By April Terry personal blog (http://faithwarming.blogspot.com)

My sister invited me to a women’s empowerment event this last weekend, and one of the most enlightening things that came out of the event was a revelation about my sister’s childhood dream.  The speaker asked each of us to draw a picture of what our dream was when we were six years old.  My sister drew a farm because she wanted to be a farmer and drive a tractor.  It’s funny because I never knew that.

She never told her dream to anyone in the family because she said that she was embarrassed about it, but I was so surprised that I could grow up so closely with someone and yet not know that thing that their heart longs for.  Of course, I was likely involved with the inner workings of my own heart, but I am still amazed.  Was there so little time to learn about the dreams of others?  I’ve decided that I need to get better at listening and understanding the things that drive people–their hopes and their dreams.

Dreams change in our lives.  Sometimes our childish dreams are merely childish dreams never meant to come to fruition, but sometimes inside of those childish dreams are the ingredients of what make each of us unique.  Like precious snowflakes, each of us are different, but each snowflake is made up of a pattern.  Discovering the patterns that make each of us unique is part of what makes the discovery of other people so exciting.

I think that if when we met people we started to learn the things that they dream about and what their hopes are, it would be incredibly gratifying.  We would start to learn where the real depth of a person’s character lies.  The funny thing is, I have also learned that a lot of people don’t think too much about what they dream for.  Some of us have probably stopped dreaming altogether.  Maybe our dreams change as we progress through life.  Some of those dreams die, some are pushed down, and others are realized.  With some dreams, we come to realize that we don’t really want that dream like we once did.  With others, we still dream them, but don’t believe or know if they are ever going to be achieved.

In dreaming, we start to look at the possibilities.  Hope is what lies at the base of all dreams, I believe, and in the discovery of the dreams of others, we find a vulnerability there.  We are all vulnerable in our dreams because it is where the most real part of us resides.  As I discovered the childish dream of my sister, I saw her in a new way.  I had put a label on her because I knew her completely, I thought, but she escaped from my label and became a rediscovery for me.  I’m glad it happened because it also reminded me that there is always more to be discovered about a person.

A woman that I know always asks the most wonderful questions whenever I stop and chat with her.  She will ask, “So, what do have on the burner right now?”  or “What is the most important thing on your mind today?”  Those kinds of questions draw a raised eyebrow, but they also force me to stop the common niceties and move toward sharing who I really am and what I am about.  I like that she does that.  It makes me feel valued.  So, whenever I encounter her, I feel like sharing the next step in my journey toward my dream.  It’s feels right.

My favorite line in Twila Paris’ “I Will Listen to His Voice” is:

“Could it be that He is only waiting there to see, if I could learn to love the dream that He has dreamed for me.” 

There is so much beauty in the belief that when we are people of faith, God delivers to us a dream that is more beautiful than the one that we could have dreamed for ourselves.   It’s as if God is setting our lives in line with better priorities and yet still using the raw resources and gifts we were given to accomplish our dreams in the most perfect way.

When I dream, I am my most true self.  I would want that kind of dream for everyone.  Maybe sometimes we need to be reminded that we still have a dream and that our dream, though it has changed or morphed, is still all about who we are at the core of our souls.  I believe that discovering the dreams inside of ourselves and inside of others is the most adventurous and exciting ingredient in life’s recipe.