am a firm believer in understanding dreams. They can teach us things about ourselves. They can show us areas in which we need more healing. They can help us to process things that are incredibly difficult to process. They also can bring us comfort when we need it most.
On February 27, it will be 9 years since I survived Carbon Monoxide Poisoning. It was hands down the most traumatic episode of my life, which considering my life, is really saying something. As a result of the poisoning plus the brain damage it caused, I no longer have control over intrusive thoughts, so each year as February 27 approaches, I think a LOT about the day I nearly died. It has improved some, thank God. The first year anniversary was the most difficult.
For weeks, I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened, & how close I came to death. I was shaken up badly & nothing seemed to comfort me.. until a dream I had on the night of February 26th, 2016. In it, I was at a local library where I worked as a teen. They were closing, so I walked out the door & lo & behold, there was my granddad! I asked what he was doing here. He smiled & said, “I came to show you my new car.” His new car was a pretty burgundy Jeep Rubicon. I said it was nice & he told me to get in, because we were going for a ride. We went four wheeling! We rode over boulders & into deep valleys. It was so much fun! When I later woke from the dream, my mood was drastically improved.
(As a side note, I don’t believe the dead technically visit us in our dreams. I do, however, believe they still care about their loved ones they left behind, & sometimes ask God to tell us something which could mean they show up in our dreams. Or maybe my dream was God knowing I needed something to comfort me, so he gave me a dream of my favorite person. I’m not sure which it was, but in any case, it was great!)
I have had so many other interesting dreams that have proven to be very helpful. For example, for years I had a repeating dream. Details were different, but the theme was always the same. In it, I needed to repeat high school, & had to rely on my mother to take me to school, but she got me there late or would yell at me about how she was doing me a big favor (just like how things were when I actually was in high school). The more I began to heal from her abuse, the less frequent the dreams became. They also started to change as I healed, such as I realized I had my own car & didn’t need to rely on her or I remembered I’ve been through high school & had no need to repeat it. Eventually after going no contact with her, the dreams stopped completely. Those dreams helped me to gauge my healing while I had them though.
The reason I’m telling you about these dreams is to show you the value that can be had in dreams. I know a lot of people think they have no purpose, but they really do! Acts 2:17 says, “‘And it shall be in the last days,’ says God, ‘That I will pour out My Spirit upon all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see [divinely prompted] visions, And your old men shall dream [divinely prompted] dreams;” (AMP) I believe this is happening now. Everyone needs to pay attention to their dreams!
The brain constantly processes information, good, bad or indifferent. It continues to do so even when we sleep, which can be what our dreams are. As I mentioned, they have helped me to gauge my healing, which was incredibly helpful. There are other times when I don’t remember many of my dreams, & I firmly believe that is the brain processing things that simply aren’t important enough to remember.
When I don’t know what a dream meant, I pray, asking God to show me what that meant. I also check out a good dream dictionary site I like, www.dreammoods.com. I look up everything I can think of in the dream, such as objects, people, colors, emotions. I write things down & then look at the information I gathered as a whole. Usually then, I understand what the dream was about. I believe God gives me that clarity when I need it. If I don’t understand it, I figure it is simply my brain processing things & I don’t need to know what it’s about.
Dear Reader, I want to encourage you to start paying attention to your dreams. They really can offer you insight, understanding & even comfort.
