Who has lost a bit of their ability to dream these days? Are you too tired and worn out? Is your mind too preoccupied with something else? Do you say to yourself, “I have to first find my purpose and direction before I start dreaming.” I am here today saying it’s TIME TO START DREAMING, PEOPLE and have fun doing it!
Recently I have become quite fascinated with dreams — both the imaginative stories we see in our sleep and the ambitious realities I have been searching through now as a stay-at-home momma. When we first picked up our three new kiddos in Belize last November, we quickly became aware of their trauma induced nightmares. The second Airbnb we stayed in had a single white dress hanging on a random clothing rack outside one of the rooms up on the balcony. We (those of us above the age of 7) all noticed the oddly placed item and have seen enough scary movies to have our minds go there. We had to remove the dress because that first night all three big kids had a similar nightmare. Now, presumably many people would have creepy nightmares after seeing that, but this being our fifth or sixth night with the kids at this point, we had already heard vivid details from their dreams and we didn’t need anything to induce them further. Guys, I believe in spiritual warfare. I believe in forces all around us that are working for and against us, like a battle raging we cannot see. The Bible says,
“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings,” 1 Peter 5:8-9.
AND… I believe the enemy uses nightmares as a successful tool. I totally believe our kids have encountered extreme amounts of spiritual activity and our God has protected them from the enemy on their behalf, but these nightmares invoke memories of some very hard times.
I love the history of a dreamcatcher. We are obviously a God-loving family, but this practice of using a dreamcatcher is also a very useful technique for the imagination of our children. We had been home in the States for a little while and Ashley was still having many nightmares. A friend suggested a dreamcatcher. While we are also big components of therapy, Corona and quarantine stalled us a bit on getting them started; therefore, I needed a temporary solution to help her sleep. I actually had a dreamcatcher from one of my Arizona trips to the Native American reservations so I sat down on Ashley’s bed and explained to her the meaning behind it. I explained to Ashley that in the Native American culture dreamcatchers were hung above beds and cribs to ward off bad dreams and nightmares. The Native American culture was very aware of how good and bad dreams fill the air at night. The dreamcatcher acts like a spider’s web trapping the bad dreams while allowing the good ones to fill our minds at night. Those bad dreams caught would be destroyed when the sunlight hits the dreamcatcher in the morning. The Lakota believe dreamcatchers work slightly different as described above. They believe dreamcatchers are powerful charms that provide protection from any kind of evil influence, not just from bad dreams and nightmares. The Lakota legend states that the good dreams or ideas would become trapped in the web while the bad ones would pass right through the hole in the center and would be gone forever. Fascinating!
In my previous post, Hi, I am Kristina and I am Nothing!, I talk about focusing less on me and my purpose and more on God and His purpose in my pursuit of contentment.
It wasn’t until I stopped asking what is my plan in life and started focusing on God’s plan for life that I started to find contentment! Because this means, no matter what I am doing, if I am bringing glory to God, then I am ok! I don’t have a job? No problem! My identity isn’t wrapped up in my job!
Now that I have discovered this need for a focus shift, I have also discovered that thinking about my life and purpose shouldn’t be stressful or anxiety inducing at all! Because I have identified my #1 life’s purpose is to live a life pleasing to God, I can relax and have fun dreaming, planning, creating and starting new things because HE’S GOT THIS!
Y’all I love the ideology of the Lakota tribe! Just picture with me our bad dreams (or bad ideas/bad paths in life) passing right through a hole and are gone forever. What if we use this lens with this new focus? I need to stop and compare everything I do to my #1 life’s purpose lens and if something isn’t pleasing to God, it should be immediately passed through and thrown out into nothingness.
BUT those GOOD dreams (or aspirations) are trapped, cultivated and released into our hands to carry out. Can you imagine?!
OK, great Kristina, you said in the last post not to focus on what we should be doing, but now you are saying GO, DREAM. Ugh! I don’t understand.
Guys, thats the point! First, get your heart and mind right. THEN…Dream away — no pressure of failing and just room to explore. I needed to first separate the stress and anxiety we often feel surrounding lack of purpose and direction, so there is room to enjoy the process. I had to identify the cause of my anxiety first.
I am reading through Rhythms of Renewal by Rebekah Lyons. I just love her. She has a son with Down syndrome so I feel a sense of automatic connection to her. Today, I read where she recommends a book titled Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. I am excited to read it! One of the things she writes is how “Frankl’s premise was that anxiety flows from a life without meaning and purpose.” Friends, I pointed out WE DO HAVE A PURPOSE! Once we relax into that, the dreaming of our future should come as a fun adventure in life.
I have identified times in my life that were my deepest points of depression and anxiety as times where “my life as I knew it” got rocked. I was defining my life by my ways and what I did and I had to learn to define my life by HIS ways and what HE is doing.
I had the hardest time in college declaring a major. I took all those personality tests and aptitude tests enough to figure out what answers to pick to create a certain outcome…it became fun to create a different result each time. I went from wanting to be a vet (until I failed chemistry), to wanting to try sports management, marketing, communications, etc. I even wanted to just leave everything, move to an island and teach yoga on a beach somewhere. I finally declared a major the year I was supposed to graduate. Why was it so hard for me? I loved responsibility and I had the drive so what was the problem? Again, I put too much focus and pressure on “me” and what would attribute to my happiness that I forgot to just DREAM. I didn’t want to get it wrong, but I now see I don’t ever think life is a one and done. No, life is a constant journey of exploring, growing and becoming. We don’t “become” and glide through the rest of our life. We have to continue to SOAR, reaching new heights everyday! We are never too old to stop dreaming and never too smart to stop learning.
Will you do an exercise with me? You will need a pen and paper or your phone and notes app. Also in Lyons book, she poses the question, “what did you love to do most when you were eight, nine, ten?” This was to encourage her readers to dream again, knowing you had room to do so.
So let’s use that question to dream! Write out a few things you liked to do as a kid. What talents did you have?
Next write out five general terms to describe yourself, the things you do that bring excitement to your life. Connect that to a specific time as a kid when these rang true. Then connect to a time now. Finally, filter that talent through our #1 purpose and create a way it can be used for God and by God.
See my example below.
My terms that excite me:
1. EXPLORE
2. TRAVEL
3. LEARN/GROW
4. DO NEW THINGS
5. CREATE/LEAD
MY CHILDHOOD MEMORIES:
1. I would spend hours riding my bike, into the woods, down piles of sand, etc.
2. I always loved our family road trips when I could see new places!
3. I played school, learning new things to teach my friends. I loved to push myself in gymnastics.
4. I remember going to the lake with friends and always being the first to jump off the high rocks.
5. One time on the playground in middle school, I was trying to sell perfume I had made at home! Ha!
My now moments:
1. I now encourage my kids to get out and explore our land. I want them to go & find something they didn’t see the day before.
2. Matt and I love to travel and have made this a priority in our life. I also went into a travel-based career.
3. I love to read! I try to maintain a posture of learning always.
4. I have an overwhelming call to new places, learn new cultures and ask questions while there.
5. I get to create blog posts and share to encourage and excite others.
How can God use me through these talents?
1. I need to explore His word, share it with my kids and encourage a heart and mind for exploring!
2. I merged my love to travel with becoming a missionary across cultural lines. I currently can’t do as much travel, but I still love to learn about other places. The more I see of this world, the more I learn about our God and his characteristics.
3. I will always look for new things to learn about. I need to step outside my comfort zones to connect with other Christ-followers.
4. I need to just be open to where God wants me to go next.
5. I intend to use my blog to point people to Christ. I want to write about Him, His love and His grace.
I hope you enjoy doing this exercise and I would love to see some of your responses below!