By now 2013 feels like a shirt you’ve worn before. By this weekend, we’ll be out of “the teens” on the calendar, and the “new year” will feel like an old shoe. I’m already struggling with my plans to exercise more and return to better meal planning. Are you moving forward or fizzling out with your good intentions? If you are moving through planning a great year with me, we are forcing ourselves to slow down and be more thoughtful about looking back and moving forward.

Back at Laurel Ridge Elementary School, I was a champion long jumper. I love the bursting ahead part. The secret, however, was in the standing. Before you take off, you stand firmly with your feet planted apart, and you swing your arms (I’m a 3x swinger) to build momentum. People who step up to the line and take off don’t get very far. At the start of a new year, I usually jump ahead to the “dreaming” piece after only 1 or 2 arms swings and then lunge ahead to the “planning.”  Not so fast in 2013. This week we’re doing some dreaming (yay!) and then we’ll get to the planning.  Are you more than ready?

2 in 2new

For followers of Christ, dreaming is still part of ASKING God for direction. When we dream we consider what God dreams for us, and we reason through what the dream looks like and how it might take shape. It’s the invitation to imagine what could be, what stirs our heart, and what brings swelling joy within. Just this week I had a long and satisfying chat with a friend; we filled it with much reflecting, talk about simplifying, and daring to dreaming. To ASK big questions with someone else (a friend or a spouse) really helps to bring clarity.  I was so helped and blessed as one dream came into a little sharper focus. If you haven’t shared your musings with anyone yet, this week could be your chance.

God’s heart for you

We know from God’s word that He has good dreams for our days ahead. He has the privilege of bursting forward to see all of the future and then to turn and take us there.  Wherever we’ve been in the year behind us, He wants to give us hope for what’s ahead (Jeremiah 29:11-13). Ultimately, He has plans for us to seek Him out in a determined way and to know Him. By taking time to ask Him to show us more, we invite His dreams for us.

God’s dream for you

When a woman is in God’s word and seeking Him in prayer, He will put the dreams in her heart. He promises that when we delight in Him, He’ll do better than just fulfilling a wish list; He’ll create the desires within in. “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act” (Proverbs 37:4-5).  All of a sudden, those dreams I just can’t shake take on new meaning and power.  As my friend and my husband and I are asking the Lord to clarify what He wants of us this year, He is showing us that some of our desires are really our dreams.

Time to dream

I know, you’re ready to burst ahead on the dream jump. Me too, but let’s meditate on these verses today and keep listening for the desires God wants to put in our hearts. Just imagine what He might dream for us if we ask.

Tomorrow I’ll share 2new card #3 “Dream.”

(If you’re reading by mobile device, click here to be sure to see the scripture illustration.)