“You have to dream before your dreams can come true!” ~A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

I love starting out each post with some food for thought that sets the stage… I know it’s a short quote and may even seem obvious when you first read it, but really and truly there is so much depth in the quote.  It is profound. I encourage you to take a moment and just read it again.  Notice that there is a process that takes place when it comes to actually realizing or achieving our dreams.  We must dream in the first place! How many of us have buried dreams that are so near and dear to our hearts? How many of us have actually stopped dreaming altogether?

I was at a leadership seminar earlier this evening and the speakers shared a lot of helpful information about success and leadership, but what was most vital is that there is a beginning point to success and it begins with a dream.  Tonight I was asked a question about what my childhood dream was and then  I had the privilege of witnessing one of the speakers share how her childhood dream is now (many years later) coming true and that was so moving and inspiring.  I was inspired to actually stop for a moment and reflect back on my childhood and ask myself what my dreams were.  Sadly I thought about the fact that I didn’t really have any dreams of who I wanted to be or what I wanted to do when I grew up.  I knew immediately why that was and realized that I did have a dream, but my dream was different, and maybe somebody reading this can relate.  My dream was birthed from a broken heart.  My dream was for my family – that my parents would stay together, be in love, and not get divorced.  Sadly they did and not only was my heart broken but that also crushed my own dreams for family in the future.  Failed relationship after failed relationship, then illness followed by depression only reinforced that the crushed dream was indeed impossible.  Only recently has the dream that once seemed impossible to me actually start to seem possible again.  I can’t speak for everyone, but I think it’s common among little girls to dream of having a family of their own one day.  We play house with baby dolls, etc. I hear my little cousins say they can’t wait to have babies one day.  I realize that I was actually envious of them because they were children and they had more confidence and belief than me when it came to having a family one day.  On an even deeper level, a part of why that dream seemed impossible, is because I have struggled with fear of not being capable of being a good mom.  The enemy used my childhood experiences to torment me and feed me lies.  Thankfully God’s light is shinning where there once was darkness and the lies are being replaced with truth.  I am being renewed daily and I’m so thankful to my sweet Lord for His awesome work in me.

Recently, I visited a sweepstakes giveaway dream home as a dream building exercise with my leadership team and we were asked how this experience inspired us.  I wasn’t inspired by the fancy home, but instead, the dream that was buried so deep in me was beginning to be awakened and revived because I was inspired by the idea that a family could live in this home – my future family.  So my childhood dream which is so near and dear to my heart is to have a loving family of my own.

Now, maybe you’re thinking well that that’s out of my control. If you are, you are absolutely right! My life is in God’s hands and He is in control of whether or not I live to get married and to whom and whether or not I could even have children, but I’m not worried because even though those events are not in my control, I do have control of whether or not I prepare myself for this dream becoming reality.  If my mentality or mindset is one of scarcity instead of abundance, I won’t be prepared to receive the blessings God has for me.  I do have the option to prepare for my dream but first I have to begin by dreaming it and believing that with God what seemed impossible to me is possible with Him.  The Bible says to delight yourself in the Lord and he will grant you the desires of your heart.  I’m trusting God in faith for this dream!

So now I turn the stage over to you… Did you have a childhood dream? What was it? What dream is near and dear to your heart?  Let’s stop waiting and start taking steps, then strides, then leaps towards running this race of life toward living out our dreams and experiencing the live we’ve always wanted!

Don’t waste another moment! “Your chances of getting your goals and dreams in this life greatly diminish when you’re on the wrong side of the grass.” ~Tim Marks~

Dear God,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Thank You for bringing back to life the dream that has been buried deeply for so long.  Lord I surrender this dream to You and place it into Your hands knowing that You are indeed the author and finisher of my faith.  You know the desires of my heart and I trust that as I delight in You, that You will grant them.  I pray that Your will be done in my life.  I also pray for every person who comes across this page and for those with dreams that need reviving, please help them Lord to look to You first for the hope that is needed to truly live a life of freedom and possibilities.  You are awesome God and I love you.  In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen ❤