after I began writing this post, there was a knock on the door. A priest that my brother had contacted was here to pray over her, take her final confession and do something Catholics call anointing the sick. Though my Mom was heavily medicated, it was clear that she understood what was going on. I felt such peace and comfort hearing the words the priest prayed over her – promising that God would comfort her, give her peace and that all of her sins have been forgiven.

As the priest left, my Mom thanked him wholeheartedly with a smile, nothing more. That smile was the biggest smile I had seen in days from her. And for that, I thank God. He reminds me there is always hope.

Mom

I Dare You to Prove it, God!

Posted on: June 16th, 2014 by Sue Anderson - 2 Comments

I’ve made many, many mistakes in my life and so when I began feeling a prompting from God to leave my full time job I wasn’t prepared to just run after that without being 100% sure that was His will. For the better part of my life I’ve been on my own with no one at all to fall back on and so I wasn’t prepared to walk away from every speck of my financial security without being certain this was what He wanted me to do.

There were so, so, so many ways I felt God telling me that this was what He wanted, but I needed something concrete to be sure. Other than the day that I audibly heard God tell me that it didn’t make any earthly sense for Noah to build an arc either (read that story here), this was by far the most obvious, glaring way in which He let me know He meant business and that I better get to work preparing to follow Him.

Now I realize that this story is going to sound like a story out of a story book, or out of a feel-good movie. It’s so far-fetched that it is going to be hard for you to believe this really happened. But I think that’s the entire point I am trying to make with this blog and impending book, that God wants to play an active part in everyone’s lives. I want people that don’t know Him to realize that there really is a God and He’s not just floating out there somewhere. He’s walking through this journey with you and He’s got big, big plans for you if you’ll just let Him in.

Let Him Shine Through You

Okay, enough of that, now on to the story. Once I audibly heard God’s voice reassuring me that although me leaving my job didn’t make any earthly sense, it was what He wanted me to do, I was pretty darn certain that I knew God wanted me to walk away from my job. However, I was scared. I knew I wouldn’t have anyone to fall back on if things blew up in my face and so I needed to know with certainty that He was telling me to do this. I needed something concrete from Him.

I was almost constantly “in conversation” with God about this. On July 1, 2012 my business account only had $56 in it. I remember so clearly saying to God in resignation, “OK God, if this is what you want, I need a very clear sign. Once you give me a clear sign, I’ll do it. If you put $20,000 in my business account before year’s end, I’ll know without a doubt that this is what you want and I will follow.” I remember even laughing out loud as I said this because I knew that if that were to happen, that would be a miracle. I also nervously knew that there was a very great possibility that would happen, and then I would no longer have an excuse not to follow His will for my life.

Can you believe that there was $20,000 in that account by October that year?! (That was exactly one year after He audibly spoke to me!) It was as if God said you gave me until year’s end to get the money in your account but I want to make sure that you understand that this IS my will so I’m putting it in your account earlier! Now let’s get on with this! ~ So I did.

Every Storm Brings A Rainbow

Posted on: June 10th, 2014 by Sue Anderson - Leave a comment

There’s always a rainbow at the end of the storm. Many times we wonder when it will stop storming. We try to rush the storm past us because it seems like it’s never going to end. And then, finally one day, there it is – a rainbow.

12 years ago today, and 2 weeks after his 39th birthday, my younger brother Mike died after a very short battle with leukemia. Mike and I were very, very close. He actually lived with me for the last year or so of his life. Because of the wonderful connection we had, it seemed fitting to me that I was a perfect match to be his bone marrow donor. In non-technical terms, when you’re a bone marrow donor, they draw out your blood, spin “the life” out of it and then put what’s left back in your body. The bone marrow recipient gets the “life blood”.

Mike & I

It’s an all-day process which leaves the donor completely (& literally) drained at the end of the day. Since my veins tend to collapse, roll and do lots of other creative things, the doctors decided it would be best for me to have a catheter put in my chest for the procedure. Unfortunately the bone marrow transplant did not save his life and he died not too long after it. Mike’s death took a tremendous toll on me. While I was driving home from the hospital the day he died, I screamed so loud and for so long in between sobbing that I hyperventilated and had to pull over. Fortunately my other brother wasn’t far behind me and he pulled over and talked me off the ledge.

About a year after Mike died, the scar from the catheter they used for the bone marrow transplant was going away and I didn’t want it to go away. It was all that I had left of him! I was panicky. I couldn’t lose that last piece of him! So, although I am not a tattoo lover, I got a very small tattoo of two connected hearts to permanently mark where the scar is (1 representing Mike, 1 representing me). I had the tattoo placed so that the scar is right in the middle, between where the two hearts meet.

Our Connecting Hearts

Every year, year after year, on June 10th, I am reminded of Mike, his death and how much I miss him. I’m sad for him, I’m sad for his children (one of which has died tragically since Mike’s death) and I’m sad for my children. Every year June 10th was clouded in storms. That is until June 10, 2011. God sent my first little grand baby, Raelyn Grace to us that day. She was the rainbow at the end of my storm. Because of His grace, he had taken a tragic day and turned it into a day of celebration. Raelyn represented hope, a new life and a happy focus for that day. I can’t even begin to articulate the amount of joy this one little soul has brought into my life! So today, we celebrate our little rainbow’s 3rd birthday!

Raelyn Grace

No Need to Fear

Posted on: June 9th, 2014 by Sue Anderson - 2 Comments

Back in April, I blogged about my nest egg shrinking and shared that my natural inclination was to worry about that. I talked about how in those moments of fear, I have to remind myself that I should not worry about such things. He’s in control. Since I know with 100% certainty that I followed His direction for my life when I left my financial security behind, I just have to trust that everything will be OK. I also talked about the way that I combated my insecurities about my nest egg shrinking was to tithe 10% of my monthly income.

I ended the post by saying that I know that when you tithe faithfully, it all works out somehow. And I promised that I’d be blogging in the very near future about the way(s) in which He would blow my mind to provide me with very clear proof that tithing during times of fear was the right decision. I said that He would do that strictly so I would be encouraged, and so that I could share the story with you. I ended the blog post simply by saying “trust in Him” and honestly that is the bottom line in anything you’re dealing with.

So here’s the icing on the cake or the proof in the pudding as they say. It’s been almost exactly 2 months since that post and as I suspected when I originally wrote it, there have been so many “God Taps” to indicate He is in control and I have nothing to fear. Here are just a few of them:

The proof is in the pudding

#1: My organizing business, Simplified Living Solutions has been so busy since then that I have not even had any “free time” to blog on Modern Day Noah. From April 6th (when I tithed) to June 6th, Simplified Living Solutions sales represented 121 times more than what I tithed that one time. Yes, you’re reading that right – one hundred and twenty one times more!

#2: Although there are very few people that even know about this blog, I received a call from a friend within 10 minutes of the post going live who said at the very moment she received the post, she was reading a book that said the very same thing – how important it is to contribute 10% of your income.

#3: Someone whom I had only met once before said that the post inspired her to help sponsor a local Christian radio station that is only on the air thanks to the generosity of their faithful monthly supporters.

#4: I wrote my first book over 2 years ago and it’s been lying on my desk ever since because I have felt stuck about what to do next. I’ve never written a book before, I’ve battled with my own insecurities about it. Is it good enough? Am I explaining things properly? Is it in the right order? And the list goes on and on. One morning when I woke up, I immediately got down on my knees and asked God to give me direction and the words I needed to tell the Modern Day Noah story the way He wanted it told. Without even connecting this prayer originally, I received an email the next day from my new friend, author and speaker Connie Cavanaugh. (How we came to know each other is a God story in itself. You can read more about that here.) She wanted to let me know that she was willing to read through my book and give me feedback and direction that would move me closer to finalizing the book so that I can get to work on the Modern Day Noah book! I never even asked her to do that! She said that she felt God’s prompting to help me and pay it forward like others had done for her when she was writing her first book! Tell me that wasn’t God’s hand in this situation!

The moral of this story is to always battle fear and insecurities with faith in action.