Today is Resurrection Sunday!
This day has such a significant meaning in my life today as I know that He died for us so that we may have life!
Today, I am claiming that life. Reclaiming joy!
There are so many projects that have been put in the back of a dusty shelf, but today, I have decided to bring those back out again!
This blog is one of those shelved projects, as is my travel blog, craft blog, and their corresponding YouTube channels, along with my hobbies, exercise, and all the things that I’ve wanted to do for so long.
When I really took a good look at my life and all of the things I had been carrying around from home to home, I found some things that have been waiting to come to life for over a decade. These things have been waiting too long.
It’s time to complete all these projects that I had wanted to do. Some of them are simple craft projects that could be finished in a couple of hours. Why the wait?
To be honest, when you’re a mom, you’re so used to putting others first that time for your own desires and wants tend to be put on the backburner. Unfortunately, sometimes that backburner becomes permanent and you’ve forgotten all about those little desires in your life.
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
Proverbs 13:12 (ESV)
What Happens When You Defer Hope
I had been enduring over a decade of prolonged sickness, and I finally realized that it was because of that scripture. The delay, disappointments, broken promises, spiritual warfare, and a life of constant sacrifice was making me live in a constant state of hope deferred, and thus, my heart was sick… actually, very, very sick.
No more.
Jesus paid the price so that I may have life, and have life abundantly!
A Period of Healing Needed
Jesus has been healing my heart and all those parts of my soul that had wounds that I wasn’t even aware of myself. He has been restoring me back into wholeness again. I know the healing is not yet complete, but as I continue living out the dreams God has placed within my heart, I know the healing will continue, and I will fully come back into life again!
Finding Joy and Identifying Your Dreams
Other than putting old projects back on the radar again, I’ve had to really take a look at my life to think about what actually brought me joy.
When it’s been a long time since you’ve felt joy, it’s not easy to find the answer right away.
Sometimes we’ve tucked dreams away for so long that they’ve become buried with so many other things on top of it that we have to go searching for them.
Sometimes the dreams are right in front of our face, but we even don’t realize it!
That’s what happened to me. I had a dream 8 years ago to travel the world with my family. I didn’t know how I’d be able to schedule or afford such a thing, but I knew that I had this incredible desire to see the world, and just the thought made me come alive.
“Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”
Langston Hughes
I wish I could say that I decided to seize the day and found a way to make that happen, but no. It didn’t quite happen the way that I had hoped. As the realities of the world set in with my husband being tied down to a corporate job, this dream lost its wings and it quietly sat down, waiting and hoping that it could one day be able to take flight.
Although I couldn’t go on an around-the-world odyssey as I had dreamed, after I had this realization about how travel brought me back to life, I planned our first multi-country international trip with my family for my husband’s 40th birthday to start our travel journey as a family. I researched for months to find the most economical way to travel while making the most of our experience.
Years later, I had this urge (which I now understand was Holy Spirit nudging me) to create a travel blog. After seeing an ad for a travel blogging course, I ended up taking it and started the blog. It was a hobby, so I didn’t keep it up. Life got busy, and I wasn’t even sure why I was blogging anyway. It was a lot more work than I had anticipated, so after a few posts, I moved over to Instagram instead.
Since then, it has been a start-and-stop process over years, as I didn’t really see this as something God was calling me into. I didn’t see the purpose behind it, so as life got busy and other projects took priority, it took a pause that turned into a long, long pause.
Now I know… one of the best tactics of the enemy is to make you quit on your dreams.
Resurrecting Old Dreams
Thankfully, I didn’t quit. It was just on hold.
It’s Resurrection Sunday, and God is breathing life into old dreams.
We must hold onto the promises of God.
After consulting God about my dreams, He showed me that my travel blog was in fact part of His plan, and that there are other ideas that He had given me, but I had let them fade.
So, now that I know, I am holding onto the promises of God and am committed to reviving what was dormant.
What are your God-given dreams?
What about you? What are your God-given dreams?
Do you have dreams that you placed on the backburner?
Are you not sure if your dreams are from God?
Consult Him. He will answer you. And once He does, hold on to His promise for your life and move forward in the steps He’s given you, step by step.
Walk out in faith, little by little, consistently.
It’s all about committing and taking consistent action.
So many of us have placed our God-given dreams on a backburner. The voice of the enemy can be quite strong and convincing at times, diminishing the significance and meaning of those dreams, serving up excuses to justify putting off projects until later, wearing down on our own self-confidence, and adding confusion into our lives in an effort to derail us.
Once you get clarity on your dreams, believe in them, and take at least one small action every day to move your dream forward, and don’t give up.
Your dreams are there to not only fuel you, but to serve others. As you walk out the path that God has set before you, know that He is God, and He will do all that He said He will do in your life!
Your dreams are worthy, and I am believing with you that they will take flight!
What dreams would make you so ecstatic if they came true? If you feel inspired to share, I’d love to hear!
