Resurrect Your Dream
Do you hold a dream in your heart? Is there something you have always wanted to do, but just haven’t found time to do it? Is there some special desire that keeps creeping into your thoughts, something you perhaps shelved years ago? If so, it's time to resurrect your dream. I believe God has given you that dream and wants you to seek Him for its fulfillment.
I’ve written a lot about our children having been created for a purpose; it’s something I feel strongly about. Yet I feel I should address the fact that YOU, also, have been given a calling, a special intention for your days on earth. As homeschool moms, we are co-laboring with God on behalf of our children. Yet that’s not the only objective God has for our lives. Most of us will live for another forty or fifty years beyond our homeschooling days. If you don’t have some special interest that you would love to pursue, I believe God will give one to you soon.
When I first became a Christian, I thought it was selfish or wrong to want to accomplish the dream that was in my heart. I didn’t realize God was shining His light upon my little unsaved heart and guiding me into His purposes for my life. A few years after I found the Lord, I gave my dream to God and told Him I would let it go for Him. As I did, I felt an assurance from God that the dream was His—not mine alone—and that He would bring it to fulfillment one day. It was as if I could finally relax and let God bring it about in His time.
My dream was to write a book. Now God had to refine that dream. I wanted to write a novel in my younger years and a Bible study in my older years. God continues to work on and refine my dreams. My job is to maintain a close walk with Him so that I stay within the center of His will for my days, weeks, months, and years. I can be like that little lamb that gets drawn away by the interesting things on other paths. Thankfully, my Shepherd always comes and finds me and steers me back onto His perfect path. Then, I stray again…but that’s for another time. Today I want to talk about YOU!
What if that dream doesn’t seem like something ministry oriented? God created us in His image and passed on His own creativity and ingenuity to us. When Adam named the animals, he did so to the glory of God. When Abel reared his cattle, he did so to the glory of God. When the Proverbs 31 woman made and sold belts and sold real estate and looked after her servants, she did so to the glory of God, using her special gifts and talents with excellence. God is glorified when we express His character, His creativity, His beauty, and His excellence in the things we do. I’ll never forget the phrase in Chariots of Fire when the mother said something to the effect of, “You can glorify God by peeling a potato for Him.” Indeed, Eric Liddle glorified God when He ran in the Olympics.
What is that special calling He has put in your heart? What is that dream?
As you enter into your relationship with the Lord, spending time in His Word, in prayer, and in fellowship with others, He will begin to reveal His purpose. He will refine the dreams that you have rustling in your heart. Then, as you seek Him for strength, peace, and power, He will move you (sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly) into that place where you can joyfully fulfill the purpose He has for you, finding satisfaction in Him as you walk along the path He has carved out just for you.
But what about defeat? What about failure? Do the failures you experienced yesterday still haunt you, making you afraid to dream again? Remember that a righteous man may fall seven times, but he will surely rise again. Don’t let your past failures keep you from pursuing the purpose God has for you.
It’s time to resurrect your dream that has been buried all these years. Allow it to come to the surface again so that you can place it into the hands of your loving Father. He will reshape it, refine it, and make it even more beautiful. He will then hand it back as His special gift to you, His beloved child.
Read on for more encouragement and inspiration.