X marks the spot. Who doesn’t love a good treasure hunt? I remember the treasure hunts my mom my used to create for us as children. There were the “dig for a half hour until you unearth the treasure” kind. We patiently followed the clues all around the farm, getting more excited with each one. We knew we were approaching the goal with every successful clue. There was nothing more exciting than finding out what was buried. It was surely going to be really good, if we had to work that hard to get it. And we were right. The spoils were definitely worth the effort.
How did we know it would be worth the effort? Because we knew the heart of the woman who had lovingly created the treasure hunt. We knew of her sense of wonder and adventure. We knew she had gone to a lot of effort to spoil us, even if she wasn’t worried about making us work a little to get it. She knew what lay beneath the dirt, and knew we would forget about the callouses on our hands and the arguments that would inevitably erupt as we worked collectively to figure out a tricky clue. In essence, we knew her deep love for us.
I have come to find pure delight in hunting out, and searching for signs and wonders from above, in my adult life. I have come to learn that, just like my mom used to make for us as children, God is always creating a treasure hunt, even if we have to work to find the treasure.
About two years ago I began to notice dimes everywhere. It was happening so often I decided it could not simply be ‘a coincidence’ so I began to collect them and tuck them away in a drawer. I was unsure exactly why I was finding these dimes, but I decided to take joy in finding them. It was amazing how many more dimes I found when I treated their turning up as fortuitous, instead of coincidental.
I became curious. I became watchful. I carried a sense of anticipation.
I began paying more careful attention to the times and places the dimes make their appearance. It seems they most often turn up when I am really wrestling with something. When I’m unsure if I am heading in the right direction, when I am questioning my life in big and small ways. I have found they turn up when I am feeling hesitant, when there are two paths before me that require me to make a choice, or when I am just not quite my perky self. I have noticed how the finding of a simple dime, not worth much, can make me feel so worthy. How it can instantly fill me with excitement and expectation, or just warm my heart and make me feel so very loved.
Two days ago I was doing my children’s laundry and a lovely little dime fell out. The next day I found a dime on the floor in the back of my van. I try and go for an early morning walk each morning and today I was cold, it was gloomy and rainy and going for my walk was not something I wanted to do. I went anyway knowing that I am at my best when I do. Just when I thought I should turn around and abandon the walk, I look down and in the dirt and in the crevasse of the sidewalk is a dime…
I marvel at the Lord, so full of care and concern that He would take such time and consideration to orchestrate these things for me. I am not rich, nor famous, I am simply a wife and a mother who wakes up every morning determined to do and be her best. I am not extraordinary in this. The world is full of such people. Finding a dime makes me feel so much, that it causes me to want to do the simple things for people that cross my path, because I recognize on a deep and personal level, how much a tiny act can mean. The idea that I can be the small gesture that causes excitement, expectation or warms a heart causes me to want to do small things.
I wonder how many times I have done or said something to someone, that was a ‘dime’ along life’s treasure hunt for them? Being awakened to this possibility has caused me speak the beauty that comes into my mind and release it fully into the world so that it may accomplish what it was intended to do. Because it may just be the thing that changes someones day. It may be the nudge someone has been waiting for. It may be a sign from above. I have learned to send a text when someone repeatedly keeps coming to my mind, I have learned to never walk away from a lady who has caused me to think “wow that is a nice outfit” without telling her so. I compliment women as often as the thoughts come into my mind. I love to catch people by surprise just by noticing them; letting them know I saw their kindness, I delighted in how pretty their eyes are, how their children look at them with admiration.
My heart’s passion is to encourage and uplift people, specifically women, more specifically mothers. I long for women to know they are enough. They are magnificent and they change the world by just being who they are. I love to pour out some of the wisdom and experiences that my life has offered me, so that maybe someone can learn from my mistakes, or redo my wins. I can only pray that as I do this which fuels my heart and soul, that I am part of a bigger picture; that is, leaving dimes for people all throughout my day.
Today I encourage you to look for the dimes that are surely along your path and to be the dime along someone else’s. Treasure hunting, is after all, worth the effort.
xoxo
Layna
