a season of new dreams

Do y'all have those dreams that are deep in your heart that keep growing and coming to mind- even if you don't encourage them in anyway? These might be dreams that invade your mind as you are lying awake at night, or pop into your mind when you are driving home from work, or make you smile as you are doing your housework. I have several of those dreams and I suspect many of us do. I think sometimes there are times for them to be kept hidden in our heart as things to pray over and see if and when the time is right for them to emerge. Some of those dreams are so precious and are such aching longings of our hearts that they are difficult to compose the right string of words in a sentence that will speak to the depth that we feel them. 

The latter would be my dream to be married and to be a mom and the former would be a dream of writing & speaking to encourage the heart of women that I have had for many many many years. It is a dream that I have kept locked close to my heart- partially because with teaching there wasn't much time to develop it properly outside the classroom and partially because every time I would pray about moving forward with it the Lord would seem to whisper "wait". Over the last couple of months as I have been housebound/bedridden the Lord started to stir up the dream of writing &speaking once again. At first I laughed and said, "really Lord, now?" because I was so sick that I couldn't hardly stand let alone type or speak. But there was this quiet insistence that I start examining this dream again. I prayed for hours and hours and days and days and months and months about it and kept seeking the Lord and asking Him if this was the right timing. At first I wasn't so sure because of my health if it was but there were several opportunities that presented themselves for the upcoming fall that I didn't think that I should pass by. I hesitantly said "yes" still skeptical but as time has gone on and after treatment in California in May happened I started to feel like the Lord was opening the door even wider. 

{I should insert here that I miss teaching so much. There are days where my heart aches to not be able to use the passion and gifts that the Lord has given me.  The love that I have for students still overwhelms my heart. Some may think that this sounds dramatic but I still well up with tears as I think of another school year starting and not being back in the classroom. At the same time though the Lord opening up writing & speaking opportunities is reminding me afresh that the Lord's mercies are new every morning and that He has a special plan that He is laying out for my life.}

I share all of this to say that part of the dream is in a state of "transition" and I am excited to share about one of the opportunities. I submitted two stories to CausePub and BOTH were accepted!! I was so delighted and honored and now I need your help. How can you help? By voting for one or both of the stories that I have shared to hopefully be published in the book. You can click HERE to access both stories or you can click HERE to access the story entitled "Hope is Always a Miracle" or click HERE for the story entitled "The Power of the Simple Words "I'm Sorry"". 

Thank you so much to those of you who have already voted and to each of you for all of your lovely support and friendship. I appreciate your prayers for other projects that I am submitting my writing to and for upcoming speaking events that I have committed to sharing my story at. My prayer is that the Lord would redeem the time of sickness for His glory and to be used to encourage people to fall more in love with our precious Lord. I am excited to see what the Lord has in store during this season of new dreams!