Your Vision: The beginning...a very good place to start.

Writing a vision statement might come easy for some.  But when your "vision" has basically been to get through each day. . .looking ahead and envisioning a future can be a troublesome speculation.  Its when I finally started to allow the truth that God does have plans for my future to sink in, and to realize that even though I know He is the one ultimately in control, I have to open up to Him, trust Him, and allow Him to show me the way.  That is the only way I would be able to pull myself out of that old way of thinking and become the new me. . . clothed in His love, His strength and His peace.  I had to be willing to take off my old tattered rags and allow Him to unshackle the chains I was hanging on to so desperately.

Step 1: Pray. Ask. Journal. (from Caleb Company - www.calebcompany.org).
BAM -- that one is easy. . .I pray, I can ask, and I journal everyday.  I often sit down in the mornings with my journal and say "Lord, what do you have for me today?" And He always obliges. He fills the blank pages of my journals far more eloquently and with a purpose than I do.  I often find myself writing the litany of "woe-is-me"isms, before I allow Him control of the pencil to fill my pages with His truth and love. Don't get me wrong, there is space in there for my grievances and ramblings. . . His grace is plenty wide enough for books full of my pains and frustrations.  He wants to hear my heart. . . because only then can He begin to whisper the truth into those places. So, when I journal, I always try to spend some time telling Him where I am at, how my heart feels. And then I give him space to fill my pages with His light, His love, His WAY.

Step 1: Pray. Ask. Journal. . . What are your dreams? If money wasn't a factor, what would you want to do?
 For those of us with "I can take care of everything" tendencies. . .thinking about what I WANT to do seems perplexing and weird.  I think that's how I lost the ability to dream and turned my attention to helping everyone else pursue theirs. . .a little co-dependency goes a long way. :)  I get so wrapped up in focusing on what others need -- my husband, my kids, my aging parents, my co-workers, my boss -- that I forget about that little thing called ME.

Okay. . . your turn.  Give it a try.  Sit down and dream a little. What sort of things have you prayed for in the past?  FOR YOURSELF, not others.  If you find you spend a lot of time praying about others or about lamenting problems rather than dreaming with God about your future, patiently allow yourself the grace to talk to Him about where you want to go and where He wants to lead you.  He wants you to dream big and He wants to help you fulfill those dreams.  Just start at the beginning. . .it happens to be right where He is.
In the beginning was the Word --  that's Him!
Happy dreaming!

On your mark, get set. . . DREAM!

Epiphanies. Revelations. Light-bulb moments.  I've been having a lot of those lately, it seems.  I can't imagine what a great feeling it is for God when I finally "get" the things He has been showing me! :)  I can literally hear His applause.  He is proud of us and loves us no matter what stage we are at in our journey, but I know He does a little happy dance when something actually sinks in.  And of course, that doesn't mean that I won't slip up and find myself careening down old highways or falling back into old coping mechanisms.  But the awesome thing about that is that those are the "old" parts of me, the "old" ways of getting by, not the "new" me. (2 Corinthians 5:17 -- Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here.) Knowing that helps me realize that I don't have to take that old road... I've got a new one -- wide open and ready for travel.

One of my recent epiphanies was that I have never really known how to dream my own dreams. To me, dreams somehow became expectations, and those expectations were out of my control. I feared dreams because what if I couldn't fulfill them, what if they didn't come true, what if I wasn't capable or good enough...lie after lie that the enemy reinforced every time I "failed" or didn't live up to my own or someone else's expectations. With that, it became easier to focus my attention on other people's dreams, or dreams I thought I could help them achieve.

What a hopeless feeling it is to realize that you are actually afraid to dream, afraid to make plans, especially risky ones that may not be achieved.  Fortunately, God didn't allow me to wallow in that hopelessness for long.  As always, He reminded me that He loves me more than I could ever imagine, that He wants me to have hopes and dreams of my own, AND He wants to help me achieve them. So, He started guiding me back to ME, right where He is and showing me again how He wants me to live -- without fear, without control, but with dreams, goals, love, peace, grace, honor, honesty....all the perfect and awesome fruits of His spirit.

With one day at a time, He is reminding me to walk in that place. Not to wish for a better past, not to lose hope in the future, but to take each day as my own. To rely completely on Him, and allow others to do the same. I don't make the rules, I do not set the bar for anyone else -- only for myself and HE IS THE BAR.  He tells me how high to reach (and He whispers "For the stars!").

Not surprisingly, the morning of that revelation, I opened my Facebook page to see that one of the pages I like (Caleb Company) was leading an exercise with step by step instructions on how to build your own "Vision Statement".  And Step 1 said "What are your dreams?".  BAM -- here I was asking God to show me how to realize my own dreams and VIOLA -- a starting point! I don't know about you, but I never cease to be in awe of how when we open ourselves up to be in tune with Him, He never ever fails to deliver!

In my next few blogs, I plan to show the step by step nature of building your own Vision Statement, focusing on your core values, your life verse and yes, your dreams.  It was another perfect opportunity to hang out with Jesus and allow Him to reveal things in myself that I didn't even know existed.  Guess that's the new me... the one He created 42 years ago but it got a little buried in dust.  So, let's blow that dust off together and do some refining...Today is the day to walk in the new YOU, the one He created you to be. :)