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. :)