Dreaming and creating a new future

Do you have a dream? Do you trust that God has a plan that will take you in a new and exciting direction? 

I always dreamed of being a writer. The hope that one day I would see my name on the cover of a novel first stirred when I was a young girl. By the time I was eleven years old, I would imagine seeing my novel sitting on the shelf in a bookstore or at the library. I would even walk down the bookstore aisles, running my finger along the spines of books, finding the spot where my book would sit in the long row of alphabetized author’s books.

My goal lay in the fertile soil of my dreams for decades before it sprouted, grew, and ripened into reality.  For a very long time, my dream was only shared with God. And that was fine. 

How could I tell people I wanted to be a novelist? What would they say? Would they think I was delusional? Egotistical? My dream seemed so big that it felt like something that an insignificant person like me could never accomplish. And what would happen if I shared my dream of publication with others and it never came true? Would I look like a fool?

Have you ever felt this way? Have you ever felt as if you didn’t deserve to dream big?

This past October I attended a writer’s retreat sponsored by my amazing literary agency, Books & Such Literary. One of the sessions was all about dreaming—dreaming big.

A dream is the first step in a journey of your heart’s desire. But that’s only if you put legs (and prayers) to your dream. 

"Our lives are not made by the dreams we dream but by the choices we make." ~Joseph Stowell.

I always dreamed of being a published author, and I spent years studying my craft and learning about the industry. But guess what? I’m still dreaming. Now I’m dreaming about the next step in my career.

"The unexamined life is not worth living." ~Socrates
I’m so serious about dreaming that I’ve marked off days on my calendar that will be devoted to dreaming and praying and figuring out what I need to do to reach for my dreams.

How about you? Do you take your dreams seriously? What does that look like?