Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.
~Ecclesiastes 3:11
Growing up my maternal grandparents had a small farm in southern Ohio ~ Bethany Ridge. During the summer months my sisters and I would take turns spending a week with my grandparents. It was a week filled with helping Grandma Barnhart snap beans, cuddle barn kittens, take long walks to visit aunts and uncles, and swing high and free on their tree swing. I pumped my legs back and forth and felt free as I let my waist-long hair touch the ground. And on that swing I dreamed… I dreamed about riding a horse, writing a book, becoming a teacher, falling in love.
Dreams ~ we still have them ~ no matter our age or stage in life. God plants that desire for purpose, fulfillment, and dreams of the future deep within our souls. He longs for those dreams and goals to bring Him glory and shower peace and joy into our life moments.
As we enter into 2021 the months lie before us filled with possibility even in the midst of a pandemic. We have goals we can set; dreams we can pursue. What may hinder our forward movement? Sometimes the stories we tell ourselves sabotage our best efforts.
The stories we tell ourselves can empower us or they can defeat us with self-limiting thoughts. A strategy to quench those self-limiting thoughts in the New Year ~ begin a journal. It may sound overwhelming but it can be as simple or as complex as you would like to make it.
My journal is simple. Each morning I list my 5 gratitudes for the day. I sip my morning matcha and gift myself with ten minutes to reflect. At the start of the New Year I also make a list of goals I would like to achieve over the next 12 months. This list remains on the first page of my journal so I can refer back to it over the coming days. This is not a to-do list. I do not add to this list. It is in the front of my journal for me to refer to.
The second page of my journal is a Life Dream List or what some call a Bucket List. I do not consider time, health, or money when I write this list. I also add to it over the coming days when I discover a new dream lurking in my thoughts.
Now… a few questions to ask about those stories we tell ourselves.
- What do I like in my life?
- What do I want to make better in my life?
- What am I telling myself that might be stopping me from pursuing that dream or goal?
- What if those self-limiting thoughts are not true?
- What story could I choose to tell myself instead?
So…go ahead and dream. Pump your legs on that swing and let your thoughts take you to that place in your soul that God designed uniquely for you. Our dreams move us forward ~ we can dream about a new job, a new way to relate to a family member, a new way to exercise our minds or bodies, or something as beautiful as experiencing more joy and peace in the New Year.
Sweet dreams.