I'm Easy Like a Sunday Morning

Mike got a daily devotional book from the chaplains at the jail for Christmas. Though I haven't been the greatest at looking at it every day, I grab it when I think about it. Today's struck me a little bit.
In summary, it talked about wanting to take the easy way out of a challenge. A woman is invited to a party and the only thing left on the food list to bring is salad. She inwardly complained because her salads never turn out very well and would rather have brought a casserole or rice dish. Then she sees a note she had written to herself prior to this situation urging to challenge herself: "When you do hard things, your brain grows." In the end she stepped up to the challenge of making a salad for the party despite previous failures.
Now, you may be thinking, "Really? Salad? How can you mess that up?" Obviously making a salad was not the point I'm trying to get across. How many times do we get tested by God and try to find some easier way of doing it? In some ways, maybe He lets us get away with it. Other times He really wants us to use our noggins and talents that He has given us. There are many times that I would love to just cop out and say, "Nope. I'm not feeling it." I stay at home with my son and groom dogs when clients call for appointments. Even though I'm pretty good at it and love it, I freak out almost every single time I set up an appointment because I almost don't want to do it. My brain goes into overdrive and thinks of all the bad scenarios that could happen, and it's enough to make me want to take the easy way out and stop grooming all together, just so I don't have to face that possibility of rejection from the client. That's when God reminds me of my love for it and I'm okay.
God wants us to take the more difficult path because He wants us to grow, to learn. He doesn't mind if we make mistakes. That's how our "brains grow." And if we make mistakes, He wants us to turn to Him for the answers.

There's a quote I heard years ago that's stuck with me and I repeat it to myself occasionally in times of trial: "God doesn't like the easy way."

Dream Weaver

Last night I had the strangest dream. Now, I have some really weird dreams, even when I'm not pregnant! I also have had dreams (well, nightmares, unfortunately) come true. I don't realize what they're about until the tragic event happens, however. It's the reason I still believe that my friend didn't fall asleep at the wheel, but instead swerved to avoid hitting an animal. But that's not entirely what this post is about.
My dream last night is bugging me a little bit. It just seemed to have some sort of message to it, mostly by symbolism (you'll see what I mean), and I don't know how to even begin to interpret it. Yes, I'm into dream interpretation. I agree that some dreams are just jumbles, some sort of inner expression that releases itself at night (or whenever you're sleeping). But others are God's way of telling us something. Throughout the Bible there are examples of dreams being sent as warnings of things to come.
So, the dream...It's a little bit here and there, so bear with me as I describe it the best I can.

It started out I'm in high school, working on a group project with two other people. We're working in our group and a group member is discussing her opinion when the teacher (who happens to be Cammie Shelatz!) starts basically bullying her, and telling the student that her opinion is completely wrong and won't even let the student get a word in. I see this happening and finally interrupt Cammie/the teacher's rant against the student, completely blowing up, saying, "I try my best to be respectful to my elders/superiors, but I can't stand for this anymore. I'm reporting you!" And I get up and leave, I guess to report her.
(Here it gets a little goofy, but stay with me) That night, my group and I go to work on our project, which apparently involves filming a behind-the-scenes-type documentary on the beer-making factory that is run by the teacher, who is now played by my old band director, Mr. Cottrill (yeah, it's the same "character" just played by a different "actor"). Cottrill is still ticked off from my earlier blow-up in class and is making snide remarks while giving us a tour of the factory. Meanwhile, I'm trying my best to get all the footage I can that the process the factory uses is not beneficial to the community as Cottrill is saying, but instead hurting the community. I guess we get all the information we need and we leave. On the way out, there's a commotion in a nearby field, and looking through the dark, I see wolves running for their lives (here's where I feel any real symbolism starts, if any) from men dressed up in tribal-looking dress. We begin to be chased by men dressed in regular clothes, so my group runs to the car and leaves.
The next day is a school day. Well, I'm still ticked at Cammie/Cottrill/the teacher, so I skip class, reasoning that I'm a senior anyway, so I'll just say it's a senior skip day. I go to the parking lot to see a rival band packing up and recognize Nick Monteleone (he was a classmate I think a year or two ahead of me in real life...really kinda weird because we weren't close or anything by any means) who gives me a big hug. Well, behind him I see all these wolves tied up on a flatbed trailer. I am irate, and manage to convince Nick to release his wolf captive to me, to which his band-mates are arguing against. The wolf comes over to me with a pup tied to her leg. People gather and try to tell me that it's not my business and try to take the wolf from me, saying that she's wild and I can't handle her. Because I had saved her from whatever fate the other wolves are going to, she stands by my side and instead protects me from the crowd. An Indian tribal official steps forward and tells me that there's nothing I can do, to which I try in vain to plead with him to convince the people to let the wolves go, that there are pups there as well that are too young to survive, but he refuses and says it's for the best. As the truck with the trailer of wolves drives away, I start crying. The wolf I saved comes over and puts her face to mine and cries with me.
Then I wake up.

Yeah...let all that sink in.
To be honest, the first part of this doesn't bother me as much as the wolf "scenes." The only reason I put the school part is because it was part of the entire dream, and if anyone decides to interpret it, maybe there's some insight in that. Or maybe not. Or maybe this is just one of those random, disjointed dreams I have. I kinda have different categories my dreams/nightmares fall into:
1. Random, disjointed, almost psychedelic
2. Story-like (I kinda like these because they're so vivid and detailed, like most of my dreams, but it's basically like watching a movie...I hate waking up from these)
3. Prophetic
4. Pure nightmare (thankfully these are really rare)
5. Memory-like (these are usually when I see something in real life and it gets incorporated into my dream)
6. Symbolic (these are usually basically like the prophetic ones, but involve a lot more symbolism, such as a tornado representing stressful situations in real life)
I don't know if this one falls in prophetic, symbolic, or story-like. The end with the wolves really feels like symbolic, but I just don't know enough about dream interpretation. I looked up what a wolf meant and found this: "To see a wolf in your dream symbolizes survival, beauty, solitude, mystery, self-confidence and pride. You are able to keep your composure in a variety of social circumstances and blend into any situation with ease and grace. You are also a loner by choice. Negatively, the wolf represents hostility, aggression, or sneakiness. It may reflect an uncontrollable situation or an all-consuming force in your life. This could point to an obsession, an addiction or something that is beyond your control."
Anyway...so...yeah...this is a normal dream for me. It's not because I'm pregnant. You know, if you're pregnant you have really wacky dreams. I have those, too, though usually amped up when I'm pregnant, and they typically fall under the first category. But this isn't one of those. If anyone has any insight, I'd be open to hear it.