Frederick: Peaceful Ruler - Short Story of a Mouse, a Job, and a Decision

Therefore, do not be foolish and thoughtless, but understand and firmly grasp what the will of the Lord is. - Ephesians 5:17 

I hesitated to write this testimony for a while because I had recently finished a 7-part series about how God had called me to quit a different job. (If you feel it would be encouraging for someone to get into the nitty gritty of how that process looks in practical terms, you can begin reading that here.) At the risk of looking flaky, I decided to hold back for a while and also just take time to process. But after some of my stories came up in natural conversation with people more than once this weekend, I felt inspired to finally tell the tale ...of a creature that has a tail and changed my world. And more importantly, how the whole process led to my getting to know God just a bit more. So maybe grab a cup of coffee and a blanket, or whatever works for you, because I LOVE telling this story! It's a good one, and the great thing is that God is the author. So here goes...

I'm a homeschooler, for better or worse; depends on the day. (Mostly kidding.) There was a season when I had taken a temporary part-time job to help bring in some extra financial support for a few months. It was a remote position that worked well with our schedule. But, as many temp jobs have a tendency to do, it went from six months to a year, and with that not being the original plan, I was beginning to feel too stretched between the two responsibilities. The problem was, as many families living in America in 2024 can attest to, we needed the money. There was no way around that. And I don't mean for extra wants like a new gaming system or getting my nails done; I mean for putting food on the table and paying bills. If you looked at our budget, quitting wasn't a smart idea. 

Here's a "kicker" to this story that I want you to grasp. At some point, I let my supervisor know that I needed to back out of the position. I emphasized I had taken it on purpose with the intention of it being temporary, to be able to focus on homeschooling full steam again at some point. We came to a mutual understanding that the time had come and passed. The company hired two different people, but neither lasted. After the second time of helping train and it not sticking, I wondered if it just wasn't God's will for me to  leave the position; maybe I was getting ahead of him. Watching the pattern, I felt this was a logical question. 

There came a point where I needed to finish out the school year with my kiddos, and I was just feeling so torn and ultimately, confused. I knew confusion wasn't from God, but what really was God's will in all of this? I think sometimes we assume God's will. We need money = We need a job. But, while reason is a useful God given tool, it isn't synonymous to revelation, and what I needed was revelation. In my heart, I felt peace about quitting, but my mind and soul were so busy at this point, I just wasn't "quiet." One day, I sat down to work, and I kept hearing a faint sound. To me, it sounded like the wings of a flying insect that had maybe gotten trapped inside the window blinds, and it was flapping around trying to get out from time to time. But nope. As I was working away, the sound kept coming into my consciousness more and more, so I decided to follow it to find out what exactly I was hearing. Turns out it was a mouse in a trap we had set for insects/spiders, trying to free itself. And it was right behind the trash can by my desk. Eew!!! I know it's inhumane, and it was a learning experience for me, but it is also part of this story that has to be told. (In my defense, I didn't know we had mice at that point. I thought I was catching spiders and wiggly centipedes.) My husband handled it from here, as my animal-loving daughter was, ironically, working a zoo volunteer shift.

It took a day or so, but I found myself praying about it. I knew that mice in the Bible were considered unclean, and this was the first mouse I had seen in our house. And as I considered it further, the mouse was right by my desk. Hmmm, I pondered.  I eventually took myself for a walk.  I was hopeful God was speaking and confirming, albeit a "weird" way, in answer to my fervent prayers about quitting my job, and I needed to get out from around all my people in the house and pray. I honestly can't remember what happened at this point. Did I pray peace over my mind? Did I force myself to shut down my brain for 2.5 seconds? All I know is that by the time I left my front door and hit the path where I would walk - about 50 paces - my mind and soul were still.  And I knew where my peace was.   

I stepped into a nearby field, walking and pacing and praying. My prayer went something like this: "God, I feel almost dumb praying this, but I'm going for it anyway. I know mice are considered unclean in the Bible, and I need to know if it's possible that this mouse by my desk means that this job truly has become unclean to me." I continued, "I know where my peace is - it's in quitting. But, I need to know that's okay, and that it's what you're saying. I feel like you're asking a Gideon move of me." My husband had been working two jobs, and if I remember correctly, he had recently let go of one for the sake of his health. Full disclosure - I can't remember exactly the timing of that. But, what I do remember is how I felt God was asking us to dwindle down to almost nothing financially. This is what he did with Gideon in the Bible, but instead of money, it was troops; he kept asking Gideon to reduce his army in number. And so, I continued my prayer with something like: "With Gideon, you gave TWO signs. And maybe it means my faith is weak (to ask for a sign), and I'm okay with admitting that, if that's what it means. I don't really care, as long as I hear from you. Show me I'm hearing you correctly in wanting to follow my peace...which I feel you are giving to me." I kept hearing the scripture: "Let peace be the umpire," which comes from Colossians 3:15:

KJVS: "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts,..."

AMP: "Let the peace of Chris [the inner calm of one who walks daily with Him] be the controlling factor in your hearts [deciding and settling questions that arise].

In my prayer time, while meditating and walking, I felt God was showing me I was metaphorically the mouse. I was feeling trapped and wanting to set myself free, but not knowing the way out. After praying, I trudged back to my house, mosquito bites to show for it, and I started prepping to read our scripture lesson from our daily curriculum for homeschool. I heard my 10 year old ask his older sister, "What if our scripture reading today was about mice?" And I raised my hand in attestation and said, "That would be confirmation for me." So then, I asked him, if you could name the mouse we found, what would you name it? The name Frederick was the first name that popped into my head, but I kept it to myself to myself. "Frederick," he said. Whoa. Did he just say the very name in my brain? Out of the countless names across the globe? How in the world? I'm going to tell you how in the world: Holy Spirit. Confirmation #1. 

After freaking out for a good long while, I looked up what the name Frederick means. This is a common practice God uses with me to convey messages. If you think that's weird, I would encourage you to understand just how important names were in the Bible. Locations were named based on meaning, and people as well. God often renamed people to mark a change or a point in time/purpose, and names had much significance. In modern times, babies, companies, etc., are still often named based on meaning, vision, mission, etc. As I looked up Frederick, I found it means PEACEFUL RULER. Whoa again. Confirmation #2. (You can do your own quick study on this if you want to prove it out.)  

After I finally settled myself down from just sheer amazement, we dove into our scripture reading for the day. There is a reason the phrase "you can't make this stuff up" exists. Our reading that day - unknowingly to any of us - was about the Philistines capturing the Ark of the Covenant, God striking them with a plague, and the five golden mice and five golden tumors given as a guilt offering, along with the return of the Ark back to the Israelites. It's a fascinating story, and you can begin reading it in 1 Samuel 4. Confirmation #3. 

As if this isn't enough, we found out there is a book named Frederick, which is about a mouse that other mice find annoying because he isn't "working like the others." In other words, they think he's not pulling his weight to store food for the winter. But the mice, and readers, are in for a great surprise when they find out at the end of the book that Frederick has been working, just in a different way - a way that very much benefited them when they needed it most. For me, God used this book to confirm that I might not work a job outside the home in a way that many in society thought I should, but I was doing a job he had called me to that would have lasting implications: discipling and training...and for things I might not even know were coming for my children or for society or the body of Christ. I will leave it at that. I am calling this Confirmation #4. 

I want to stress a couple of points:

• The first three confirmations all happened within about 45 minutes of the end of my prayer.
• God used members of my household to be part of and witness the confirmations:
• Frederick - My son spoke the name I was thinking, and my daughter witnessed it.
• The scripture reading of the guilt offering of the five golden mice and tumors, after my son had asked, "What if our reading today is about mice?" And he was really just joking around. 
• The meaning of the name Frederick - Peaceful Ruler - as I told them what I had been praying in the field...about peace being the umpire (making the call, ruling). 
• We found out later about the book Frederick.

Deuteronomy 19:15 states: "A single witness shall not appear in a trial against a man for any wrong or any sin which he has committed: [only] on the testimony or evidence of two or three witnesses shall a charge be confirmed." 

Matthew 18:16 states: "But if he does not listen, take along with you one or two others, so that every word may be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses."   

2 Corinthians 13:1 states: "This is the third time I am visiting you. Every fact shall be sustained and confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses."

These scriptures establish how judicial practices are to be held, civically and within the church. Having more than one witness establishes truth; it's a safeguard against falsehood. I also love that a principle about using two or three witnesses has literally three different references in the Word of God, spoken by three witnesses: Moses, Jesus, and Paul. Pretty hefty authority there! In my story, there were three confirmations between three witnesses. So, God exceeded my prayer for Gideon's two fleece confirmations. AND God also established the witness of the truth of what he was saying within approximately 45 minutes!

I learned God in a deeper way through this experience, and I hope my closing thoughts are encouraging to you:

• God can use anything to speak to us. He isn't limited. He uses seemingly insignificant things that we might even tend to shrug off. But the fact that he is willing to use those things shows a powerful desire to communicate with us. He wants relationship and intimacy. If we have the faith to believe he is communicating and ask him to confirm, we might just realize we can hear more from God than we thought possible. 

• He wasn't worried about the money (like I was). I don't know how else to say this. I didn't get a check in the mail to cover what we were giving up financially. That's not to say it couldn't come. (We have seen checks show up before when we needed them.) And it's not to say God might not have asked me to take a different temp role three months later. What I learned was that we only have today, and obedience today is what God wants from us.  God is 10 steps ahead of us, as proven in this story, and he is the only one who truly knows what tomorrow holds, so he asks us to trust in his knowledge and provision. These are very personal decisions, and each of us has to decide what to do in any given moment by counting the cost and making a move. There is not really another way. I'm hearing the song, "Trust and obey, for there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey." 

• He wants us to KNOW HIS WILL. Wow. How many times do people not step out, or step the wrong way, because they don't know his will - including me. They assume they know, or on the contrary, they never know. I think a big struggle point to this for people is knowing what is God's part versus ours. I do agree that can be tough, but all I know is that God proved to me that he wanted me to know his will. You might ask me, "Well, does God want you to be broke?" No, I don't. And I even told this story to someone once who said, "Well, you don't quit a job without another one." To which I inwardly sighed, because that meant the whole point of the story was missed by that person. My prayer was whether to quit my job so that I could focus well on what I knew God had called me to do. My prayer was not whether I should switch jobs. That's a completely different prayer. We have to remember what we've been praying when we receive answers. Be specific in your prayers so you will know when God is answering. In my case, to take another job would only negate what God had shown me. 

• He made me sure. He confirmed with at least three confirmations. And then he confirmed with also three people. To not obey after this would have been deliberate hardening of the heart. Note: I prayed first about the mouse I saw, feeling near stupid about it. Had I not prayed that prayer, I wouldn't have seen the following confirmations.

• I knew God's will. I do want to stress this. It turns out I knew God's will, but I was doubting it. And I was doubting it because it absolutely did not make sense to my natural mind, but it did to my spiritual mind. I had committed to reading the Old Testament to my kids that school year, and I had neglected to truly realize the spiritual battle that was being fought against me to finish well. Just because it doesn't make sense to your natural mind doesn't mean God isn't speaking exactly that thing to do. This is why he will be sure to encourage and confirm for you. What you do once he establishes his will is up to you.

I hope you found all of this encouraging. You may have found it uncanny, being hard to wrap your mind around. But that isn't new to us as believers. There are many "uncanny" and "weird" stories in the Bible. (The burning bush is one that comes to mind; when Moses told that story, do you think people looked at him like he was just a little cuckoo?) And news flash, these stories weren't all just when Jesus did them or even when he was alive. God lives among his people, and believing is seeing. Each believer has to walk out his own relationship and obedience with the Lord. He is mighty creative; life is always an adventure with him. How is God speaking to you today? What is he asking you to do? Or what is he confirming to encourage you?

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God, I pray for everyone who reads this to have a burning desire to make you Lord more and more every day in their lives. I pray that we will all have courage and curiosity to hear and see you, and that as we step out in faith and prayer, you work with us to confirm your Word in our hearts and lives. May we become more one with you by the day, growing in the knowledge of truth in Jesus Christ by Holy Spirit, and may your purposes and plans for us to come to pass, as you will and work in us to do your good pleasure. In Jesus' name, we pray these things and believe that you are moving on this prayer to accomplish it, as we know that what we have prayed is in accordance with your Word, and therefore, according to your will. Thank you.