Dreaming...

I'm a big dreamer. I love imagining all the possibilities in life. For seven years my husband and I remodeled an old home and we dreamt about all the ways we could make it beautiful and unique, but it often got us into trouble. When we needed to insulate the attic, we saw the potential to turn it into living space and we spent four years, and a lot of money, doing just that. When we had to install a mailbox out on the sidewalk, we thought it would be pretty to put the mailbox on a pillar, which meant we had to make five other pillars to match it. Even though this meant more money and more time, it was worth it to see our dreams come true.

Dreaming is a lot of fun. It allows your creative juices to flow and it gives you something to look forward to.

When you dream, the possibilities are endless.

But the thing about a dream is it can often leave you feeling discontent and impatient. I had a lot of dreams for that old home, but I was continually dissatisfied with it because it was never finished.

After having the twins we realized that our house was too small. Two weeks before we moved out we finished up all the projects we'd been trying to get done for seven years. It was hard to leave all our dreams behind, but God opened the door for us to move into a much bigger house on the banks of the Mississippi, where we could start dreaming all over again.

This time I am older and wiser (or so I hope). I will allow myself to dream, but I am not allowing myself to become discontent. Life is too short to live that way. Instead, when I feel myself becoming impatient, I find all the things about this house that I love and focus my attention on them. I love the neighborhood, the river, all the storage space, the room we have to spread out and the backyard.

Yes, we have dreams and we talk about them all the time, but we also have realistic expectations about our finances, our time and our abilities.

God has shown us that patience truly is a virtue; it's something that you acquire only when you exercise it. Waiting for a dream to unfold is the best way to do that.

This is my future writing room. It's a little space tucked into a quiet corner of the basement with windows that face the beautiful Mississippi River. Right now it's a three season area that is underused, but someday it will be heated with plush carpet, a floor to ceiling book case, the glow of a soft lamp and a comfy chair with ottoman. I can see myself curled up there right now, typing away...

I love to dream about this room, but it's easy to become impatient and discontent as I wait for the time and money necessary to complete it. When I begin to feel these negative emotions, I know it's time to turn off the dreaming and focus on something else - like writing - which is another thing I dream about.

What about you? Do you like to dream? Does dreaming leave you hopeful or discontent?