Dreaming

Why do we ask children what they want to be when they grow up? Because they are good at dreaming and making long term goals. Now, I know adults do as well, but there is something special about the way in which children do it. My friend and I were talking about the difference, and agreed that it was because children are not jaded by reality and "can not"s. They are free to dream. They have no preconceived notions about how the world works and what is acceptable or expected. They are invincible.

As a child, I use to dream of being a truck driver. Don't laugh. Well, not too much. To me, truck drivers were people who saw the world. They traveled everywhere. That desire and dream for me to travel is still there. I have the feeling that one day it will be fulfilled, though not in the way I first imagined it.

What do we as adults do though, when the dreams we had as a child have been fulfilled, perhaps even completed, and we are left wondering, “Now what?” Well, we know that God knows the plans He has for us (Jeremiah 29:11), and that His goal for us is not complete until we have breathed our last.

As I started thinking this over today, a few Scriptures came to mind.

“Take delight in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4
Perhaps when we have fulfilled the goals set before us by the Lord, and we are still alive, it is time to rest and delight in Him. The amazing thing is that as we are focused solely on God, He begins to fill our heart with the desires that please Him, and make them our own. We then begin to have new dreams and goals, I think, as God plants those new desires in our hearts. Remember, He wants to give us the desires of our heart, so He'll put them there if we leave it open to Him. This most likely won't happen very quickly, so keep delighting in Him. You'll wake up one day and know.

It's really hard to get over being an adult. We know too much, to be honest. We don't have the bliss of ignorance. Some of the other verses that came to mind were Matthew 18:2-5. This is the passage where Jesus takes a small child and says that we must become like children, and welcome children. I believe it is also good to think of this in reference to our dreams and goals too. Believe me, it takes a child-like faith to dream as big as we know God can bless and use us!

Think about your aspirations today. Do they match up with what God is doing in your life? Are you still waiting with a child-like faith, or have you seen them completed? Read Matthew 18:2-5 and Philippians 3:12-14, then go over your dreams, or being planning them, with God today.