When I was a little girl I had an imaginary friend, her name was Lindy. Now, because I was raised as an only child, It makes complete sense to me that I would need an imaginary friend. I would talk to Lindy and play with Lindy. Lindy went to the grocery store with me and my daddy,  and to his horror I would require my daddy to lift Lindy into the cart just like he had me, and place her beside me. I also would not rest until Daddy would put Lindy in the car beside me, and more than once daddy closed the door on her and had to open it up again and let her in. All of this was to his embarrassment as other adults looked on in whatever particular public place we were in at the time. Lindy was my best friend and this obsession went on for several weeks,  maybe even months I don’t really remember, I was just a kid living in the moment , but my mother used to tell the story. I am pretty sure that out of my parents exasperation one day, my mother must of mentioned her frustration to my Grandma Northcutt. (her mother)

So one day Grandma Northcutt sat me down and asked me exactly what did Lindy look like. As I explained to her that Lindy had long dark hair like me, and brown eyes, she wore a wedding dress sometimes and also had a red coat and boots. It wasn’t long before one day when I was at Grandmas house she had me sit down and close my eyes. As she laid something in my lap she told me to open my eyes I cried out “Lindy” with a loud shriek in my voice.  Because there in my arms suddenly laid Lindy!

My Grandma was an excellent seamstress and had taken the time to make me a doll just as I had described Lindy looked. She was even my size and Grandma Northcutt had even taken the time to embroider brown eyes and rosy red lips and attached long black yarn to her head for hair. She has stuffed the body with cotton so it was soft to hold and yes, she even made the wedding dress and red coat and boots I had mentioned. Grandma saw what I had imagined and made it possible for me to have it.

What are you dreaming and imagining today? Oh! It isn’t uncommon for children to dream and imagine things, from being super heroes to fireman or teachers and even having imaginary friends is a common thing for young children. From little children, we grow up and become teenagers and can’t wait to get our drivers licence, and from our drivers licence we want to grow up and have a family,  and as some point, some of us begin to dream about retirement and not having any of that, that they had we wished and hoped for, for so many years.

But somewhere along the way we grow up and we stop dreaming,  and by dreaming I mean we give up our greater hopes and dreams that are bigger than ourselves, that it would take a miracle to have and we start thinking about more realistic expectations we should have, but we stop imagining. Maybe it’s because we become wiser or some might just call it cynical. Maybe it’s because we have been disappointed so many times we just don’t want to risk it happening again.  But let me ask you something, have you stopped dreaming?

“Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht” is an old Yiddish adage meaning, “Man Plans, and God Laughs.” And I can’t totally disagree with that, nor can I totally agree with it.  See I believe God wants us to dream and plan. I believe He wants to give us the desires of our hearts. But the distinguishing factor is “What are we dreaming and planning?” Proverbs tells us “Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way….” Proverbs 19:2-3 ESV

So I think the important thing we learn here is, what kind of knowledge do we need to have here? I don’t know about you,  but I think the best knowledge is God’s wisdom and guidance so we need to learn exactly what that is. What does God want us to dream?  If we look over in Matthew 5:6 ESV we see He says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” So we know He wants us to is to seek Him, to dream of what we can do for Him. All too often,  people want to dream of winning the lotto or having a bigger home, whatever meets their physical needs but God is more concerned about our character than He is our comfort. In Psalms 145:19 ESV we find Him telling us “ He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.” We can trust that God will take care of us, when our desires and focus is on building His kingdom and growing in Him rather than our own selfish desires. He tells us this time and time again in His word but nowhere is it so clear to me as it is in Jeremiah 29:11 “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’”  God wants good things for us, just like we want good things for our children but the direction He gives us says it all “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” Colossians 3:2 So let me ask you another question, where is your mind set? Is it more worried about what someone thinks of you or what you have to do tomorrow, then what God wants you to do and how you can bless Him with the way you live your life and love others. ‘

This past week our oldest spoke at his college alma mater and shared with the students some of the most basics of God’s love and how we as Christians should act if we are claiming to be Christ’s followers and living for Him. Jeff and I only got to view it on Facebook Live but after it was over I sent a text message to our son and said “ I have never been prouder of you son” to which he called me and said “Really Mom, Really?” He said “ After I have given you a grandson, I have graduated from college, gotten my Masters Degree and this is what you are most proud of” To which I replied “ Yes”,  and you know why it made me the most proud? Because it has an eternal purpose. What He was doing there had an eternal purpose and impacted those young people that will totally change their lives. To me, nothing else matters more. I believe that is the way God feels as well. He wants our focus and dreams and plans to be what can we do to make an eternal difference for Him. When our mind is focused on the things above, all this stuff on earth will come together. He promises us that in Matthew 6:33 When he said “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all these things will be added to you”  So how about this week, we focus on the seeking after God and growing in Him, because I bet if you do, He is gonna say He has never been prouder of you!