We visited Shelly Olson, a busy mother of four, during a trip across Canada this summer. Shelly is one of the few people who has not forgotten the art of letter writing. My wife told me that she can write a letter while simultaneously singing to her children. Since my brain runs on exactly one track at a time, I decided to double-check the veracity of that claim. Shelly confirmed that she can indeed write while singing. She also told me that in Bible School she used to study Hebrew while singing and dancing in her room.

Shelly wrote a beautiful letter to us, and with her permission, I am sharing parts of it with you.

All photos in this post were taken from Shelly’s property

Journaling and Making Time for Listening Prayer

Neil, I really enjoyed your book, and it has inspired me—particularly to try mentoring others in listening to Jesus. But also, it’s been a reminder to make time and space in life for listening prayer. Also, to journal more as I tend to be a very infrequent journaler. I find it so encouraging to go back and read things from my spiritual journey when I have written stuff down. It’s cool that the start of your journey of really listening to Jesus started with God speaking to you of his love for you.

A Bought of Depression and the Love of God

A year or two ago when I was in a particularly fruitful season of prayer, marked by a lot of joy and peace in life, there came a day when I awoke with a heavy, discouraged heart. I felt oddly depressed and struggled to pray or feel anything but blech! I spent my morning driving to work as usual, in prayer, but nothing seemed to break through the gloom. I figured it probably was a spiritual attack of some kind. When I was nearly at work, the song I was listening to led me into prayerful contemplation of God’s love, hearing him speak it over me. Instantly I began to cry and be overwhelmed with joy and relief from the depressed state I was in.

This puzzled me, as knowing God loves me hasn’t been something I’ve struggled with. My parents raised me with wonderful love and affirmation. I asked God for some clarity and He spoke to me: If you need to hear me speak my love over you, how much more do those who struggle with knowing they are loved.

From that I was convicted that the foundation of prayer—the thing we need to start with and come back to over and over, is hearing God speak His love over us. “We love because He first loved us.”

Creativity and Mentoring

Another listening prayer experience from quite a few years ago is this. I grew up in a creatively gifted family with lots of artists and musicians. I felt like I had this depth of creativity bursting within me but no creative outlet. I kind of felt sad and frustrated, wishing I had some artistic gifting to express myself. Well, one day God showed me that He had created me to bring out beauty in other people and that this was to be my creative outlet. This brought me a sense of joy purpose in my life. 

God has placed a lot of people in my life who really matter to me and who I long to help come alive, to thrive, in Christ. I’m an introvert and a busy mom of 4 and it can be hard to know how best to invest my time. Some of my closest friends are really struggling. Your book helped me see that leading them to Jesus to speak to them His life-giving words will be much better than me giving them my advice, guidance, etc. And I know listening to Jesus will help me to best know how to invest my time and energy.

I’ve decided to start with doing some faith mentoring of my niece. She had a tough time last year in public school so she is doing distance education.

Even Children Hear From God

When my niece was around 1 ½ years old God encouraged me in a time of depression with her insistence every night that she wanted to pray for me. One day she said out of the blue during her bath time, “Jordan is healed, mommy.” Jordan was a man they knew who had been mysteriously ill and losing weight. Around the time she stated he was healed, the family heard that he had suddenly recovered from all symptoms.

I sometimes feel rather awkward guiding others in listening to Jesus, but trust God will help me. Thanks for the book! 

And thank you Shelly for sharing!