Me + kids + talking +Weber is just the best thing ever.
Anyways, after I got done encouraging them to follow their dreams, one little boy raises his hand and says, "Morgan, whats YOUR dream?"
I sat for a few seconds just silent, and found myself thinking"Do I have a dream?"
(Thanks Child for putting me on the spot) But really, it started some good self-reflection.
I feel we all have worthy dreams. We get to a point in life where we may realize, yes! This is what I want. I want to go to this school for this degree. I want to date this type of person, at this time, and marry them at this time. I want this career. I want this trip. I want this car. I want this home, with this type of family.
I don't believe any of those are bad desires, I actually really believe the Lord wants us to have goals and do what we can to reach them. Sometimes we may even feel the Lords approval, and feel he trusts us with that goal.
Scenario 1
Our perfectly perfect dream we came up with, changes. It doesn't happen. It fails. We are devastated. We feel that the Lord should have stopped us or warned us that it was the wrong path. We feel we don't know how to discern the spirit and we begin to lose trust in ourselves and our gift of having Gods spirit guiding us. We may even doubt the existence of God, or the idea that He knows us and loves us.
Scenario 2
We may not know what our dreams are. We may be stuck in a place, and feel we have no direction. We may have some good ideas, but nothing seems right. We may have a "stupor of thought."
Scenario 1, sometimes even leads to scenario 2. <-- yeahhh that one sucks.
Our dreams can change
This week I went on an institute council retreat and we rock climbed a mountain. Literally. Real rock climbing. SCARIEST THING OF MY LIFE. But once we reached the top, we had a devotional. One of the institute teachers said this statement, and it enlightened my mind in a drastic way.
When you lose yourself, dreams change.
Hopefully that statement isn't a sad idea to us. Hopefully we aren't so stinking set on our own plans, that we forget to involve the Lord. I don't think its meant to be discouraging! I believe it is meant for us to realize bigger and better things come to those who put the Lord first.
Humility is an attribute of Christ we all are just awful with. We think we have it down one day, and realize that just that thought means we don't haha! But every step of humility we take, realizing our own efforts and dreams may change if it's the Lords will, we become happier people.
When we not only leave our heart open for change, but choose to stay open when our plan actually changes, that is when we take an overwhelming LEAP in our relationship with God.
We may say we are open... "Yeah I mean this is my plan, it feels good, but whatever happens happens!" Or "whatever God wants for me I'll do!" <-- great things.
But when the plan ACTUALLY changes, what do we start saying?
"I can't believe this happened! Why wasn't I warned? Why did the Lord allow me to waste all of this time or effort on this degree, on this career, on this person, when that wasn't what was supposed to happen?" <-- sound familiar?
When our plan actually changes, is when our faith can either waver, or grow into something we never thought we could obtain.
--------------- It's our choice.
The Lords dreams are a lot better than my own.
The second I stepped off the plane into the Spokane Washington Airport, I felt this. All dreams or plans I thought I had for myself, changed with one step. One step of truly listening to the Lord, following His will for me, and serving others, changed everything. Mine weren't bad, they were all righteous desires, the Lords were just different. And I couldn't have been more happy.
And then I got home. And it got harrddddddd again. Real hard. Some plans I couldn't have been more set on, changed drastically. And I was devastated.
Unfortunately, I lost faith for a period of time.
I questioned Gods knowledge of me, Morgan.
I was confused.
And I was sooooo inside myself.
But every small turn I made towards the Lord, and towards others around me, I realized that He had dreams for me that I hadn't even thought of.
D&C 78:17-19
17 Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you;
18 And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.
19 And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more.
What better promise could I ask of God?
I am learning, and will continue to learn the principle of being okay with your dreams changing. Give your dreams to the Lord and allow Him to make them something you never imagined. We can't let fear keep us from discovering great things. I trust that can happen for me. I don't think anything is harder than the feeling of the unknown though... But I do know, that the feeling of not having faith in God is awful. So I'm trying to choose the faith.
The more we are refined through the Saviors grace and mercy, the more applicable and perfect our dreams become for us.
{ Serve the Lord, do good things, be good, attract good,
think good, act good, and you will receive the good. }
Cause God is soooo good.
