Tag Archives: dreams

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12/09/2010

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Fairytale Fallacies

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Tangled Dreams

The other night, I watched one of my favorite fairytales come to life. I have to admit that I was a little skeptical. There are, after all, thousands of ways to mess up a fairytale. How would the big screen convey this classic tale that is so dear to my heart? In a world that vies for true love’s kiss, what will they do with the tears that restore sight to a blind man? But Disney, much to my delight, pulled off the retelling of Rapunzel quite masterfully. While she was much different than I always imagined, I found her Disney persona to be just as endearing as the storybook heroine I fell in love with many years ago. And while I thoroughly enjoyed the entire movie, I find that one scene keeps replaying in my mind…

Rapunzel and Flynn have reached the Festival of Lights. Our heroine leans against the edge of the rowboat, stares into the sky, and confesses that she’s nervous. This moment is all she’s dreamed of for sixteen years. What if it isn’t everything she’s imagined it to be?

“It will be,” a confident Flynn replies.

This makes Rapunzel think of an even worse fate. What if it is everything she’s dreamed it to be? After tonight, her lifelong dream is over. What will she do then?

According to Flynn, the best part of the dream is the end, because you get to choose a new one.

Wise words coming from a man who claims he doesn’t have a dream, much less ever fulfilled one. But there it is. Straight from the mouth of Flynn Rider. The end of one dream is the beginning of another.

I don’t know about you, but that’s something I needed to hear lately. I’m in the same boat as Rapunzel. As I’m on the verge of completing my first novel, I’m nervous about what the end of the dream holds. On one hand, I can’t wait to see this vision fully come to life, but at the same time, the thought of closing the final cover on these characters who have been a part of my reality for the past three years almost makes me want to cry.

I feel like God has laid before my eyes thousands of possibilities. “Pick a dream,” He says. How do I choose just one? How do I determine which is worthy of the next three years of my life?

I think that, just as it was with Flynn and Rapunzel, the answer will be quite clear. When the time comes, I’ll know which one is worth the sacrifice. And so will you.

Look at the dreams God weaves between His fingertips much like He weaved the stars in the sky. Pick one out and carry it close to your heart until the time comes for it to finally be released in all of its splendor.

Don’t dread the end of one dream; embrace the start of another.

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12/01/2010

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Sacrifices and Dreams

Wouldn't you like to marry this guy?

I used to think that I’d like to marry a man who sings and dances. Now I know it’s a requirement. What happened, you wonder? I moved away from home and realized that not everyone in the world believes that life is a musical. Most families don’t break into spontaneous song and dance routines in the kitchen. (I know, you’re shocked, right?)

The day I walked into my parents’ house over Thanksgiving, I was already singing. It’s a musical house. Something about the atmosphere makes me burst into song, and something about those laminate floors sets a girl’s feet to dancing. I can’t imagine the home I one day make for myself as being any different. There’s just something magical about the way five voices can join into a chorus of “Whiskey in the Jar” as my parents laugh along.

My future husband must sing and dance. This is a non-negotiable. You may be laughing and thinking I’m crazy, but I’m perfectly serious. Although I already wrote a post about trashing my list of things I’m looking for in a husband, there are still a few things that are permanently ingrained in my mind. I simply choose not to dwell on all of them at the same time, or even one of them for very long. Just because I want to marry a man who sings and dances doesn’t mean I’m taking auditions.

I hope you don’t feel like I’m sending conflicting messages by saying, “Trash the list, but know what you want.” If the list works for you, keep it. As long as the things you’ve set in your mind aren’t distracting you from life here and now, keep thinking about them. Just don’t ever compromise. Know the things that are non-negotiable, but don’t think about it all the time. Here’s my encouragement of the day:

Don’t sacrifice the big dreams, because you may have to sacrifice the small; and one day when you look back, you will have sacrificed them all.

The man doesn’t have to have dark hair and the perfect smile, but if singing and dancing is a requirement, don’t even look at that guy who’s barely squeaking through Amazing Grace. It won’t end well.

Now if you’ll excuse me, my feet are itching to dance…

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10/28/2010

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Embrace Truth

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Gods and Goals

Lately, I’ve been in a bit of a rut. Sometimes in our walks with God, we start to feel as if we are running in place rather than moving along. I hate that feeling. So there I was, trying to get myself on the right track with God, when I stumbled upon a poem by author Steven James. In essence, this poem was a prayer that can be summarized in one sentence: “If goals can become gods, may You be the only goal I have.”

Maybe I struggle with this more than you do, but sometimes I let my dreams take over. Lately, I’ve been trying so hard to figure out where I’m supposed to go next that I forgot to sit down and soak in God’s Presence now. Somewhere along the lines, I got my priorities wrong. But in the moment I read that poem, I decided to set them straight.

“I choose You,” I whispered, echoing the prayer of Steven James. Then I turned on some music, basked in God’s Presence, and danced until my feet were on fire. It was one of the most beautiful nights I ever spent with my Savior.

So how about you? Where are you letting your goals and desires take first place in your life? What do you need to sacrifice in order to experience true intimacy with God? He’s waiting for you to choose your god today. I pray you choose to drop your idols and whisper those infinitely freeing words: “I choose You.”

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09/13/2010

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Bippity, Boppity, Boo

When I say the word “fairytale,” what story pops into your mind? For me, it’s Cinderella. I think that one is the most epic fairytale of all time. There’s just something about that girl who rises from servitude to royalty because of one glorious night at the ball. And we all know where that moment of magic began…

Follow me to a scene in the Walt Disney movie, Cinderella. Her dress has been torn, her dreams have been crushed. We find her sobbing in the garden when her fairy godmother appears. With a few encouraging words, a cheerful tune, and a wave of a wand, Cinderella’s entire world is transformed. For Cinderella, this was the beginning of her happily ever after, and the start of a brand new once-upon-a-time. For the rest of us, it began the fairy godmother fallacy.   

“Where’s my fairy godmother? Wouldn’t it be great if some lady with a wand would come out of the woodwork and help me out a little?” This question is pondered by fairytale characters too.  Have you ever watched the musical Once Upon a Mattress? Princess Winifred stews over the idea of living “happily, happily, happily ever after” while exclaiming that Cinderella had outside help and Snow White had “practically a legion” of dwarves. I think we can all relate with Princess Winifred when she sings, “I wish that happily ever after would happen to me.”  

I just want to take a minute to point out that Cinderella wasn’t looking for her fairy godmother; she was sobbing over a pile of broken dreams. The fairy godmother appeared when the timing was right. Likewise, you don’t have to search for happily ever after. When the timing is right, and only when the timing is right, your dream of Prince Charming will be realized.

It probably won’t come in the form of a fairy godmother, but the fairy godmother from the story is nothing but a personification of a turning in Cinderella’s life. Perhaps it won’t be that blatantly obvious that this is the start of happily ever after, but that point in your life will come nonetheless.

You don’t have to look for it, and you don’t have to spend your life trying to find Prince Charming. When the timing is right, it will suddenly become perfectly clear that happily ever after is happening to you.

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08/30/2010

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You’re My Home

Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite fairytales. I always loved the Disney cartoon, then I watched a local high school perform the Broadway version. Why couldn’t all the songs from Broadway have been incorporated into the cartoon? For nearly eighteen years of my life, I didn’t know what I was missing. Me!, No Matter What, Maison des Lunes… and I found myself particularly drawn to the song Home. (Maybe that stems from the fact that I’m a notorious homebody who doesn’t know why her dreams had to carry her 450 miles away from the place where she grew up.)

Here’s a story that takes a horrible situation and gives it a happy ending. This is a girl’s nightmare turned fairytale. It’s a twist in Belle’s perspective that makes this story spectacular. It’s her willingness to change her views that brings the happy ending. She could have spent the rest of her life “shut away from the world until who knows when,” but instead she chose to open herself up to this monster who held her captive. And in the end she discovered he wasn’t truly a monster at all. As the story reaches the climax and the Beast lies dying, Belle confesses the thing she has learned throughout her time of captivity with these words: “Don’t you know how you’ve changed me? Strange how I finally see… I’ve found home – you’re my home. Stay with me.”

I guess the Beast ended up being what Belle sang about in her first rendition of Home – where the heart is. I’ve found that to be the only way of coping with being so far away from my biological home. I simply focus my heart on where I am and who I’m with. Better yet, I’ve invited Jesus to be my Home. That way I never have to leave it.  Now if I stumble upon an enchanted castle in a deep woods, I won’t have to sing a song of mourning. My song will always be one of joy because I’ve been changed, and I’ve found home. God is my home, and He will forever stay with me.

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08/27/2010

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Sing-Along Scriptures

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God-Breathed Dreams

The words God speaks to the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5 have always touched my heart. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Before I was even born, God had me all figured out. He knew the things about me that I have only begun to realize. He knew the things about you, too. From the very beginning, He placed dreams in your heart and allowed them to grow along with you. So here’s the question: Dreams God breathed into my soul before I was even conceived, or this guy I recently met and fancy myself in love with? I think I’ll stick with the God-breathed dreams.

God appointed me to write. He purposed for me to share my heart with young women across the globe who desperately need to hear His truth. If someone tries to pull me away from that calling, he isn’t even worth my time.

Some things weren’t meant to be. Some dreams simply don’t line up. There is no worse fate than unrealized or abandoned dreams. So I’m not going to spend my life chasing after someone else’s dreams; I’m too busy walking in the ones God placed on my heart from the beginning of eternity.

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08/16/2010

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Prince Charming: Fact or Fantasy?

Prince Charming. Does that name elicit a romantic sigh or a frustrated grunt from your throat? He’s so charming, so handsome, so perfect, so… not real. Am I right? While Prince Charming is a supremely romantic idea, he never turns out so well in real life. Remember that scene in A Cinderella Story where Hilary Duff tells Chad Michael Murray,

Waiting for you is like waiting for rain in this drought: useless and disappointing.

I think she basically summed it up perfectly. Do you ever feel like the wait is useless? Are you disappointed that your prince hasn’t come yet? Well, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for Chad Michael Murray because, unlike in the movie, he’s probably not going to come running after you. Of course, you already know that. After all, Prince Charming is a myth, right? He is nothing but a bedtime story designed to give little girls sweet dreams. In a way, he’s like Santa Claus – all fun and magical… until the day you find out he’s not real. I’ve heard that moment in a child’s life can be pretty devastating. (I can’t talk from personal experience here because my mom had been so disappointed to find out that her parents had lied to her that she never passed this tradition down to her kids.) Truth can be tragic at times.

I truly do believe that Prince Charming is a lot like Santa Claus – a blown-out-of-proportion-bedtime-story fantasy that was originally based on fact. St. Nicholas was real; Santa Claus is not. So what about Prince Charming? Who’s he supposed to be? Could such a magnificent man have ever existed? Continue reading →

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08/13/2010

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Sing-Along Scriptures

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Till It Overflows…

Your dreams were not meant for someone else to fulfill, therefore you must choose to live them. Dreams do not come true without some form of action being taken. (Cinderella had to go to the ball, Belle had to take her father’s place in the beast’s castle, Ariel had to give up her voice.) These fairytale characters physically did things during the time leading up to meeting Prince Charming. God did not give you life so you could spend it waiting. In fact, Jesus came to push you into a form of action. Check it out:

“The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).” – John 10:10

I chose the Amplified version because I really like how it ends there – till it overflows. Is your life so full of joy and adventure and excitement that you literally feel as if it is overflowing? Continue reading →