Gratitude: Big Dreams...

Hey, check it out. There are still over three hours left in this day.

Well, I'm impressed even if you aren't.

Tonight I have a plan. And it includes crawling underneath the covers and closing my eyes before 11 pm.

Also includes continuing to resist eating the entire bag of Lays potato chips I bought today. Largely because while I fixed spaghetti for Pumpkin, I ate Coco Pebbles for dinner.

I feel like a bowl full of chocolate sugary goodness is enough junk for one night.

But that bag of chips is going down tomorrow. Down.

Over the last week, I haven't been sleeping all that well. Too much on my mind. I would fall asleep but wake up if Pumpkin even rolled over and then lay awake for hours.

Chris is always fascinated that I just lay there instead of getting up and doing something.

But I am doing something.

I'm talking with my Father.

We do a lot of talking about Aubrey Kate and Chris. I pray for Pumpkin's future. Pray for her salvation. Pray for Christ to guide me and direct me to train her up in the way she should go. I pray for her husband. Pray for her children. Pray for her friends. Pray for her teachers.

Pretty much, if you can think it, I've talked it over with God.

For Chris I pray for his job, the students he teaches, his dissertation work, our finances. Pray the Lord will enable the work of his hands.

I pray for our future children. However we meet them.

Pray for my friends and the requests they've shared with me.

And then, after an hour or more, I start to just get...dreamy.

This summer we studied "Good to Great in God's Eyes" by Chip Ingram. My favorite chapter was "Dream Great Dreams".

I like to dream.

One of the reasons I think I am a pretty good event planner is because I dream big. With the right amount of money, most anything can happen. Which is also the reason I really shouldn't plan a whole lot of stuff on a budget.

So when I dream with God, I dream big.

Well, big for my little brain.

God can dream way bigger.

I dream about being able to give IFV cycles to struggling couples. Dream about being able to buy the ladies' groceries behind me. Starting a charity to send my onesie obsession to babies who need clothes. Even dream about winning a gigantic amount of money to make all that happen. Or meeting some random 95 year old billionaire who would let me spend all her money before she dies.

Awesome dreams, huh?

Don't answer that.

I love that while I'm awake at night, dreaming about those crazy things I would love to do, I can share all of them with God. So glad He can take my meager, human, restricted dreams and do way more. And maybe He gets a little bit of a laugh too.

There are really no words to express how awed I have been these last four years watching Him take my small dreams of marriage, family, home and turn them into more than I could have even contemplated. Much less dreamed about. Watched Him orchestrate the timing of every little detail. Given me some things to teach me that I don't need them. Taken away other things and challenged me to find joy without them.

As long as I can, I will keep sharing my dreams with God. And He'll keep taking them and making them oh so much more. I'm okay with that plan. Entirely okay.