We, (my two sons and I), just returned from, what I can best describe, as an adventure of a lifetime! We spent two and a half weeks in the UK and in France… it was phenomenal! We visited most of London’s main attractions; Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Harrods, we even did a tour of my alma matter, The University of Buckingham, dined at Olley’s, London’s best Fish and Chips joint… :). In Paris, we climbed the magnificent Eiffel tower, toured the Louvre Museum and saw the original Mona Lisa and did a cruise along Siene River. The icing on the cake for me was the opportunity I had to speak to some of London’s movers and shakers at “An Evening of Inspired Success” on August 8.
This European vacation was a dream come true for me… it was a dream I had since my youngest son was born fourteen years ago… I wanted my sons to experience the continent where I spent part of my childhood and have similar kind of exposure …
As, I reflect over our vacation, I have come to the conclusion that God is faithful and dreams do come true and I wanted to write this quick note to encourage you to “hold on to your dream!”. Delay does not mean denial and all things always work together for good. With hindsight, I am glad that my dream didn’t come to pass earlier because my boys would not have been old enough to appreciate it and the trip might not have been as enjoyable for me because it would have been more work for me to take care of younger children. What that teaches us is that sometimes what appears to be a delay may actually be a blessing in disguise. Timing is everything!
Allow me to share a few tips and strategies with you on the things you can do while waiting for your dream to come to pass
1. Take little steps towards your dream. For me, it was getting new passports for the boys about two years ago. Their old passports had expired.
2. Start saving towards your dream. Last year, I opted to receive a donation from a UK based ministry partner in pounds sterling rather than dollars because I had my dream vacation in mind
3. Cost your dream and have a financial plan; I costed my dream at the beginning of the year to get a sense of the financial involvement; airfare, hotel, transportation, etc. (In this case, at the time of the year and for three people, over ten thousand dollars.)
4. Start building and/or rekindling relationships that would support your dream. I was intentional about reaching out to friends, family and acquaintances in London in anticipation of my dream. They became a very powerful resource in providing information, taking us out and generally being supportive and very hospitable.
5. Surround yourself with people who share your dream and severe ties with those who don’t and try to talk you out of it… People I call, dream killers!
In conclusion, I guess what I am saying is this; “keep your dream in front of you, don’t lose sight of it Dreams do come true!”
Don’t STOP dreaming!