Keep on dreaming

No, this isn’t a new take on an old Journey song.  But it does address a similar theme.

We all have dreams about how we would like our lives to be.  Yet we often despair when it appears our dreams are just pixie dust and wishful thinking.  It’s easy to be negative and cynical.  But that choice never leads to happiness or any sense of personal fulfillment.

Holding onto belief really is hard work . . . especially when everything around you seems to support disbelief.

How do you hold to your dreams when it seems all hope is lost?

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Focus on true happiness

Your focus becomes your reality.  Last week I posted about the hope Christ offers to all the faithful.  When you focus on the Savior for your blessings, your reality holds many opportunities to move forward.  No matter your situation, you can always do something to move your life forward.

When it seems your reality doesn’t contain a path forward, then you need to evaluate your focus.  Just because you can’t see the way forward doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.  The blood which Christ shed for you is far too precious to mean you’ll never have the righteous blessings you desire.  He died so you could live — both in the future with God and your loved ones and in the present as you journey to that heavenly home.

Feeling that full measure of happiness in your present reality requires a focus placed upon true happiness.  As I’ve posted previously, happiness doesn’t come from merely doing the right things.  Happiness comes from giving our all while doing the right things.

Always do something, even though it seem small, to move forward.  Your dreams truly die only when you let them.  And you let them when you quit living for them.

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Partner with the Lord

Not always feeling the passion for your dreams?  Partnering with the Lord makes that easier.  As you counsel with the Lord, He’ll help you understand what you need to do to enjoy the blessings He wants you to have.

Often embracing the way forward means making changes.  When you partner with the Lord, you’ll have the courage and strength you need to embrace those changes and become everything you were meant to become.  How can you be marching anywhere but to glory when you partner with the Lord?

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Partnering with the Lord can also help you refine your dreams, bringing them closer to what would be best for you.  Maybe some of what you dream isn’t very realistic for you.  You need to consider what’s probable and not just possible.  After all, anything is possible, but not everything is probable.  When you partner with the Lord, He’ll help you know what paths hold the greater probability of success.

Or maybe what you think would be best for you really isn’t.  Because God’s ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:6-9), we all need to partner with the Lord to determine the way that will be best for us.  That best way could change as the circumstances of our lives change.  But partnering with the Lord allows us to make course corrections if and when they are needed.

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Feel the confidence

Holding to a seemingly impossible dream can be difficult.  Walking by faith in patience with the Lord can ease the burden of longing and not having.  Through the power of His marvelous Atonement, Christ provides the confidence that the righteous blessings we dream of having will in fact one day be ours.  And that’s a confidence you can feel.

If you don’t feel that confidence, then start partnering more with the Lord today.  Bring Him your troubles.  Suggest possible solutions if you have them.  Or just share whatever comes to mind.  Then seek His counsel.  Ask Him for help where you don’t know what to say or do.  He will respond if you ask in faith.

When I partner with the Lord for my own life, often my prayers resemble conversations.  A voice or idea or impression will come into my mind, and I respond as if another person were speaking to me.  This continues back and forth until I understand the way forward — or at least the way forward for the time being.  I then can move forward in confidence that somehow everything will work out.  I focus on giving my all to the things the Lord showed me are right for me.

And I can keep on dreaming.  And so can you.  All the righteous blessings of the restored gospel can be yours if you keep living for that dream and partnering with the Lord to lead you there.

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