Burying the Hatchet…….by Laura Grace

Burying the Hatchet, and the Eye of the Needle

A long time ago, when I lived in a housing unit in Washington State, I prayed and decided I was going to “bury the hatchet” about some things that happened in the past, things that had hurt me deeply, things I didn’t understand, and it was messing with my soul life. I knew, because these hurts kept coming up and tripping me up, time and time again. I struggled tounderstand (this other person) who had such a significant impact on my life, and I could not for the life of me, understand her! I had this journal where I had witten down all my feelings and also her supposed treachery toward me.

Oh these feelings were real! I did blame “Her’ for a lot of my woes and problems, and lack of ability to overcome. 

I said this prayer; “Father I forgive her, and I want to bury the hatchet now, and not leave the handle sticking up!” I had heard a sermon on how sometimes we bury the hatchet, but the handle is still sticking out of the ground, and we pull it back out and our decision to forgive seems undone, as if we didn’t really forgive at all!

I prayed and buried the journals that day, having an actual funeral service of sorts, and saying Father “I mean it” I don’t want to remember this stuff anymore.”

The funny thing is, I still do remember, but the anger associated with that person is gone, and I am able to love her now, and see her through a new set of eyes. I would dare to say, I see her through the eyes of Jesus now. Do I see her faults? Well, yes I do! I do not take it personally anymore, the things that happened in the past. I see she did not do it on purpose! That is the work of Jesus, my friend. 

Years later, I find myself always crying about my broken dreams. Fast forward to 10 years later, I am asking God about all the things he promised me, the things I had prayed for, and said now, “I have “prayed and believed” for these things for years Father, it’s hurting me it’s not coming to pass.” One was a home of my own, something I stood in faith for for many years, as well as a few other key things I had prayed for. I wrote them down, God led me to make this paper with little tombstones on it, and I wrote the things I’d believed for on the miniature tombstones!!! 

I know this sounds a bit bizarre, but I actualy had a funeral service over that too, and laid it all to rest in his arms. The scripture was “It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle” than for a rich man to enter heaven. While i wasn’t rich, I had a pretty healthy ability to dream. 

I needed to give these dreams to God, and let go of them, not allowing them to keep me from entering further into his Kingdom. You see? After I did this, I had tremendous peace I had put it all into his hands. I just knew, deep down, he knew how important these (10) things were to me, and in putting it into his hands for safe keeping, these dreams were safer than they ever were when I was fervently praying about them.

Every single one of those prayers has been answered. Every one! One was a house of my own, that has happened twice now. I can remember when it looked impossible………

Another is a 12-string guitar we found (by God’s leading) and I am playing that guitar to this day! That happened in 2003. I prayed for that guitar since the early 90’s……
I hope this little testimony blessed you today! Remember that God’s ways are not our ways, and his timing is not our timing. We can trust him with our dreams, and we can trust him with ourselves! He is “trustworthy” but we won’t know that until we surrender things to him. 

with love and blessings, Laura Grace Author Page: amazon.com/author/lauragrace