Digging for Dreams

"It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not." ~Denis Waitley

What would happen if you really got a hold of who you are?  My parents always told me that I could do or be anything or anyone I wanted to do or be.  But still, for much of my life, I've struggled with thoughts of who I was not.  "I'm not this.  I can't do that.  I'll never have the means to be that."  Hopes and dreams can get so side tracked by focusing on everything that we are not, instead of realizing that we are who we are, for a reason!

The Lord tells us in Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." What if that's true?  Really, we say we believe God's Word, but it's so much easier to believe for other people.  When it comes to believing it for ourselves, we seem to doubt and question.  But what if He created you just how you are because He has a hope and a plan for you?

I'm not saying that we are perfect just the way we are and that we don't need to grow and change.  But everything that is needed for our hopes and dreams to come to pass has been buried deep in our hearts by our Creator!  We just need to dig it out, polish it up and run with it!  Concentrating on our flaws and mistakes will only keep us from the process of digging up our gifts and fulfilling our dreams.

I can give you a perfect example.  Since I was a small child, I knew that I was a writer.  I felt compelled to write, driven to write.  But then I became a mom and raising six kids brought a lot of excuses for me to not delve into that gift and nurture it and make it grow.  I bought into the idea of everything that I was NOT.  You couldn't have paid me to say, "I am a writer," because what if people would laugh at me or say, "Well, you haven't published a book.  How can you be a writer?"

Over the past six years, I have been writing again. The first time I told people, "I am a writer", I almost choked on the words.  It felt like someone in my head was screaming, "Liar, liar."  I squirmed and waited for the people who I said it to, to start laughing at me. But they didn't.  Instead, they said that they had read my blog and loved it.  They said that they had bought some of my note cards.  I looked around the room to see if anyone was going to expose me for being a fraud, but that didn't happen.

So now, when someone asks me what I do, I proudly say, "I'm a writer."  And they believe me!  Those words still don't roll easily off my tongue, but I'm getting there.  You see, Dear One, you can't let all the things that you are NOT, hold you back from being who you ARE.  You were created for a purpose and only you and God know what that is.  I pray that you spend time with your Heavenly Father every day and let Him whisper His hopes and plans to you. Dig deep into your heart and find the things that make you come alive, polish them, grow them, nurture them and be who you were meant to be!

I'm linking up with up with Anne over at I Live in an Antbed.  Hop on over there and see what others are saying about what the power of God can do in your life.

From His lap,