The Second Poop Did It!

All is quiet on the Chicken Front.  It's 6:16am and I actually woke up at 5:24 (well, that's when I looked at the time).  Baby did a poopie in a half-sleep state and so I got up to clean and change him.  I had the great idea to just get up and get a bunch of stuff done, including my journaling, while the others slept.  So what did I do?  Snuggle back in bed and try to sleep.  I had such great intentions, the voice inside me said to get up so that I could accomplish much but I willingly went against it.  I closed my eyes and moments later hear a little grunting followed by a splurting noise.  The second poop did it.  I figured I might as well get up.  So again, I washed his sweet little bum, changed him and fed him and back to bed I did not go.

It's been a good chunk of time since I have sat down to write my thoughts.  I have been listening to a series that is challenging me by Terri Savelle Foy entitled "Can You Imagine".  It's talking about the fact that vision is the sight of the mind.  The famous blind/deaf Helen Keller was asked, "What would be worse than having no sight?"  She replied, "Having sight, but having no vision."  Wow.  Getting my goals starts with my imagination.  I have realized that I have stopped imagining.  Listen to kids.  They imagine all day long!  But somewhere along the lines we are programmed to stop doing so.  We are taught as children, "You get what you get.  You can't have this or that.  Eat all the food on your plate whether you like it or not.  In life, you don't always get what you want."  Then we wonder why we are where we are as adults.  Last time I checked, my God was the God of the impossible.  We learn to put limits on ourselves so those limits translate into how we see Him and what He is allowed to do in us.  It's not a question of His ability - b/c we know He is able - but more what we allow Him to do. 

Albert Einstein said that the imagination is a preview of life's coming attractions.  When the people of the Tower of Babel in Genesis were building their tower to reach heaven (something that seemed impossible - they didn't have power tools back then!) God Himself came down ⁶And the Lord said, Behold, they are one people and they have ^[a]all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and now nothing they have imagined they can do will be impossible for them."  Look at that...nothing they imagined they could do would be impossible for them.  But, we have lost the art of imagination.  We get so caught up in what we are doing on our day to day that imagining seems silly and a time waster.  But dreaming and imagining leads us to do something greater.  It leads us to open our hearts to the possibility of great things that God can do in and through us.  When we don't, we are determining to  ourselves, "this is what my life is, so I'll just go with what's been dealt me".  The truth is, our mind has the ability to see things as they COULD be, not as they actually are.  I've never been to Tahiti, but in my mind's eye, I could picture myself there, feeling the hot sun tingling my skin, hearing the crashing waves.  God created our amazing minds and I believe that the greatest doctors and thinkers of the world today can't even begin to understand the mind's capabilities! 

Walt Disney died before Disney World, in Orlando, was ever launched.  During the opening, the master of ceremonies introduced Mrs. Disney and said, "Wouldn't it have been great if Walt could have seen all this?"  She stood up and said, "He did." And then she sat back down.  Before it ever became a tangible reality, it was a mental reality.  And just like in the tower of Babel story, the people not only imagined that they could reach heaven, but they had the plan to accomplish it.   And that's what comes after the imagination stage.  We get a vision for what we want to see accomplished in our lives and we write out our goals and make them plain.  I heard a story of a veteran that said that in WWII if an unidentified soldier was come upon at any time and asked what his mission was but was unable to immediately state his mission, then he would be shot wihtout question.  If I were faced with a life or death need to know my mission, my vision, where I am headed, would I be able to say it immediately?  "My people perish for a lack of knowledge."  Perish means die.  If I don't have a vision for my life, I'm dying.  If someone asks me about my goals and vision and I respond with, "Well, I haven't give it much thought."  Then what I'm saying is, "I'm content to stay right here in this exact state for the rest of my life."  But I'm not content to stay here.  I don't want to live like I'm living today for the rest of my life.  I don't want to be the same wife and mother.  I don't want to live in the same house.  I don't want to be giving the same amounts to good causes.  I want to continue to grow and move forward in every area of my life.  But yet I have lived without a mission for so long.  And it's time to get out of the rut.  I say I want to be out of debt.  Yet, if Jesus himself showed up in my living room and asked me, "How much money do you need to get out of debt?" and I couldn't answer him, then I'm not serious about getting out of debt.  If it's a vision that I have written out, and I make it plain (broken down into realistic/measurable goals) then it's at the forefront of my mind and I could answer him immediately.  Remember what Habakuk said, Write the vision and make it plain.  If I don't have my vision written down, then it's just wishing.  I need to have the exacts, right there and ready.

So I am starting my dreams book.  A book that has every dream - small and large - physical, financial, emotional, mental, spiritual...the whole kit and kaboodle.  Something that I can look at every day and thank God for it coming to pass.  I will keep it at the forefront of my mind - they will be plain so that I can run with it - take the action steps so I can see them become a reality.  I am going to let my imagination run wild and see God be glorified through the completion of each goal.