October 3, 2013
Dear Friends,
Between my two books and my
blog, I have shared three remarkable stories about the kind of divine signs
that are literal signs—that is, they
are printed messages that spell out a sentence or a phrase that answers a burning
question you have, or points you in a particular direction, or supports you in
a choice you recently made.
In Row, Row, Row Your Boat I wrote about a billboard in Dallas that helped
guide me to the publisher of that very book. In Further Down The Stream I told the story of a woman in Arizona who
made a life-enhancing decision when she saw three telling words on a T-shirt. And
in my last blog post I shared the example of a poster on the side of a bus that
supported my choice to adopt a certain kind of mindset in regards to my career
as a spiritual author.
Today I would like to present
two more examples that were shared with me by participants in two of my
workshops. One divine sign supported a woman in taking a particular action. The
other divine sign instructed a woman to resist
taking a particular action. Appropriately
enough, I’ve titled their stories, “Do It!” and “Don’t Do It!”
DO IT!
The lady who told me this
story had been offered a job in Denton, Texas.
The job sounded great, and she was excited about the possibilities the
position offered her. Her only issue was this: She was a “big city girl” from
Dallas, and Denton was more of a small country town. She just wasn’t sure
whether she would enjoy living in a small town atmosphere.
She couldn’t make up her mind
whether to accept the job or not, until one day she was driving up Central
Expressway in Dallas and noticed a particular billboard on the side of the
road. On the billboard were these three words: “YOU’LL LOVE DENTON!” That’s
right. It was an advertisement for the very town she was debating moving to.
And that was just the divine sign she needed. She accepted the job, and not
only loved her new position, but also quickly discovered that Denton suited her
just fine, too.
P.S. On a side note, it turns
out that the billboard this lady saw was the very same billboard that—bearing a
different message at a different time—helped lead me to the publisher of Row, Row, Row Your Boat. It makes me
wonder how many other people have been divinely guided by that one particular
sign!
DON’T DO IT!
I feel comfortable telling
this woman’s story because I am not using her name or location—and, in fact, I
don’t even remember those details. This woman revealed to me that several years
earlier her marriage had been in trouble. The distance between her and her
husband was growing daily, and she was beginning to feel very close to one of
her associates at work . . . too close.
One evening she was driving
down the road imagining what it would be like to allow herself to become even
more emotionally involved with that associate . . . perhaps even physically
intimate. She knew she needed to put the brakes on this relationship so she
could work on her marriage in an appropriate manner, but she continued to play
with the idea of jumping into something new.
And then she saw it. Up ahead
was a sign for a hotel. It was the kind of electronic sign that changed moment
by moment to either complete a message or to present a brand new one. And what
did the sign say? “DON’T HAVE AN AFFAIR
. . .”
To say this woman was shocked
by the very clear and direct nature of that message is an understatement. Then,
moments later, the rest of the message appeared: “UNTIL YOU’VE SEEN OUR BANQUET
ROOM.” Yes, the sign was nothing more than an advertisement for the hotel’s
banquet facility. But to this lady, what
she saw first—and when she saw it—was clearly a divine sign telling her to
refrain from allowing her relationship at work to grow any further.
Right then and there she
vowed to focus solely on reestablishing a closer relationship with her husband.
And, as it happily turns out, she was able to do just that.
*******
So, my friends, is there something
in your life that you are debating doing or not doing? Then pay attention to
the divine signs that show up in your life—especially the literal ones. Because
sometimes—perhaps more often than you realize—the answer you seek is being
spelled out right in front of you.
Steven
© 2013 by Steven Lane Taylor
Steven Lane Taylor, LLC
