Since I’ve been learning to take on my children’s concerns about their animals and make them my concerns, [see my previous post] the Lord is working even more reconciliation in my family through my obedience to Him about our turtles!
We had a turtle named Jordan for about 8 years, and we recently added another turtle, which we named Rebecca Sara. The turtles have mainly been my 17-yr-old daughter’s pets.
I am now working on healing the damage done to my relationship with my daughter from all the awful shaming and guilting, etc. that I did before. I am so saddened as I look back at it.[see my previous post]
The Lord used Jordan’s (the turtle) sudden sickness to rework some of the uncaring and unloving in me. When my daughter saw that Jordan wasn’t doing well, the Lord told me NOT to hold back in trying to help her. I treated Jordan just like I would my kiddos. We brought out all the big expensive essential oils and we used them on her turtle.
This had an impact on my daughter because she knows that we don’t ‘waste’ these oils on frivolous things. She knew that I was loving this turtle, and in a sense, also loving her because I was caring about something that she cared about.
After we started treating Jordan with oils, the turtle instantly improved (within an hour or two). In fact, she improved so much so fast that we didn’t think much more about it. We left the next day for a 3-day trip, but when we got back, Jordan was NOT doing well. We started to use the oils again, but she was already pretty far gone. She had massive internal bleeding and swelling.
As we used the oils, we did an all night vigil. The next day, we took Jordan outside on our porch and we took turns watching and caring for her. We used more oils and she improved, but it wasn’t enough. Jordan ended up dying early that afternoon.
I went to the store, and bought the prettiest little box that I could find. I also got the prettiest paper that I could find in the colors that my daughter loves. I got a card and wrote a note for my daughter, and brought her the box. I encouraged her to write a note for Jordan and to put anything inside the box along with Jordan that she felt lead to do. She did.
I don’t know what all she put in there. She didn’t feel open enough with me to share her heart and her concern about something she loved so much. For the first time I didn’t take offense to that. I chose not to think about how this made me look and just choose to be compassionate for her. In the past I would have been upset that she wouldn’t share with me, because I would have been more concerned about how bad it made me look as a mom, rather than being concerned about why she wasn’t wanting to share with me. She really had no reason to trust me concerning any care or love for her turtles because of all the years I didn’t care, and for the first time, I was willing to see that and let it go, knowing in my heart that I wanted this area to be transformed.
When my husband came home, we all went to the pond where Jordan was originally found, and we buried her there. We talked about good times with Jordan, we said a prayer for her, and we loved on each other.
My husband works about 18 hours a day right now, so for him to be willing to do this after a long days work, was also a big blessing for my children.
Now Rebecca Sara (our other turtle) was left alone in the tank, and that was hard for my children as well.
About a month ago, Rebecca started looking sick. We talked about Jordan and whether or not we felt that the oils helped or hurt. My daughter really did believe they helped, and that if we hadn’t gone away and noticed she needed further treatment, Jordan would have lived. I felt that way, too, so once again, we did an all night vigil for Rebecca (the turtle). She pulled out of it by the next night, and it was once again a very healing thing for my relationship with my daughter.
Over the past few months, my daughter has worked with Rebecca Sara and now she is doing so much better, and my daughter is doing so much better too! She is not feeling alone with the turtles any more. We used to make her feel like the turtles are ‘just her responsibility’. Now she’s seeing that we love these animals, too. They were a part of our family.
I’m seeing that the works of His hands, are so much better than the awful works of my own hands!
I am so thankful to have been lead to this ministry! We still have a ways to go, but I am seeing that step-by-step we are healing our relationships and changing and growing. As we keep taking steps forward in obedience, we keep seeing just a bit clearer than we did before.