Being Thankful For Dreams That Don’t Come True

November 27, 2015 By Meredith Bernard 3 Comments

Sometimes as I watch my children play, tears come without much reason it seems – but the reason is always there. Inasmuch as they are living dreams come true, they are also living examples of dreams not coming true. And for that, I’m most thankful.

Almost 6 years ago I sat on a tarmac in St. Louis, Missouri with dreams as wide as the blue sky and snow-covered ground I saw all around me. On the edge of my seat, I sat on the edge of what could have been a life-altering decision. I had just interviewed with a company that would possibly be offering me the “more” in life I thought I had always wanted. More prestige, more opportunity, more money…so much more than I had known. The job would have also meant more time away from home – a lot more.

My life was full with a one-year old son and a farm-at-home husband who did his best to work with my already sporadic work schedule. Even in the fullness of our lives, it was hard not to look ahead at the dreams of better for us – better house, better vehicles, better stuff. I did realize it was just stuff, but having it almost in reach was enticing enough to want it anyway.

Even so, I didn’t take the possible decision lightly. I called in an army of prayer warriors and for the first time in my life, asked God to answer in a very specific way. I prayed that if He didn’t want me to take the job, I wouldn’t be offered the job. I knew the temptation to say “yes” may very well outweigh my heart’s ability to say “no,” if “no” was indeed what I was supposed to say.

Turns out my hearts-inclination was right and my God was faithful. I didn’t get the job offer, but I did get an unexpected raise where I was, because God’s not above doing what we can’t imagine or perceive in order to accomplish His will.

God is not above doing what we can’t imagine or perceive in order to accomplish His will.

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Even though I didn’t get a new career, a year later I received the priceless gift of a new baby girl. A baby girl our family may have never been blessed by if I had taken a job that kept me away from home and forced the option of a larger family off the table. A baby girl who has shown me more about myself and taught me more about life than I would have ever thought one child could.

What I know now is that God really does know best and His plan really is perfect – even if I have a hard time seeing it today.

What I know now is that sometimes the dreams we have for more, really only serve to give us less.

What I know now is that I am forever grateful that some dreams don’t come true, because that can lead to better ones that do.

Sometimes dreams not coming true leads to better ones that do.

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What dreams are you thankful for today that didn’t come true?

Shared by: Meredith Bernard

Everything We Experience is Building Our Dreams

October 30, 2015 By Laurie Wallin Leave a Comment

Everything about us has purpose when it comes to finding and following our dreams. The music we love. The things that freak us out. Our favorite hobbies. What we think about. The classes we took during college. The summer job that had nothing to do with anything (or so we thought). And even that weirdo we dated in high school.

If you’re like me, you might be thinking, Yeah, right! How exactly could all those parts of my life be connected, or matter in real life? I asked myself that question one night years ago as I started to write. It began with a blank screen and a new blog.

Everything was in pieces around me (literally—my house had flooded a few months earlier). My youngest, just a year old, was having unexplained seizures. We had just adopted our two foster daughters that summer, and something was clearly amiss with the older one. The mental health diagnoses wouldn’t become clear until later, but regardless, I wasn’t sure we could go through with the adoption. In fact, I didn’t think I could go through much more, period.

That season seemed to be another random, disconnected part of my life to stash away in a locked box in my mental cellar. Right along with my penchant for eating rock salt from the sidewalk when I was a preschooler.

Around that same time I had an assignment for a class: to draw a timeline of my life, looking at the past for where God had been, and ahead for where God might be leading.

Three Questions That Help Connect the Details to Our Dreams:

What words might appropriately describe my life over time?
What experiences have I had, and what have I gained from them?
What ideas and experiences inspire and call to me?

After I had done this, I stepped back mentally to catch the panorama of the “forest through the trees.” To my surprise, words and themes were repeated again and again: coach, teacher, inspirer, supporter. In my role as the oldest sibling growing up. As a teacher’s assistant in middle school. As swim team captain in high school and swim coach afterward. As a resident advisor in charge of helping college freshmen adjust on campus. Even the photography studio job had a place in my bigger purpose, as I had learned how to turn my eye for a subject’s uniqueness into a photo that helped them see it too.

It suddenly became clear: I was a coach, an encourager, a person who serves as a scaffold for others to grow, heal, run after their own dreams.

Each aspect, each moment in life is another stone that builds our God-sized dreams. (<====Click To Tweet)

Maybe we share similar storylines, meanderings of hearts pursuing God’s visions in us through corridor after corridor. I’ll bet some of your journey feels random and disconnected—impossible to fit into a sense of purpose or unified theme. But every single part of the journey matters for where we are headed. Every role and season play a part to build our dreams into priceless and unique gifts to the world… legacies for those we love and those we’ve not yet met.

We can’t see the full story now. But we’re walking it already. Keep going, friend. All of this matters.

Shared By: Laurie Wallin

Adapted from her book, Why Your Weirdness Is Wonderful

When Hard Work Doesn’t Work

October 26, 2015 By Mel Schroeder 6 Comments

Over the past two months, my husband and I have had the chance to experience another first in the parenting world…soccer.

Our very active, five year-old daughter decided she’d like to give it a try, and we were all for it!

And, oh, let me tell you, friends…those sweet little kiddos playing soccer? What a kick!

Pun totally intended. 😉

They learned the basics each week, and there was actually quite a bit of improvement in the two months they were together as a team. And there were also some sweet, unforgettable moments, too.

I’ll go first because I have that girl. THAT GIRL. The one who stops to chat about the meaning of life with another player ON the field, DURING the game. 😉

There was another sweet girl who sure liked her mama and daddy because she kept running off the field to see them. Yep, during the game. Gotta love the cuteness.

And there was also a totally sweet boy who could kick a goal with the best of them…and then celebrate like a soccer superstar, arms raised and outstretched. (He was totally cute while doing this, too, because he was…five.)

It was fun watching the kids play this season…a lot more fun than I thought it would be.

But I have to confess something from this mama-heart.

It’s tough to watch your kiddo work hard and improve and still not score a goal.

That was what I prayed for this season. One goal, God? Just one? Please?

And while there were moments of victory when she made a good pass or had an awesome kick, it was hard. Ever the sweetheart, I watched her cheer her heart out for her teammates…but there was a sadness. She wanted that goal.

And as I watched her make her way through the season, I decided that maybe there was something she was teaching me.

It was a slightly painful lesson for this girl, too, because I often think back to almost three years when I got that e-mail from my sweet, now-friend-and-sister, Holley.

Congratulations! You’re a member of the God-sized Dream Team!!!

And, immediately, visions of a rough draft and a book deal with a publisher and a best-seller on the shelves of Barnes & Noble began dancing in my head…and in my heart.

I was so sure it would happen…And so sure it would happen right away.

I was sure those literary agents would sit down, look at my chapter samples, and be like, YES. OF. COURSE. WE. WANT. YOU.

It was my own soccer game, my own, I’m-going-to-work-so-hard-at-this-and-it’s-going-to-happen, moment.

Why wouldn’t it just all fall into place for me? I was so willing to work, and of course, God would open the right doors.

When I look back at that phase in my life, I had so much to learn…and God had so much to do in my heart when it came to my dreams. (<====Tweet this.)

It’s not always easy to look back at that time, but I do see now the purpose He had in all of it.

No, it didn’t end up quite the way I’d imagined it.

I thought I’d publish a book.

I tried. I wrote. I met with some wonderful agents, but it didn’t happen. And so, instead, I write. My blog (sometimes) and here and there for two sites that I love.

I thought I’d be well-known.

Instead, I’ve learned the value of loving and treasuring those whom God has placed in my life.

I thought my dreams looked a certain way.

And, instead, God has taken them and made them so wildly different…and still wonderful.

Sweet dreamer friend, I know it can be hard when you dream something and your heart just wants it so badly. And maybe it’s just not happening, and you can’t understand why.

And that’s why I wanted to share something with you today.

Your dream might require a whole lot of work, and even some sweat and tears. And if you put all of that into it and more…and it still doesn’t happen?

Know that you are loved. That there is purpose. And that you should still keep dreaming.

Maybe there will be a book for me someday. I hope so.

But, today…there’s life. And other dreams being lived out in that life. (<====Tweet this.)

And I’ll take it and breathe thanks for it, too. 🙂

Photo Credit: Tobin Schroeder

Shared by: Mel Schroeder

When Your Days Don’t Look Like Dreaming

August 17, 2015 By Mel Schroeder 13 Comments

This is the morning, I tell myself, as I pour the coffee and head out to the picnic table.

It’s the morning I’m going to sit down and write those words, the ones that will be so profound, the ones that will inspire dreamers and push them to chase down whatever it is that’s burning in their hearts.

A smile creeps to my face as I take a seat at my little, yellow-and-turquoise-with-a-flower, table and begin to pound out the words.

And I’m not too far into it all before I feel the honest need to confess something.

I’m a writer at God-sized Dreams, and sometimes I feel like a big fake.

The truth? Is that, lately, I haven’t been doing much, if any, dreaming. Or writing.

And I think back to two and a half years ago, when the dream was so fresh and so exploding out of my heart, and I could hardly contain my enthusiasm for writing all the words about all the stories of our time overseas.

I was so sure it was all going to happen, this book-writing-being-famous-and-known, thing.

And, well…that hasn’t happened.

And lately I’ve found myself in the place of just trying to live…much less trying to dream. (<====Tweet this.)

My days?

They all kind of run together.

I’m a follower of my Father, and I try to love Him and live my days for Him. Some days I do better than others.

I’m a stay-at-home-mama to a wonderful little girl, the girl we call Mae, who’s really not so little at all and headed to Kindergarten in just two days. Send tissues and chocolate, please?

I’m a wife who tries to love her husband well and also keep up with the vacuuming and the dishes and laundry (and sometimes the dusting…ick) but I don’t find a lot of time to chase down any big dreams in between those things.

Mae and I will go off on adventures…park and swimming days, even an occasional visit to the little amusement park close to us. We’ll chase the dog and water flowers and read books and eat snacks and do the things that make up our days…and then night comes and the little one is off in her own kind of dreamland…

…and sometimes I’ll pull up my rough draft and think of the what-might’ve-beens. And I’ll wonder, too, if maybe I pulled the plug too early on what I’d always hoped He might be calling me to do.

It’s a hard place to be…in a season of wishing for so much more but knowing I’m where He wants me…

In choosing those moments of being content and knowing that, for now, His dream for me is to just live the life in front of me, the one that greets me with the dingy sound of my cell phone every morning around 6 am (or, ahem, 6:30…), my running shoes staring me down. 😉

I don’t know where you find yourself today, my dreaming friend. Maybe it’s in living a day very close to what I just described. Maybe you’re in a season of waiting. Or, maybe, you just don’t know and you haven’t found the courage or direction to take that next step yet.

I want you to know it’s ok. It really is.

Whatever the day is that might be stretching before you, know that living your life, doing the things He’s called you to…it’s all a part of the dream, too. A part of the journey.

And that journey? It is so, so very important. (<====Tweet this.)

Will you join me and find a way to embrace the season in which He has placed you?

How can I pray for you today? 🙂

Shared by Mel Schroeder

Social Justice IS Spiritual Warfare, but THAT wasn’t my Dream…

August 10, 2015 By Chelle Wilson 14 Comments

Image of Activist Bree Newsome, Still by @Niall_JayDub used with full permission of the artist.

I am a Spiritual Gangster, hoping to be like “Jesus…one of the biggest agitators that ever lived.”

Be careful what you pray for. I heard a call to write everyday stories highlighting the intersection of Life and Faith. I thought I understood what such a call meant. Be careful what you pray for…

“God pricked my heart”

There is that insistent, gentle urging, a quiet pressing upon one’s spirit that could not be ignored. A beautiful image, I know and love several dear friends well suited to it. I lovingly describe them as my “white glove Christians.” They are soft, unfailingly polite, subtle, and I so desire to be one of them. I am NO such gentle girl. While capable of great gentleness, I am inclined toward big, bold, and brash. My heart and my words belong elsewhere. I desire quiet. I occasionally exude a mantle of peaceful joy, but alas, me and mine dance mostly to a different rhythm.

We are the Spiritual Gangsters

Originally the name of a yoga clothing line, this notion stunned me like a shot to the head. Captioning my faith calling and the way I felt God shaping my voice, so much so that I co-opted the phrase for my personal use. Reading the account of Jesus’ trial before Pontius Pilate where He was indicted for inciting riot, destabilizing the economy and attempting to overthrow the Roman government reminded me that Jesus was a Revolutionary. Christian Activist Bree Newsome who inspires me to braver action declared in a recent speech, “Jesus is one of the biggest agitators that ever lived…The only time Jesus was in the temple was when He’s flipping stuff over and stirring things up.”

So much for a gentle pricking of the heart.

It was time for me to be a little more like THAT Jesus. A rapidly changing world jeopardized both my Peace and the lives of people who were, or could be me and mine. God defied my notion of the lovely little dream I believed He’d set aside for me. It became clear that my Faith was wedded to Social Justice, and my pretty little God-Sized Dream threatened to become my waking nightmare.

God overtook my little writing dream.

I was trying to live out my God-Sized Dream, but only in part…like seeing through a glass darkly (1 Corinthians 13:12-13). In order to see more clearly, I prayed for Holy boldness to be brave, to risk offending, to bare my soul and my pain. My manageable, mostly inoffensive God-sized dream to write pretty stories stretched and cracked at the seams. I experienced that moment when your dream, as opposed to God’s for you, overtakes you and becomes something from which you cannot escape. I felt violated. I felt cheated. Sound familiar?

What about feeling like you have NO CHOICE?

I wanted to write about the Goodness of God. I got a little brave when someone I admired asked me to join a project in Christian love, about mothering African-American sons in the wake of Trayvon Martin’s senseless death. Hands folded, heart open, I wrote a requiem entitled Elegy for a Murdered Son. It was soft, and “white gloved.”

I thought it would be enough. It wasn’t.

I felt a sifting within me. My race, ethnicity, and culture shape and inform my perspective, not to the exclusion of other people, places, or things, but as a lens through which I experience the world. My comfortable lens was under siege, it hurt desperately, but it was only the beginning.

I could not hold my peace.

The world kept assaulting it. First it was a series of police-involved shootings of African-American men and boys, like my husband, my brother, my son. My world wasn’t quiet, and neither could I be. I no longer felt safe in my own country… and then there was the moment I couldn’t even feel safe in worship.

A preacher’s kid (PK), I grew up in a church like Mother Emmanuel AME in Charleston, South Carolina. I could easily have been a victim like the nine souls carried into the Arms of Grace by a madman, who entered a church “to shoot black people.”

I thought I’d had enough worrying about my husband, son, brother, nephews, cousins, etc., all the men I love desperately, bravely living while Black in America where it seems we are constantly reminded we do not belong, we are not worthy, we do not have a valid stake. Then I realized that Sandra Bland could have been me.

Be careful what you pray for…

There is too much happening in the world affecting me personally, affecting us all to remain silent and content to play small any longer. My pretty little voice isn’t all God planted within me. I’m a God-Sized Dreamer, but the good work He began in me has outgrown my safe place. (<====Click to Tweet)

…being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6 (NIV)

I must simply trust God, since it has always been His Dream in me. It’s not a waking nightmare. It is what Jennie Allen in Restless calls…

A holy God given passion burning in my soul.

My voice, and my Faith (in order to be sufficiently brave) must grow. Why? Because God-Sized Dreams never belong to us. We don’t shape them. We certainly cannot control what they become. I wanted to be a “white glove” girl, but that’s not where He planted me to bloom. I can no longer hold my peace. I am a woman on fire for Christ, and for me,

Social Justice IS Spiritual Warfare.

I am a Spiritual Gangster. I’m getting in and staying in the fight, agitating like Jesus. Living out the dream He placed in me. His Dream, not mine. Because His Plans are always better.

Be careful what you dream for…you just might get it.

Shared By: Chelle Wilson

For Such A Time As This

June 29, 2015 By Jennifer Hand 10 Comments

Ten Years ago, I stepped on a plane to serve as a summer missionary in Nepal. I had heard I would be spending the summer doing medical work, and I was very excited about that prospect. Sure I had no medical training, but I had watched lots of episodes of ER on tv, so that counted, right?

My dream had always been to serve God overseas. This was one step in that dream. However, I quickly found, as we generally do, God’s dreams for me were different than I had planned.

That summer, our team’s job assignment was to make maxi pads for the maternity ward. Yes, you read that right, making maxi’s for the glory of the Lord.

It seemed so mundane. It was very unlike I had planned. It was not a great missionary glory story.

Sometimes the steps to our God-sized dreams seem so mundane. They are very unlike what we have planned. They are not the glory story we had planned– but God is doing kingdom work behind the scenes. (<====Click to Tweet)

Maxipad making led to a desire and a calling to go back and serve God in Nepal full time. This led to leaving everything I knew and loved in America to go live in Kathmandu Nepal for two years.

In those years, I learned the language, learned the people, and the culture. In those years, I fell in love with the people, the culture, and the God who had called me so far out of my comfort zone.

God-sized dreams evolve and change, even if we feel more comfortable when they stay the same! (<====Click to Tweet)

I thought I would stay in Nepal forever, but God began to work on my heart, calling me to return back to America, get my Masters in Christian counseling, with an emphasis on trauma, and start a ministry called Coming Alive Ministries

That’s where the title “For Such a Time as This” comes in.

In the Book of Esther, Esther is called to do something scary. She has the chance to go before the king and ask for his help in saving her people. It would take bravery. Our kingdom work takes bravery.

It would take using her months of training to be a princess. Often God uses practical training for our dreams.

It would take being in the right place at the right time.

Esther 4:14 And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

In the month of May I got to experience what I call my Esther moment when I returned to Nepal.

This time, I was there to help after two large earthquakes had devastated an already desperately poor third world country.

God put together all kinds of pieces for this dream He had dreamed for me.

I already spoke the language fluently.

I had a degree in trauma counseling.

And I had a love for these people.

For such a time as this. I will never forget the first village we went to. There was nothing that remained standing. There was a pancaked church with 8 bodies still inside. And there was a group of those that had survived, bandaged and bruised as they were, huddled under a small piece of tin. And they were looking for hope.

I opened my mouth and was able to speak in their language. Simply be with them. To walk them through this unspeakable trauma.

Village after village this happened. They came for hope.

It was a God sized dream that I would never have dreamed.

God is putting together the puzzle pieces of your life for His kingdom work, for such a time as this. (<====Click to Tweet)

How have you seen Him call you for such a time as this?

Shared by : Jennifer Hand

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Circling Your Dreams

March 9, 2015 By Kristin Smith 26 Comments

On my way to Houston to celebrate my birthday, I had a short layover in Chicago. It was just getting dark as we were flying into the Chicago area. Lights below were starting to twinkle and it was a beautiful sight.

Looking out my window, I could see the airport below, and watched as we flew right past it, headed out to the edge of the city, and finally over the waters of Lake Michigan below.

Then there were a couple of what seemed like sharp turns to get us headed back toward the airport. It likely seemed a little more scary because we could see the frozen waters below, dark and uninviting.

Finally, we straightened out and the view was breathtaking.

Sometimes in this dream-chasing journey, I get stuck. My focus is on the end result, the destination. How soon will I get there? When will my dream ever come to fruition? “Are we there yet, mom”….oh wait, that is another type of trip! 😉

But really, have you been there?

Been headed towards that goal, maybe even been to the place where you can see the end in sight and then there is what seems to be a detour? You fly right past and think wait…where were the brakes?!

It can be frustrating. We pray, we ask God for guidance, but we have been so focused on the end that we have missed each and every beautiful moment along the way.

I don’t want to be a woman who misses the wonder of the journey. (<====Click to Tweet)

Sure the destination, the dream, the goal IS important. But I believe that God wants us to remain in the moment too. To see and recognize each step that gets us to our destination. See the beauty of the twinkling lights, even if it means we have to go out of the way and over rough waters to get there.

If you asked me today what my “dream” was, it looks different than it did a few years ago. I no longer feel the need to “make it” in the blogging world. I write when and if God inspires me to do so. If I am silent for a length of time, it is probably either because I am not listening well to God…or he is just working out the kinks in some areas of my life so that I can be of better use for His purposes.

Either way, my dreams now look less about what might be in it for me and more about what I might do for Him. And I want to be a woman who enjoys the journey.

And I say this with all the humbleness I can muster too…it hasn’t been easy. I have been discouraged when a post I thought was stellar wasn’t shared or liked or commented on. I have felt jealousy when I saw other writers publish a book or were invited to speak at a conference. Why not me, Lord? That has been my heart cry more times than I would like to admit.

But slowly, ever so slowly, I am learning that each moment in the journey is priceless. (<====Click to Tweet)

And I have a lot of learning to do. Maybe I will never write a book or speak at a conference…but that doesn’t mean this journey has been worthless.

On the contrary, I have been given so many gifts along the way. I may have spent too much time focusing on those things that seemed like the negatives of the detours, but when I step back and see the road for what it really is, I see all the friendships I have gained along the way, the prayers I have been given and been honored to pray for others. And the opportunities for growth and spiritual maturity as I learn to lean on and trust God with everything.

All of it’s hard work, but sometimes life is just that. Hard work!

The blessings that come from the difficult nos, the changes, and bumpy roads…they are gifts I will treasure for a lifetime. My friends make every moment worth it!

If you find yourself in that place, the place of discouragement and doubt. If you feel like your dream has passed you by…have hope! Take a step back and count a blessing. Find that gift in each moment and step forward in faith that God will make good come out of all of it. And until we reach that final destination, see that dream fulfilled…let’s find ways to encourage one another. Because this hard work can be tough and lonely at times. We all need a little support!

If there is any way that I can be praying for you, would you please leave a comment and let me know? It would be an honor to lift you up!

Shared By: Kristin Smith

It’s Okay to Breathe…

January 23, 2015 By Mel Schroeder 14 Comments

Four summers ago some friends and I started meeting on Monday nights for an outdoor workout. It began as a 30-minute walk followed by some strength training. At the time it was a good workout for us and where we were physically…and I know I always left feeling like I’d had a good workout.

When the weather became colder, we moved our workouts to the school gym, where we’d run stairs and then do more strength and cardio fun. Yes, fun. 😉

And then a running club began in the spring, and by the next summer a lot of us were running three or more miles and then doing more exercising after that.

And slowly over the course of the next months and years, our workout night continued to morph and become even more difficult.

And those Monday nights have continued over the last years as we’ve tried to hold each other accountable in the journey of being healthy and becoming stronger.

Our latest adventure has been a series of Beachbody workouts, ranging from hardcore cardio to too many squats, from planking to killer ab moves that make me want to say bad words.

This journey of working out has been a good one, but it’s also been a hard one.

There’s been a lot of trying with everything I have…of pushing myself beyond what I probably should some days. And the trying can sometimes feel impossible…like the results are out of my control.

Because they usually are.

I remember a specific workout a few weeks ago. It was brutally difficult…and there was a point when we were doing burpees, and I seriously couldn’t do another one. I just couldn’t. I had to stop and breathe before I pushed myself, once more, down into that dreaded pushup-but-much-worse position.

Resting became necessary before I could even continue.

Part of me that saw that as failure because, of course, I want to be that girl who can sweat like nothing else as she pushes even harder through anything that’s thrown at her. I always want to come out victorious with an absolutely perfect record.

However, we all have our limits, and I had certainly found one of mine. (<====Tweet this.)

And honestly, once I’d given myself those fifteen-or-so seconds of breathing time, I was able to push through the rest of our workout.

I still finished it, I still burned calories. (And I probably still went home and had cake because that’s just what I do.)

😉

And I was thinking about that workout today again as I processed the last two years and a dream I’ve been chasing.

Book writing.

It’s a dream a lot of people have, and this dreamer is no exception.

In my head, I’ve always had a perfectly ordered dream going. Build the blog while I write a rough draft. Gain tons of followers. Pitch my book to agents and, of course, find the perfect publisher who will turn it into a bestseller

Please don’t wake me up. 😉

Most of me knew it wouldn’t be quite that easy…but I don’t think I was expecting the journey to be quite so difficult, either.

I wasn’t expecting a year of so few words or the doubt that began to creep in. I wasn’t expecting the blog to become so quiet or for the desire of going deep, not wide.

Everything changed…and those changes didn’t point to writing and publishing a book.

And so, I gave myself permission to stop and breathe.

I needed the time to rest and think and pray through everything…because in the marathon of chasing a huge dream, I was starting to see that it couldn’t be a sprint. (<====Tweet this.)

There has to be time to breathe…no matter the dream or the blood, sweat, and tears required.

And in the breathing, I found that it was okay. More than okay.

And I came to the conclusion that I wanted to share my stories on my blog instead of publishing them.

There are times when I wish I’d kept pushing toward the goal I’d always planned, but I also have to trust that there’s a reason He has in me in this time of quiet…and that there’s a purpose for my dream taking a different path.

And so today and in this season, I am stopping to breathe and redirect…because I know, from experience, that the break will be just what I need to keep chasing down whatever it is He has planned in the future.

Whatever it is, I know it will be good.

Because the dreams don’t go away just because one takes a different path.

I don’t know where you are in your journey, friend, but I do know that sometimes we get tired.
We wonder what His plan is exactly…and the unknown can feel overwhelming.
Go ahead and take that break if you need to…because it’s okay to breathe.

And…to trust.

Shared By: Mel Schroeder

Photo Credit: jimmy brown

On Being Called and Stepping Out in Faith

January 9, 2015 By Kristin Smith 20 Comments

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I am the type of person that is comfortable being comfortable.

When I am in a situation and I know what I know, I am ok staying in that “safe” place. I encourage others and cheer them on in their brave steps of faith. But when I am called to do the same, I am shaking in my boots.

It was when I least expected it that I got a vox from Christine asking if we could talk on the phone.

I immediately asked her if I was in trouble 😉 because of course I assumed the worst. She said it wasn’t that at all and we set up a time to talk a few hours later.

I wasn’t prepared for the question that she had for me. She felt God calling her away from leading this site, this baby of hers, and would I pray about stepping into her shoes?

Of course I felt honored, but mostly I felt unqualified and unprepared.

I said I had to pray about it and started circling it in prayer every morning. I wanted God to give me a sign. Something big and glowing and obvious. I am not good with the subtle nudges.

Every morning I would ask Him to reveal His plan for the site to me. I truly love the heart and the mission of God-sized Dreams, and I just wanted the right person – the person God had chosen – to fill the spot. Even if it wasn’t me.

For several weeks I prayed and prayed. I didn’t feel like I had an answer either way. Where was the neon flashing light for pete sake!?!

But there was something eating at me.

I was afraid.

Afraid that I would fail, afraid that I wouldn’t be able to handle the responsibility. Afraid that I wouldn’t be a good “leader”…what did I know about that anyways? And if I am being honest….what if the rest of the team didn’t want me leading and left? How humiliating that would be!

The what-ifs and fears can be debilitating.

At times it can be enough to keep you from stepping out in faith, being brave and rising up to the calling God has for you.

But I don’t want to live my entire life making decisions based on fear. So I continued to pray that God would equip me if this was a call that He had for my life.

He answered that prayer in many small ways, encouragement and confirmations from some fellow dreamers, and each of those things added up to one big confidence boost. I CAN do all things through Christ who gives me strength. (Phil. 4:13)

This was never about me and my abilities…it was always about bringing honor and glory to the God that has a call on each of our lives.

So I serve with a humble and grateful heart. From day one I have been honored to be a part of this site. I love the community that is building. It has been a joy to meet a few of you who walk with us in person, and I hope that continues.

This space has always been a place of safety, of home, for me and I pray that is for you as well.

We come from all stages and phases of life, but our hope is that when we do gather that it always feels like home. (<====Click to Tweet)

This is a new season for me. I don’t know how long God will call me to this ministry, I will serve Him first and try to model the obedience that I have seen in Christine. I know this was difficult and she wrestled with God over it all.

But she heard God’s voice, and followed His call, even when she didn’t understand the whys.

My heart seeks to do the same. I don’t know why God called me to this role, at this time, but I am trusting Him with the details. It is all we can do isn’t it?!

So if you find yourself faced with a call that you are unsure about, pray! Ask that God would equip you if the call is His. And then move forward in faith, remembering that the heart of any mission is to bring praise to the One who has made the call in the first place.

Shared by: Kristin Smith

Photo Credit: Greg Westfall

Deep, Not Wide

December 8, 2014 By Mel Schroeder 48 Comments

I made a mistake last year.

Well, to be fair, I make them every day. 😉

But this one…it was the kind that grated on me for a year. I just couldn’t get it out of my head. And I knew things needed to be different, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what I had done wrong. And, really, it took twelve months to process.

But this morning, as I sit down with my coffee and pour my heart out to you, I’m starting to see.

And, oh…it feels good to finally see.

So one of my dreams has been, for a long time, to “make it” in the blogging world…to become the next big blogger, whatever that looks like.

And what that DOES look like…well, I still haven’t quite figured that out. For a long time, I had it in my head that it meant tons of followers, comments, a platform the width of the world, lots of recognition. And, of course, a book deal to follow.

In reality it sounds like a lovely, perfectly-ordered dream, doesn’t it?

And there was a time…a span of about a year…when I chased that dream hard.

Too. Hard.

It was the kind of hard that stayed up until ungodly hours to read and comment and reply and read some more. And goodness, there’s nothing wrong with the reading and commenting part…because pouring encouragement into the lives of others is such an important part of community…whether online or in real life. But those things definitely shouldn’t have been taking place at one in the morning for this mama.

It had almost become an obsession…an exhausting one, but I was convinced it was worth it to go wide and to know and love and connect with as many people as possible. And then it all kind of crashed around me when I returned home from a conference just a year ago.

I’d spent so much time at that conference saying hello…and never going beyond that.

I’d done everything I could to go wide…and that’s what it was. Wide, not deep. (<==== Tweet this.)

That realization made me want to hide under the covers for maybe more than a month. But of course with a toddler, I hid for exactly 2.5 seconds before she ripped the covers back and joined me.

And then? Well, I promised myself that I’d pray through this and see what my Father wanted from all of it. Because in my heart, I knew He had something to teach me.

He answered by giving me A. YEAR. Oh, how to even tell you about a year that was full of no words, of loneliness, of broken dreams…I really can’t.

But can I whisper something to you? In some ways, that year brought beauty.

In the quiet, I found much-needed time to live the life that was in front of me. In stepping back a bit from writing, I found a way to release myself from the pressures I’d heaped upon myself. And in the broken dreams, I was surrounded by His promises.

And, maybe more than anything, what I needed was the reminder that to have a wonderful, meaningful life doesn’t mean having a platform so wide I’ll never truly know most people beyond a hi, hello, and a hug.

It doesn’t mean that I have to connect so much online that I never have time to connect in real life.

It doesn’t mean that having a hundred comments on my blog…or one…speaks anything of my significance.

It means, to me, that when I make the time to love someone…to know them, pray for them, be there for them…that creates a depth of friendship that is so much more precious than a thousand hellos.

I feel like I’m finally finding meaning in the deep instead of the wide. (<====Tweet this.)

The deep that looks like hours of chatting over coffee, the kind that cries with a friend on a really bad day, and the kind that also happy dances all over the place to share in a celebration.

I’ve purposely allowed quiet into my life in order to go deep, and it has been glorious. I read blogs and catch up on commenting when I have a few minutes here or there. I’m finding other ways to encourage those I love…and I’m still working on that.

But there’s been something so beautiful about this deep.

And while I still crave connection and friendship, more than ever I desire those things for the beautiful encouragement and love they bring into my life. Every day I want to choose the life He has for me without pushing for more than is meant for me.

I’ll take the gifts as they come…and you, my friends, are some of those beautiful gifts.

How can we pray for each other today?

Photo Credit: Kim DeLoach Photography

Shared by: Mel Schroeder