Thwarted or Supported: The Story of Mama Fish

Thwarted or Supported: The Story of Mama Fish

Along with my studies in A Course in Miracles I’ve also been studying the Bible in my pursuit of understanding Love/Universal Intelligence/God. Truth is truth. In our study group a few weeks back the pastor suggested we say, “Praise God,” when things seem to not be going our way. I was definitely skeptical but knowing the pastor’s loving heart my mind remained open.

Initially I was able to accept the pastor’s suggestion because in ACIM it talks about how, for every problem that arises, God already has the solution. Although I have not yet fully embodied this wisdom, I believe it to be true, it’s definitely worth praising God for, and comforting too. 

This week in study group the subject came up again. This time I was actually able to apply it to a fun and practical story. I've shared this story with you before but our study expanded on it. Don't you love it when something you believe to be true travels from head knowledge to embodiment? My initial awareness of a supportive perception arose when I revisited the story while writing my mother's eulogy/Words of Remembrance. 

I'll start with the backstory in case you forgot. My children are 3 ½ years apart from the oldest to the youngest and there are 3 of them. I would even joke about how my older two didn’t go to preschool because I couldn’t be anywhere for 9am. There were obviously other reasons too but bottom line, I was pretty overwhelmed back then.

My mother would take one of my kids for the day periodically to give me a break, and because she adored them. At the end of their time together she’d take them to either Woolworth’s or Gilchrist’s for a special treat.

This one time she had taken my son, Andy. For his treat he had brought home a fish. We had had goldfish so we had all the supplies but this was a tropical fish. If you’ve ever had tropical fish you know that they need the water to be heated and filtered and special food—none of which we had. Needless to say I was irritated. This ‘break’ was making more work for me. My plans for a break definitely felt thwarted.

Even the pastor commented, “She bought him a fish and didn’t buy you any of the necessary supplies?” And I had had tropical fish growing up so I'm pretty confident she knew what they entailed. I promised Andy that I would buy everything we needed the following day and hoped that the fish would last the night in room temperature water.

The next morning Andy got up early and dragged a kitchen chair over to the counter to check on his fish. I awoke to his scream, “Mom!” I ran to the kitchen and found 19 fish in the bowl. I scrambled to get the mother out before she started to eat her babies because that's just what they do, but at the same time I was chuckling—it felt a little better buying all the accessories for 19 fish rather than for just 1.

So how was this a “Praise God” moment if my mother couldn’t say “no” to Andy and it made more work for me? God was able to use my thwarted break to give me a break in a much grander way—I didn’t have to purchase those 18 additional fish and that ‘break’ spanned years in the form of entertainment and education for my children. That’s how. And even think about how calming fish are. There is a tank in the waiting area of my dentist's office and my vet clinic. I went from disgruntled to more and more humbled and awed with each connection. God had heard my heart—my pure desire for a break—and answered. He had even used my mother’s weakness to do it.

I can’t wait to apply “Praise God” to other past situations where I have felt thwarted by human weakness and to apply it moving forward. And I’m sure He’s used mine for the benefit of others as well. What a game changer. Universal Intelligence is brilliant!

  • Can you think of a time when you felt like someone chose for you to be the sufferer or the loser in order to please someone else? Feels pretty awful doesn't it?
  • What had been your pure heart’s desire?
  • Maybe it was used to your benefit in the end. It's definitely worth revisiting!

I hope my story can help you to release some awful feelings, have some compassion for human weakness and increase your faith in Something More as it has mine.

And just for the record, love does not create suffering. Fear of not being loved does.

Friends in this Love,

Dr. Trish

(Gotta love the 80's photo)

(You can read about how my initial insights from the fish story came about in my post titled In the End the Universal Language was Love)

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