what are your dreams?

What are those things that you dream of doing?

What are those things that you imagine accomplishing one day?

Have any of your dreams come true? How?

I have been thinking a lot about those questions lately. In the past few months, I have watched a few of my friends have their dreams come true - dreams of all different kinds and looks - but dreams they have had nonetheless.

When I see someone else's dream come true it produces mixed emotions in me. It give me hope that one day my dreams can come true. And, at the same time, it makes me wonder when it will be my turn for a dream to come true and how long I have to wait for that day. It is hard to be in the "in-between" stage where you know what the dream is, but it has yet to come true. It takes patience to remain in that place and to keep taking the steps necessary towards the dream being fulfilled.

As I started to think about the dreams I have, I started to notice a pattern - the dreams that seem the most impossible when I look at them are most often the dreams that I know God has given me. I look at them and think: "there's no way I could ever do that" or "there's no way that will ever happen." Yet, God has given me that dream. It seems as though fulfilling the dreams God gives me requires faith and a willingness to step out and take a risk.

That is not the way I prefer to operate. I want to know where the next step will take me before I take it. But, with these dreams it seems as though God is saying: "take that step, trust Me." That does not come naturally to me. I do not like to take risks, but God is showing me that oftentimes the way to fulfilling my dreams requires me to take risks - to take steps into the unknown, trusting that He knows where I am going and is guiding my steps.

Dreams . . . the more I think about it, the more I realize that they are essential to living life to the full. Without dreams we just kind of go through each day without excitement or purpose. When we have dreams that we are looking to, we have a direction to go, a purpose for moving forward. Dreams are important to life and to our relationship with God.