Let's Not Forget To Encourage Our Own Dreams!
I wrote the blog entitled Lemonade Anyone? on August 31. The next day I got a daily devotion in my email. It was entitled The Dream Book and was written by Mary Beth Whalen for Proverbs 31 Ministries. I couldn't believe what I was reading. Every sentence struck a chord with me. I thought the message was so timely - it seemed to bring another perspective to the problem of encouraging children's dreams versus preparing them for reality.
I thought I'd share a section with you:
"Heads bent together, they study what to me looks like a mess but to them looks like something beautiful. The table is littered with glue sticks, magazines, scraps of paper, and scissors. "Mom," my daughter informs me as she looks up, "We're making dream books." Her eyes shine with possibility. It is clear that she believes in the dreams she is pasting in her book.
Looking at her, I am reminded of my own little girl dreams, of a time that I saw life as bursting with potential: I simply had to believe hard enough to make those dreams turn into reality. Life had not taught me otherwise then.
I listen as they discuss what they are pasting into t heir dream books. "This," says my daughter's friend, "is my desk area. And this will be my husband's, right beside me," she says with satisfaction. I don't tell her that she might not be able to afford a house that is large enough for two desk areas. That her marriage may get to a point that her husband might not want to be right beside her.
"These are my twins," my daughter says, her face shining with enough pride that they could be her real children. "Their names are Hunter and Hannah." I don't tell her that her husband may not like the names Hunter and Hannah. That she may not be blessed with twins, with children at all. I don't cloud their dreams with the realities of adulthood. I turn my attention to the dinner that needs to be cooked, the pressing needs that seem to overtake what I once dreamed."
Whalen goes on to remind us that we mustn't give up on our own childhood dreams. That it's important to not let "our dreams to get trampled by our own busy feet." I completely agree. So yes, let's encourage our children but let's encourage our own dreams as well!
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