Dreams

     All of us dream.  Some of us have big dreams and small dreams, little wishes and big ones.  It's always so much fun when those dreams come to pass; you've finally been able to realize the thing, that before was only a nice distant thought.  Unfortunately most of us also know what shattered, broken, delayed dreams are.
     We can relate with the little girl who finds herself sitting beside a broken splintered wood heap that once were her dream.  Her dream, play house.  She had spent hours dreaming of all the fun and memories she would make in her little house.  The friends she'd have over.  The parties.  The sleep overs.  Everything a little girl would dream of.  Only to find herself sitting in a puddle of tears by the ruins that once were her dreams.
     Daddy, her big protector, the one who had helped her build this house . . . had He helped her dream, to build, only to take it back down?  The little girl struggles to wrap her mind around how this could be love.  Something so unfair!!!  She sees all the other lovely houses, and stares blankly at the ruins in front of her.
     Across the field walks Daddy, and stoops to wipe the fallen tear and smiles with those eyes so full of compassionate love.  "Girly, it IS because I love you!  You see I have dreams too.  My plans and My dreams for you are way beyond yours.  You dream big but I dream BIGGER!  I had to take your play house down, so I could reconstruct what I'm dreaming for you.  Give Me the broken pieces, the splintered broken wood, and just watch what I will do with them.  And He looks deep into the little girl's eyes, winks, and pulls her to her feel . . . you just watch!!!"
     And so God speaks . . . then I wonder if I really remember Whose talking, Who this really is!!!  This is the One who created the universe, the galexies, the complexity of the human body, so many wonderful, amazing things, that boggle my mind.  When God plans, He makes plans out of this world, way beyond us, more then we would ever dream of!  So God wants to change our plans, my plans??  Who am I to question the way He oporates, what He's doing?  If it's a God thing, I most likely won't understand it all.  He's God!!!  And when God dreams and plans . . . He dreams BIG!!!!
     I have a feeling our human minds don't look at big the same way God does either.  His scale of big is so often different then our scale.  What if part of the big plan, is the way it draws us closer to Jesus, teaches us to take our heart ache to him, to find our total security and fulfillment in Him!  And really . . . that is BIG!!   
    
    

Shake Well Before Using

     Ok so I was at Star Bucks today, taking advantage of the half price Frappes.  Yay!!!  Yummy good stuff!!!  But my brain was churning . . .
     I started thinking about this somewhat costly drink (if it had been full price) and it started to register in my little brain that, the greater the procedure involved in making the drink, the greater the value and price of it.  Wow!  I know, that sounds "profound", but I started thinking about drinks and well, people . . .
     Why do we have the "Shake before using" label, on our bottled drink we buy at the store?  Is it not to enjoy a fuller flavor, to bring the stuff at the bottom, to the top, so it all tastes better?
     What about stirring in cream and sugar into our coffee?  It causes a little stir, a little unsettling, but the results is oh so yummy,  I think!!  : )
     Then we can go into the whole realm of shakes and Frappes.  Some things are blended, and beat and whipped and chopped, and put through a whole maze of procedures before the expensive drink that we buy across the counter, is ready for us to enjoy.
     So, could we say that stirring and shaking and breaking, in our lives, is to produce greater beauty in our lives?  Could we say that it's to bring out the best flavor possible, make us a better demonstration of the beauty the Creator has created in us?  More beauty for His glory, to "make Him look good"!!
     I started to get, excited, well, hesitantly so, but wow, when I look at it this way, "Bring it on"!  Ok, well, maybe I'm not quite there yet, but if I can look at hard times as bringing about beauty in my life; to make a better tasting Frappe, that is exciting!  I wonder what He's visualizing in His mind as He keeps working on me??  Whatever it is, I know He only does good, it will be good!!!

Take Risks

TAKE RISKS

"To laugh is to risk appearing a fool;

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental;

To reach out to another is to risk involvement;

To expose feelings is to risk exposing ones true self;

To place ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk ridicule;

To love is to risk not being loved in return;

To live is to risk dying;

To hope is to risk despair;

To try is to risk failure;

and yet, the person who risks nothing,

does nothing,

has nothing and ultimately

becomes nothing."  (author unknown)

Over Your Head

     I don't know if you've ever been put into a classroom where you felt like things were going way over your head.  By the end of the class you felt like you had stretched portions of your brain, to try and grasp what was being taught to only barely get a hold of what it was. . . and you for sure couldn't have explained it if someone had bothered to ask you what they had just told you in that class room.
     There have been times I felt that way in an actual school setting but my most resent classes have been more of the spiritual nature.  Believe me, there are times it feels like a school desk and papers, pens and books, would be easier at times; more tangible, easier to research, google info about, or ask another student on.  And of course when really in a pinch we always hope for a nice teacher who has time in her/his busy schedule to explain to the "thick heads" of us, the details of the lesson that we couldn't grasp.
     Hmmm . . . the school of life ... when your thrown into a "class room" that is way beyond your ability to understand; you really thought your Teacher knew that you were in the first year of college, not the fifth.  But why do you find yourself in this class?  This isn't where your suppose to be!  Or is it?
     One thing stands true when finding myself in such a state, I really can trust my Teacher.  He really does know what He's doing and knows how much I can handle (though there are times you really wonder).  My Teacher knows me better then I know myself and obviously He must have known I could handle this class, or He wouldn't have put me here.  And when I'm straining to grasp what it is that He's trying to teach me, I stop to look up into His face and see His warm reassuring smile, feel His love and presence around me and I know, it will be alright.  I may not understand it all now.  I may not get all that He's trying to teach me, but in time He will explain.  It may take awhile; this Teacher's ways are far above mine, but I thank Him for His patience . . . Thank Him for being my Teacher!!!! : )