The Difference Between Wishes and Dreams

Last week as I was watching the Olympics, the newscaster was telling a quick little anecdote about one of the bobsled athletes that caught my attention. This 20 something athlete had first heard about the Olympics as a child, when her school had a staged a small Olympic program to celebrate the games that were happening that year. She says that her dream to be an Olympian started on that school platform. I wondered, how many other kids were there participating with her that might have had the same wish as she- to one day participate in the Olympic games? How many of children the world over have watched these last two weeks and in the watching formed their own Olympic dreams? Then it came to me, the difference between a wish and a dream.

Thousands of children may wish to participate someday. Hundreds may dream of it, but for some, a very few, the wish became a dream, and the dream became a goal. Why? Why do some of us have a passing wish to do or be something, and to others it becomes a dream? Why do we have the dreams we do? Last year, I read somewhere that our dreams and abilities are given to us by God. They are desires given to us and they can be seen by us as a clue to our purpose. I believe we all have a purpose, we were all given lives that can be fruitful, AND fulfilling. The trick for many of us is discovering that purpose. That's where prayer, and the desires of our hearts can be our clues.

When I was a child I wanted to be a lot of things. I wanted to be a doctor, a fashion designer, a poet and an artist. But as I grew, the one burning desire I couldn't put aside was the dream to be an artist. I knew how far fetched that was- but it got to the point I didn't care. It felt good and right to create. I knew it was a part of me that I needed to pay attention to, that God was directing me to. Right now I'm living the life of my dreams. It's easy to forget that as I'm trying to meet deadlines, or frustrated because I'm feeling overwhelmed, or scared to see that God is directing me to a cliff and telling me to jump.

I know, absolutely know that this is what I was created for. I don't know how it is part of God's plan, but I do know that to create, to be an artist satisfies that desire I've had my whole life. What dreams do you have that you just can't "grow out of"? What desire do you guard and hold on to? What whisperings do you hear? It's the dreams, not the wishes, that are God-given. That will tell you who you are and what you were made for- that reveal your purpose.