Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: prayer

  • Divine Timing!

    Our grandson, Adam, and (his now wife) Rachel wanted to give the guests at their wedding a memorable experience at Sandestin, a 2,400-acre resort located in Miramar, Florida. I assure you the five-day unfolding was an on-going call (and answer) to prayer.

    At 4:41 pm Thursday, September 10, I received a frantic call from our daughter, Stacey, from Ed Walline Regional Beach in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. She and Doug were there setting up for the rehearsal dinner. She said she had mascara running down her face and needed me to bring her some makeup remover. She said nothing was set up yet! I assumed all of this was because of the rain we were having at the house. During Sunday’s drive back to Tennessee from Florida I learned it never rained on them, but permitted events were not allowed to set up until 5:00 pm. This “formal” rehearsal dinner for 80 people was scheduled to begin at 5:30! People raved about the food and the venue. With weather threatening all around us, the event was gorgeous and so was Stacey and her heart-rendering mother-of-the-groom speech!


    After intense thunder and lightening in the early-morning, the rains stopped just in time for photos on the golf-course.

    Screenshot

    Adam’s wedding band was from his paternal grandfather, George Ross, who passed away five years ago. Following a very meaningful ring warming, the ceremony was rich with articulate and intimate personal vows. Adam’s and Rachel’s marriage ceremony was held as dreamed: outdoors at Eden Gardens State Park beneath the “Wedding Tree” which is estimated to be over 600 years old. Blessed beyond words to be able to officiate for them.

    The perfectly planned wedding reception was a 3-hour dinner cruise aboard Solaris Yacht, kicked off with live saxaphone, punctuated with spectacular speeches by Rachel’s dad and our own grands Christina (Matron of Honor) and Brad (Best Man). Dancing was over the top, and John and I got to take home the leftover cheesecake.

    After several days of rainy and cloudy weather which graciously gave way for our meticulous schedule, Saturday’s beach day was blessed with continuous sunshine. At sunset we were back at the marina for dinner and drinks and cheering UT to a win on the outdoor big screen!

    Sunday Stacey and Doug and John and I were just minutes behind a very serious multi-car accident south of Birmingham. We got through debris on the road as those involved were still on the scene standing stunned awaiting emergency crews. Courtney and Jackson were driving back with Courtney’s dad. We we surprised to hear they were in front of us and shocked to learn they had been mere seconds ahead of the crash. Courtney’s dad saw it in his rearview mirror!

    After four delays on their flight out of Florida, Rachel’s mom and family had a “Hail Mary” 20 minutes between landing time and departure time in Atlanta for their connection home to California. They landed there at their original ETA. So grateful, so grateful, so grateful…. As Stacey often says, “God hasn’t failed us yet.”

    The conditions invited us to be purposeful in our practice of prayer and if it was possible to choose just one scripture for this amazing start to Adam’s and Rachel’s married life it might be:

    “For I know the plans I have for you…
    plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
    plans to give you hope and a future.”
    ~ Jeremiah 29:11

  • Tears of Joy

    Her granddaughter — a single mother of three young girls — desperately needed an affordable, reliable used vehicle. When a friend sent her a video through Facebook with a message about answered prayer, that night before going to bed, she prayed, “Lord, we need help. We are asking you to provide a car for this family. We are trusting you to answer this prayer.”

    The following morning, before getting out of bed, she prayed again asking Jesus to answer this prayer. That very afternoon her daughter called. Her granddaughter had bought a car!

    In fact, her granddaughter had inquired about this vehicle but had not previously received a response to her inquiry. This particular vehicle previously belonged to the mother of the seller, and the mother had passed away. There was much mutual joy and relief that this young mother would now have reliable transportation.

    As she received the news, she began to cry tears of joy. She shared with her daughter the message that has inspired her prayers:

      This October, God wants you to read this verse. Stop for a moment. This is for you.

      God is about to bless you so much that you will cry tears of joy. Are you ready for God’s favor? Then don’t stop reading. Get your jars ready, because there will be oil in your house.

      John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.”

      To the lady reading this, Jesus isn’t our last hope. He is our only hope. Trust him. You will cry in October, not because someone hurt you, but because God answered your prayers.

      If you’re not ashamed of Jesus, send this to a godly sister and remind her. God will make a way. Lord, make a way for the woman who passes this along and puts, “Amen.”


    Her tears of joy included gratitude for the godly sister who had sent the message.

  • I’m Here for You

    Her daughter had a biopsy on her leg and it came back squamous cell carcinoma. She was to have an excision that would be done by a plastic surgeon to minimize scarring. She sent a message to a prayer list, saying, “Our daughter would use words asking for prayers for those doing her procedure; requesting that she have peace of mind and minimal discomfort and also that they be able to remove all of the sick cells, and that she would heal easily and completely.”

    She continued, “I would add that anything else be removed along with the tissue: anything that blocks or limits our daughter’s health and well-being on any level. Let this be a healing on all levels over all times: memory, belief, attitude, behavior. May the ultimate result be freedom from all that she and all beings would be better off without. Pray that this experience will be a deep healing blessing Stacey, her family and friends, the whole earth and beyond. Let it be a feeling-based prayer. Amen.”

    Included in the message was information on feeling-based prayer by Gregg Braden:

      Prayer researchers identify multiple kinds of prayer, and everyone has a place. For me, prayer is like a tool. It’s like if we have a toolbox, different tools can be used for different things. Different prayers may be used for different things. There are prayers of supplication. For example, when we feel powerless to do anything in our world and we ask for intervention, “Dear God, if you let my car get to the bottom of the freeway, this one time I will never let my gas tank get this low again.” That’s a prayer of supplication. There are prayers where we literally petition a higher power. “Almighty I Am, I petition the Lord for the right to heal and be healed now in all past, present, future generations.” That’s a petitionary prayer.

      There is a form of prayer that typically has not been recognized by modern prayer researchers, and it is the form of prayer that is used by the indigenous peoples to do seemingly miraculous things, including healing of the body. It is feeling-based prayer. It is feeling the feeling as if the prayer has already been accomplished, rather than asking an external force to perform this thing, this healing or this miracle, for us. The difference in this mode of prayer is we become part of the solution rather than feeling powerless and asking for an external intervention.

      When we feel the feeling that our perfect relationship is already present, our abundance is already present, the healing in our body has already happened, we set into motion a cascade of events that reflect that feeling that modern physics is only beginning to bear out through quantum theory. Entanglement, the principle of interconnectedness, of us being connected to the world beyond our body, as well as the world within our bodies. The heart – and the heart-brain connection – these are the tools. They provide the mechanism for us to make these communications.

      So, prayer, when we say prayer, [we mean] a feeling-based prayer, does have the potential to influence the world outside of our bodies through electrical and magnetic and quantum forces we’re only beginning to understand. But it also has the ability, through that feeling, when we feel the feeling that we are already healed, for example, that we go into the heart-brain coherence without the attachment to the outcome, okay, and we’re feeling the feeling, and we can see that in our mind, our mirror neurons are seeing the healing in the presence of a field that supports that healing without the judgment, without the attachment, without the goodness or the badness or the rightness or their wrongness.

      And this is what frees us, frees our body to respond very, very quickly.

      Healing, what we call healing, is harmony. It’s bringing our body into harmony with itself and with the forces of the planet that we live upon. And heart-based harmony, heart-brain harmony and heart-based prayer are ancient tools that have been validated in modern laboratories, now that tell us precisely how this works and what to do.

    Following the surgery, an update on her daughter reported the surgery went well and she has showering restrictions for two days and directions to follow for wound healing until the stitches come out in two weeks and thanking everyone for the prayers. She soon received an email from a friend on the prayer list:

    Please tell your daughter “Thank You” for me. I will follow her example on Friday with surgery with the same diagnosis. The location on my aging body (all 82 and 3/4 years of it) is on the back of the left leg below the knee and on the upper right arm just below the shoulder joint. You have shaped my requests for the better. I wish my husband was here with skin on to walk with me through this also but I know he will coach me through this as he has all of the other past hiccups since he passed.

    You don’t always know so directly how much your experiences touch others but there is always someone saying, “I’m here for you.” Feeling-based prayer going forth!

  • 37

    “Heading to Mayo. Appointment is tomorrow. Setting intention for hope for more time and relief of pain in my arm.”

    “Prayers pave the way. Thank you for the update,” came her friend’s reply. “Do you have time for a Stories of Jesus this morning?”

    No quick replay came, so her friend fired off two more brief text messages, “Pick a number between one and 47,” and then, “I’ll share the highlights with you.”

    “37” appeared in the text window.

      There was a child who was brought to Jesus because the child had fallen into a fire as a baby and lost his vision in the accident. The child’s face showed signs of burns. The child was placed in Jesus‘s arms. Jesus simply asked him, “Do you wish to see again?”

      “Yes.”

      “Do you believe I can heal you?”

      “Yes.”

      He held the boy in his arm so tenderly and put his hands over the boys, eyes and face. In a few moments, when he took his hands away, the terrible scars were healed, and the boy could see.

    “Wow!!”

    “I wish to be healed.”

    When she had been diagnosed with and was being treated for stage four breast cancer a number of years earlier her friend would ask her to choose a number between one and forty-seven. That story would be shared from the Forty-Seven Stories of Jesus book.

    “Yes,” her friend wrote back with praying hands and a heart.

    “Thank you,” she wrote and she said her husband had picked that number….

    (Prayers happen in divine timing. Whenever you read this Sacred Story, please offer up a prayer for anyone asking for healing. Pray in the way that your heart speaks most naturally.)

  • Hallelujah!

    Her friend, still hospitalized with complications following back surgery two weeks ago, was very much on her mind as she was getting out of her car to run into Dollar Tree. The song Hallelujah was being played in the parking lot. She had just texted the K.D. Lang version to her friend a couple of days earlier. Exiting Dollar Tree she realized that the beautiful music was not being piped into the parking lot — at the far side of the parking lot she could see a man playing a saxophone!

    She walked to Winn-Dixie at the opposite end of the strip mall, appreciating the music so much. As she was about to enter the store she stopped to speak to two women who were also hearing the music and trying to figure out where it was coming from. The younger woman was in a wheel chair. I gushed, “It is live music! You can see the guy way over there playing the horn. When I first got out of my car he was playing Hallelujah. I had just sent that song to my friend, Linda, who is in the hospital with complications following back surgery.”

    The older woman pushing the wheel chair said, “My name is Linda!”

    The younger woman in the wheel chair added, “My mother’s name in Linda!”

    We all felt something so holy…. They said in unison, “We will be praying for your friend, Linda.”

    When I got back in my car I drove to the far side of the parking lot where the man was playing. Rolling down my window and thanking him for the surprise of the beautiful music playing, I told him about having heard him playing Hallelujah, and about Linda. He said he would pray for Linda.

    He had a tip jar so I pulled a ten-dollar-bill out and handed it to him. As an after thought, I asked if I could take his photo. He grabbed his saxophone and posed!


    Earlier that morning when I had sent a text to my daughter updating her about Linda, my daughter texted back this beautiful prayer:

    Lord, there are times in our lives we do t even know what to pray for, but we know that you know our hearts. So for our sweet friend, Linda, we ask for healing and the absence of fear. For Fred and her friends we ask for peace, comfort, and for all we ask for hope. We beg for understanding as we struggle to surrender to your will. Comfort us dear Lord. We ask these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.

    Looking at the photo later I read the minstrel’s sign: PLEASE HELP ME. I HAVE 3 KIDS. I DON’T HAVE MONEY FOR FOOD AND RENT. GOD BLESS YOU.

    And, I noticed his hat: FBI JESUS. Expanding the photo more, beneath the FBI in small print I read FIRM BELIEVER IN.

    Hallelujah!

  • See Cashier

    Sacred Stories

    She stopped to get gas. Her husband was in a hospital about an hour’s drive away.

    She inserted her credit card, punched in the ZIP code, and got the “See Cashier” message. She tried her debit card and it also said “See Cashier.”

    When she went in to the station, the cashier told her she had put in the wrong ZIP Code. The woman said, “We always notify the credit union and change to the Florida ZIP code for the time we’re here. I put in the Florida ZIP code.”

    As the cashier was running the prepayment amount, the woman said, “You know how people tell you inappropriate things? I’m on the way to the hospital because my husband may have had a heart attack.”

    The cashier said she would pray for him. Handing the woman the receipt the cashier looked right into the woman’s face and said, “You have such beautiful eyes.”

    The woman’s emotions were right on the edge, and she immediately teared up.

    Oblivious that there were people lined up, the cashier burst out, “Oh, you need a hug!” as she shot out from behind the counter, put her arms around the woman, and gave her a hug.

    During the embrace, lips up against the woman’s ear, that cashier whispered a prayer. “Dear Lord, be with this woman today and let all her news be good news.”

    She had been using the Florida ZIP code on both of those cards for a month already.

    Walking out the door she said over her shoulder, “It wasn’t about a credit card not working.”

    The cashier replied, “God works in mysterious ways.”

  • Grateful

    Even a wounded world is feeding us.
    Even a wounded world holds us,
    giving us moments of wonder and joy.
    I choose joy over despair.
    Not because I have my head in the sand,
    but because joy is what
    the earth gives me daily
    and I must return the gift.

    ~ Robin Wall Kimmerer

    WORD FOR THE DAY from Gratefulness.org

    My meditation this morning included listening to Ho’oponopono, chanted by Celeste Yacoboni, author of “How Do You Pray?”

    Listening and chanting along inspired a poem:

    How Do I Pray

    Prayer is so much more than bowing our heads or folding our hands. We pray by breathing in the life force our Earth Mother offers and releasing all that blocks that. Like evergreens, we pray by growing upwards. Like potatoes, we pray through roots deep down in the soil. Gratitude for our life, kindness toward all beings, generosity of spirit; wisdom, honesty, integrity, joy — each an example of prayer. As gravity holds us safely on our earth home, prayer holds us securely in the universal heart.

    Daily Aaron Quote for November, 26, 2020

    It’s very helpful to wake up each morning with the commitment, or even consecration, “I consecrate this mind and body to the light, to service to all beings for the highest good. Today may I be of service to others and do good for others and for myself. May I be loving to all beings with whom I am involved today, including myself.”

  • Answered Prayer

    Sacred Stories

    Her husband was being cared for in a facility, due to advanced Alzheimer’s disease. She was feeling some concern about her upcoming scheduled time away.

    Before going to visit him that day, she said a little prayer, asking if he was doing OK.

    His communication essentially had become “word salad.” The term word salad refers to random words or phrases linked together in an often unintelligible manner.

    During that visit, her husband burst out in a spontaneous clear declaration, “I don’t have anything to be concerned about!”

    These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.

  • Be Care-Full What You Pray For

    Twenty nine years ago today, I became a grandmother. I was still thirty-something—at least I would be for two more weeks. My career was booming. I was top sales person in the nation. I was traveling to beautiful venues. I had long finger nails, and I wore nice clothing. I was too busy (and too young) to be a grand parent.

    Although I did not yet know it, everything changed the moment I held Bradley Joseph Zelenak in my arms.

    He was a little bit early, had jaundice, and his mom, Stacey, went home from the hospital without him. A few weeks later, he would go to the hospital by ambulance. I would watch his mother crawl into the big “crib” under the oxygen tent to be with him. I would walk down the hospital corridor with a lump in my throat and tears tricking down my cheek.

    As with other dynamics of life, it is impossible to say what would have been if things had been different. Would I have still treasured every moment or might I have let the years slip by without awareness of the preciousness that is always present?

    Say only, something clicked. Priorities were suddenly laid straight.

    No sale was more important than watching him breath. We were blessed to have them live with us for about a month before my baby would leave Michigan, taking her baby to live in Tennessee.

    I never felt a house so empty as the day we walked back into the house after watching their car back out of the driveway heading south.

    From that moment forth, everything revolved around keeping our connection. Our vacation time was spent there. Holiday plans were around them. Even now, as snow birds flying from Michigan to Florida and back we think of it as going to see the kids.

    I cannot say how differently I would view the world without the lens of being a grandmother to Bradley, but I can say this: Bradley changed my world. I am Gammie.

    I say he opened my heart chakra. As fingers fly over the keys, a lump tightens my throat. Again tears form as, in my minds eye, almost three decades of precious memories dance. Things he said, places we went, experiences we shared.

    Today, I breathe the fragrance of grace that allows me to have had this miracle in my life.

    I am blessed with two other grandchildren, and each is loved beyond words. Bradley is like any first true love. He is the one who taught me to be care-full what you pray for.

    Working in retail management, breaking fingernails and tearing holes in my stockings was an everyday occurrence. Yes, I wore pantyhose and heels to work 9-to-5! I read somewhere that you should write down a prayer, put it in a box, and forget about it. Years before I had written: “I want to wear nice clothes and have long finger nails.”

    The day I opened the box and looked down at my hands, I was shocked. Not even remembering what I had written, I was living what I had prayed for.

    Today, perhaps more mindfulness would go into everything I put in my prayer box to let God work the magic. Perhaps…

  • Electric Heater

    Sacred Stories
    A woman and her husband and 1 year-old daughter were refugees. They had escaped Communist Poland and had made it to Germany but were living in one classroom in a condemned school. There was electricity but no running water or toilet or heat. They had only a thin mattress pad on the floor.

    One night the frost was two inches thick on the inside of the window from their breath. The woman was too cold to sleep and told her husband better they go back to Poland where they may or may not be killed than to die living like that.

    He put on his coat and left the room. She assumed he had left to get away from her nagging when he was also feeling so helpless.

    Moments later, he returned with an electric space heater. He told her he had left because he had received a message to go out and look in the trash on the curb. That is where he had found the heater.

    They plugged the heater in and worked. They had heat the rest of the winter!

    Today they are very successful living in the U.S. in a 3,500 square foot home – but they remember this evidence that our needs can be met in extraordinary ways.

    These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.