Jamie Martin, editor of Simple Homeschool, also blogs about motherhood at Steady Mom
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that dreams don’t often show up at convenient times.
There’s never an ideal, ducks-in-a-row moment to get married.
Or the perfect, uncomplicated season to add another child to the family.
There’s never a convenient time to begin homeschooling, or take that trip around the world, or move to the fixer-upper that’s been in your thoughts for a decade.
There are always a million reasons why today isn’t the right moment to start–a million excuses about why you shouldn’t write that book, or adopt a child, or birth a home business.
And yet sometimes we feel a tug in our spirits–angels whispering in our ears, circumstances lining up in extraordinary ways on our behalf.
Will we take the plunge, dive in, deal with the messes as they come, and live life whole? Or will we push away the opportunity because of excuses, lack, or fear.
My global family has a dream to travel, to experience (and impact) the world, to expose our children to our God-given life missions in order to inspire them to discover their own.
This summer an extraordinary and unexpected opportunity arose for us to do exactly that. We leave in two days for five weeks in the Philippines as part of my husband’s work helping to restore survivors of child trafficking and exploitation.
There are a ton of reasons to brush aside this trip–like the fact that we moved to a new house a few weeks ago, the inordinate amount of work involved in transporting a family of five around the world, the control we’re letting go of by living in an unfamiliar culture, and the book I had planned to write that must wait a while.
But when our family looks back ten years from now, we won’t remember the logistical chaos and the hard work of this experience.
We’ll just be glad we said yes.
What about you? Is there a dream–for yourself or your family–nudging your heart? You know the one. There are a million reasons why you shouldn’t, why you can’t…but the thought and the urge won’t go away.
Take a step toward it–this day, this week, this month. Don’t worry about whether or not it’s convenient, whether or not it’s easy, or whether or not there’s cereal for dinner one night.
When your dreams come knocking, don’t ignore them. Don’t rationalize them away or make excuses.
When your dreams come knocking, just answer the door.
“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.”
~ T.E. Lawrence
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So awesome! Very inspiring. My family and I would love to own a lake house. We’re currently getting all of our ducks in a row to do that in the future. Not near future, the dreams still as real as you describe. Enjoy making memories.
What a great way to start my morning! Thank you for inspiring and encouraging me with your words for the last few years!
So inspired by your beautiful family! My family is currently looking into serving overseas and we dream of having a global family. Over these last weeks we’ve been discussing our dreams in great depth and have decide to be much more intentional about them. This is great confirmation for me as we push on in pursuit of our dreams, so thanks!
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So happy to hear that Jessica. Blessings on you and yours!
Thinking of you, my sweet Jamie Lou! xo
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Wow! It’s great to know you’ll be visiting my country. Just in case you’ll have time for a little meet-up ( if ever you’ll be staying in Manila or Batangas), I’d be thrilled to have a chat with you about homeschooling and parenting over coffee, perhaps… 🙂 My family is into our 5th year of homeschooling (4 years into unschooling), and I have 3 daughters, 10, 8, and 4. Would be so great to really meet you!
The trick is not to answer when the dream is a nightmare
Great point! Ignore the nightmares, live the dreams.
How wonderful! You are making the right decision, no question about it. Have fun and have a safe trip!
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Jamie, how exciting for your family!
I feel a dream knocking, but it’s just faint knock at this time. I sense God pulling my family in a direction and the door is cracked. We just don’t quite understand yet what’s on the other side or what steps to even take. Thank you for this encouragement though.
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I think it’s often like that Lindsay, and the first step is just acknowledging the door to begin with. Then let God open it at the right time and keep looking for the crack to widen.
I’m glad you and your family are answering the call. I don’t know who your contacts are in the Philippines but I hope you can check out PREDA Foundation. They work to prevent child trafficking among other things. May The Lord go before you and may your stay in my country be filled with Godly encounters. As they like to say, it’s more fun in the Philippines 🙂
My family of five flew to the Philippines to live for two years when my youngest had just turned one and was still nursing. We returned to the US last year and we don’t regret that two year experience at all – the ups and downs were worth it. My kids still talk about it – I’m sure our extended families are sick of hearing about it. 🙂 And what a great cause you are going for – it’s going to be amazing! Blessings to you all as you prepare to go!
I love the way that dreams come true exactly when you need them. I am so happy for you to be taking your family on this trip. You will all grow in more ways than you can imagine. I envy you and can’t wait for our next adventure. Make sure you blog all about it!
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I seem to be reading quite a lot of ‘do it now, whether it all lines up or not’ kind of posts at the moment. Yours is a welcome addition to encourage me in my own ‘do it now!’ stuff. Wishing you all well for your time away – I loved your description of how you used your time in the UK for your kids’ learning (on your own site), a while back, and I’m sure everyone will get a lot out of it.
Congratulations! What an exciting opportunity.
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‘We’ll just be glad we said yes”.
Love it! As fellow dreamers, we have said yes to a lot of experiences others thought were crazy, but you can’t live your life for the comfort of others. We’ve never regretted taking a plunge- even when the results aren’t what we expected. Happy Adventuring!
“you can’t live your life for the comfort of others” – beautifully said, Gwynyth.
Thanks Jamie. Your article brought me to tears this morning. Thanks for reminding me that life is messy but its still worth dreaming and stepping out even without all those ducks in a row. May God bless your family of five beautifully on the trip overseas. PS – I would love to see some articles about travelling with children overseas in the future – its such a brilliant opportunity for homeschoolers – can be daunting however for those who haven’t even travelled without children.
Very inspiring words today, Jamie. God bless you and your family abundantly as you live out your dreams!
Jeanette
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So inspiring, Jamie and what an awesome opportunity! Many blessings to you on this new adventure. It’s inspiring me to dream big 🙂 Grace and peace.
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Hi Jamie! I have long admired your blog, and this post really resonated with me. It reminded me of a two-part series I wrote on my blog recently–“Dream A (Not So Little) Dream With Me”–about pursuing dreams: Part 1: http://www.thevintagecreative.com/2013/04/26/dream-a-not-so-little-dream-with-me/ Part 2: http://www.thevintagecreative.com/2013/05/20/dream-a-not-so-little-dream-with-me-part-2-difficulties-of-the-journey/ The posts talk about the importance of pursuing our God-given dreams, the challenges we face while pursuing them (often from inside ourselves), and how God sometimes slowly reveals the path to our dreams one step at a time. I pray that they would be encouraging to you!