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When your dreams come knocking, answer the door.

July 22, 2013 //  by Jamie C. Martin//  22 Comments

dreams
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.

Take a step towards your dream ~SimpleHomeschool.net

“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

sustamed

Category: inspiration

About Jamie C. Martin

Jamie is an introverted mom of three, who loves books, tea, and people (not always in that order), and avoids answering the phone when possible. She co-founded SimpleHomeschool.net in 2010 and began IntrovertedMoms.com in 2020.

Jamie is the author of four books, including Give Your Child the World (reached #9 on Amazon's Top 100 Best Sellers list), and her latest release, Introverted Mom (an ECPA bestseller). Her work has been featured by LeVar Burton of Reading Rainbow, the Washington Post, Parents, Today Parenting, and Psychology Today.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Veronica Plante

    July 22, 2013 at 7:29 am

    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.

    Reply
  2. Janine

    July 22, 2013 at 7:34 am

    What a great way to start my morning! Thank you for inspiring and encouraging me with your words for the last few years!

    Reply
  3. Jessica

    July 22, 2013 at 8:20 am

    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!
    Jessica’s latest post: Give nature a home

    Reply
    • Jamie Martin

      July 22, 2013 at 4:17 pm

      So happy to hear that Jessica. Blessings on you and yours!

      Reply
  4. Caroline Starr Rose

    July 22, 2013 at 8:46 am

    Thinking of you, my sweet Jamie Lou! xo
    Caroline Starr Rose’s latest post: Best of Blog Break: Donalyn Miller’s THE BOOK WHISPERER

    Reply
  5. Maya

    July 22, 2013 at 8:53 am

    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… πŸ™‚ 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!

    Reply
  6. Faigie

    July 22, 2013 at 1:42 pm

    The trick is not to answer when the dream is a nightmare

    Reply
    • Jamie Martin

      July 22, 2013 at 4:16 pm

      Great point! Ignore the nightmares, live the dreams.

      Reply
  7. lee @ lady Lee's Home

    July 22, 2013 at 1:51 pm

    How wonderful! You are making the right decision, no question about it. Have fun and have a safe trip!
    lee @ lady Lee’s Home’s latest post: Garden Basil to Homemade Pesto

    Reply
  8. Lindsay@littlehousebigworld

    July 22, 2013 at 2:16 pm

    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.
    Lindsay@littlehousebigworld’s latest post: Make Time to be Happy

    Reply
    • Jamie Martin

      July 22, 2013 at 4:18 pm

      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.

      Reply
  9. Mitzi

    July 22, 2013 at 2:38 pm

    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 πŸ™‚

    Reply
  10. Andrea

    July 22, 2013 at 3:38 pm

    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. πŸ™‚ And what a great cause you are going for – it’s going to be amazing! Blessings to you all as you prepare to go!

    Reply
  11. Carla

    July 22, 2013 at 4:18 pm

    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!
    Carla’s latest post: In Search of Connection

    Reply
  12. Alison

    July 22, 2013 at 4:19 pm

    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.

    Reply
  13. Sharon

    July 22, 2013 at 8:23 pm

    Congratulations! What an exciting opportunity.
    Sharon’s latest post: Get Out the Planner..Part 1

    Reply
  14. Gwynyth

    July 22, 2013 at 8:38 pm

    ‘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!

    Reply
    • Jamie Martin

      July 22, 2013 at 9:46 pm

      “you can’t live your life for the comfort of others” – beautifully said, Gwynyth.

      Reply
  15. Catherine

    July 23, 2013 at 2:26 pm

    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.

    Reply
  16. Jeanette @ Creating a Life

    July 23, 2013 at 6:45 pm

    Very inspiring words today, Jamie. God bless you and your family abundantly as you live out your dreams!

    Jeanette
    Jeanette @ Creating a Life’s latest post: Vintage Trunk Ideas on Hometalk

    Reply
  17. Cheri

    July 24, 2013 at 8:22 am

    So inspiring, Jamie and what an awesome opportunity! Many blessings to you on this new adventure. It’s inspiring me to dream big πŸ™‚ Grace and peace.
    Cheri’s latest post: I am the decisive element

    Reply
  18. Alicia

    July 29, 2013 at 12:57 pm

    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!

    Reply

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