What are your dreams?
Since you were young, what have you enjoyed doing? What has brought you delight? Have YOU stopped dreaming like I did? Let me tell you a bit of my story. Maybe it will help you begin to dream again. To again find joy in the journey. Some people call it finding your “sweet spot”. I don’t know about that, but I do know that when I am exercising my dream muscle, I am fully present and very energized! What about you? What is your energy level right now?

Going way, way back in time…
My aunts were school teachers, so they decided I needed to go the the University and get my Teaching Certification. No one asked me if I wanted to teach or if I wanted to go to University. I HATED it! I left university. And went to work at a recorder of deeds office where we handwrote every deed and license in huge record books. And then I became a chair side dental assistant at a state dental clinic. I actually enjoyed both of those jobs.

Many years and a lot LIFE happened…
Many years later, I enrolled in the Christian Writers’ Guild, a year-long mail order course. Oh how I loved learning all the different genres available. And I even enjoyed each of the exercises to practice what I was learning. It was challenging in a good way. It stretched me. The speedy feedback, complete with red pencil corrections and encouraging words, spurred me on to be better and better in each task. I even entered a writing contest and won first prize! I was “hooked”! I had found what I wanted to do with my life. So…Why did I stop the course?

A whole bunch of my dreams died right about that time.
My marriage died. I had to get a job in a fast food place and moved out of the home and into an apartment. I was in survival mode. Doing only what I had to do to survive.

Back to school
I went back to school on a Pell Grant, and got an associates in business. While in school, I worked part time at a dream job as a secretary at a church. I could write. I could talk about Jesus all day long. I could encourage people.  I LOVED that job. BUT, when I graduated from the tech school, that very part time job I loved would not pay the bills. So, I went to work full time at a debt collecting place. THAT was most definitely NOT my dream job in any sense of the word. It was like living a nightmare to me.

Writers’ Group
During that time, I joined a local writers’ group. It was just the stimulus I needed and wanted. I was writing again. BUT, there was a Dream Crusher in the group that repeatedly literally crushed me with her comments. At about that same time, I made myself vulnerable and shared one of my cherished compositions with a friend and she completely crushed my spirit. I quit the group. I stopped writing. Why did I stop dreaming? Why did I stop writing? Why did I give these two women so much power over me? I hopefully have now learned to not let others FREELY give me their opinion about what I am doing. Few have the true gift of discernment, so, we all need to trust the Lord to lead us. Seriously, it still makes me weepy remembering how cruel they were.

Christian Life Coach Training
While still at the debt collecting place, I began taking Christian Life Coach Training online. I hired my own coach. He was the first one who had believed in me since I left my Dad’s home to get married. One day, a writer and head of a Christian organization contacted me about something else and we began talking about writing. He suggested I start a blog. And he told me what I needed to do to make it happen. I started my own web site. Zowie! He shared one of my first posts on his website. He had tons of followers. It was such a generous thing for him to do. MY DREAM WAS RE-IGNITED. He had proved by his actions, that he believed in me and my ability as a writer.

Leading From Your Strengths
I learned about a BIBLICAL strengths assessment called Leading From Your Strengths and I was amazed at what I found out about myself. What I had thought was weakness in me, were actually, by God’s design, STRENGTHS that GOD CHOSE especially for me. So, I got certified to do the consultations, and went on a quest to share what I learned. People were finding the same freedom that I had found, and they were taking off with their own dreams. It was glorious.

AND…in comes another dream snatcher.
I was having no trouble getting clients to sign up to take this amazing assessment and the consultation, and then coaching many through to realize their dreams. I was most definitely in my “sweet spot”. BUT…A coach I had hired said I was focusing too much on Strengths. She was the expert. So I stopped. WHY did I stop? Why did I stop dreaming that God could actually use me to help tons of people come out of the darkness into the light? Why did I believe a person rather than what I felt in my Spirit?

Definition of a Dream-Crusher is:
A person who attempts to discourage or stands in the way of someone else pursuing their dream, or perverts their dream so it is not the original intention. They may get us off course, to a good thing, but onto something that is not God’s best thing for us.

Comparisons
Theodore Roosevelt said it best when he said that “Comparison is the thief of joy.” Our job is to be trusting that God created each of us as divinely unique. We can always find someone better than we are in anything, or worse than we are. It is important to remember that not everyone has your best interest in mind. Some may look at your dream and just see how it will affect them personally rather than being happy for you and encouraging you. They may ask you why you are doing “this” TO THEM!

Contentment
For the last few years, I have gone along and told myself and anyone who would listen, that I am content. I was no longer striving for anything. I had no dreams. They had died from lack of use. I thought that was a good thing, until I signed up for a group MY ONE LIFE taught by Kelly Gore. Her gentle, encouraging nature is exactly what I need. This very blog post was prompted by one of Kelly’s questions asking if there are any “dream crushers” in our life. WOW! YES there are! Then she asked if there are any “past disappointments”? YES! And if any of us are “discouraged”? YES! She often reminds us that “God has HOLY plans” for us. And that “nothing is impossible with God”. See, the thing that makes her so powerful in what she does, is that she has had plenty of challenges in her life and yet she has risen above it and she absolutely believes all that she is sharing.

Get away and Dream with God
I’m only now these last few weeks, just barely “back in the saddle again”. Dreaming again. With Kelly’s gentle nature, and true caring about each of us, I feel that I can actually rise above my latest, sneakiest, and perhaps the most insidious dream crusher:

Contentment
When I pretend that everything is OK; and when everyone believes I am fine, then I sometimes forget that I’m NOT OK if I have stopped dreaming!

Contentment is part of the balanced Christian life, but I fell into using it to avoid being hurt by dream crushers. I forgot there’s always something that can use improvement, and always something new to achieve or strive for, and always goals to reach. So, don’t stop growing or dreaming. I want to live my life, not just exist.

What about you? Are you ready to start dreaming again? Are you ready to discover, embrace and actually live your life? Let’s start with scheduling the Leading From Your Strengths consultation so you can learn the Biblical focus of GOD’S choice of strengths for YOU. So you, too, can fully live your life! I’m only a click away.

Let’s dream together, about your future! What if….???

Until next time…

God bless you bunches!

Awaiting His shout,


The MomCourager™