Dreaming

We just came back from visiting our "kids" Crystal and Jeremiah in Colorado Springs.  It is always so refreshing, encouraging and uplifting to simply do life with them.  Those moments are so special and do inspire us to dreaming.  We capture those times in our hearts, in photos, notes and journals.  We are so proud of the two of them, in everything they are doing, in their hopes, their dreams, blessings and all that they are becoming each day. 


One of my dreams has been to be logistically close to my children but as many of us know that is not always possible when doing the best to provide for your immediate family.  God has confirmed to our "kids" that Colorado Springs is where they are to make their home.  They have listened to Him, they are thriving in their vocations (helping orphans and widows) and at the end of this month will be closing on a new amazing home.  A home beyond all they have asked or hoped.  Ummm, just like God to do that, huh?


I use journaling to process my life, work through issues and organize my thoughts.  God uses it as a tool along with His Word and prayer to reveal Himself to me.  Many times through out my forty-nine years He has taken my dreams when I came to a point of letting them go and He shows me ways to have new dreams.  I have learned so very much about grieving and not necessarily in the obvious sense when we grieve the death of a loved one.  Grief is much more.  It is a companion to pain and this partnership can enlarge our capacity for compassion, perseverance and strength.  We all have the potential for admirable character qualities but it often takes the "good" of pain and suffering for us to learn they are there and to bring them out.  God uses the challenges of life to bring us the possibility of the deepest joys when we seek His comfort and to carry our burdens.  Drawing us to become the real authentic people He wants us to be.


Back to dreaming.  When I was a child I dreamed about moving out on my own. At 18 my older brother and I shared an apartment until he married a few months later.  I dreamed about working as a secretary when I was 14 and at 18 that was my first full time job downtown Chicago.  That job opportunity was the beginning of a career in the insurance industry.  No, I did not dream about insurance or account management.   At 16, when I graduated high school I dreamed about owning my own day care center because I loved children and teaching.  Before the job downtown I did have an opportunity to be a teacher's aide at a day care center which was extremely rewarding and still gives me fond memories today. Maybe I would have been good at home schooling if I was not a working mom although Crystal and one of my nieces were recipients of many lesson plans when they were small.  I did not have enough money to continue college and college was outside the realm of my family so I pushed forward with the strong work ethic that the Vander Wagen family modeled and continued in the insurance arena.  (Crystal was the first and so far only college graduate in my family)Another dream I had in high school was writing...Sometimes I still entertain that dream.


What are your dreams?
What's your perfect day like?
What excites you?
What opens your heart?
What's something you always wanted to do but never thought you could?
What is the best 60 seconds of your day?


Shattered dreams are never random. They are always a piece in a larger puzzle. A chapter in a larger story. The Holy Spirit uses the pain of shattered dreams to help us discover our desire for God, to help us begin dreaming the highest dream. They are ordained opportunities for the Spirit to awaken then to satisfy our highest dream. ~ Larry Crabb~


See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
Isaiah 43:19