Monday, September 21, 2009

Childhood Dreams

I have always had an affinity for the written word. My parents owned a bookstore when I was a child and I was given free reign here, as long as I was careful not to bend the spines of the books. It was like having the world at my fingertips. I would spend hours in the back room devouring books. The name of the store was The Booklore and it was here that the my love for reading flowered. I was a bookworm and probably read half the books in the store. They even let me take them home. I wanted to be a writer when I grew up.

 Life got in the way and my dreams were not realized. Not then, at least. God's plans were different than mine. I still was an avid reader, but I wrote less and less. I continued to journal and write poetry well into my twenties. Then one day, I just stopped. Gave up. I thought, "Well, I guess the Lord has other plans for me."  Shortly after my husband and I got married, Randy bought me a word processor. I didn't use it...not once.  It wasn't until after my conversion that I picked up my pen again. Except this time, I started writing about and to the Lord. And you know what?  I never stopped. I had three dreams as a child, to read, to write, and to draw. An early poem that I wrote expressed this desire:

Three in a palm
Not in a fist
I blow softly
Making a wish
Childhood dreams
Rest here
Searching for
An angels ear

Did God hear me? Well, I'm reading, writing, and I just picked up supplies to start drawing again. So, yes....I guess He did. In His time and in His way. And in Him lies an endless source of inspiration.

Lord, help the seeds and gifts that you have planted in all of us flower and grow. We are all unique. May we all use our gifts and talents for Your Greater Glory. Utterly Thine, O Lord.

7 comments:

  1. I wasn't as fortunate as you to have a personal bookstore as a child, but I was either at the local public library every single day of the summer reading all day, or I would sit on the floor of the local bookstore reading all the new books (carefully not bending spines!), long before Barnes & Noble and it's connected coffeehouse to read new books at the store.

    It's quite a beautiful gift to love the writen word!

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  2. A dream is not over unless you give up on it, and life is not over until life is over. There is always time to realize a dream. If God is with you, then it surely will happen although perhaps not in the way you think.

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  3. "Searching for an angels ear" I love that-very poetic! So glad that you are writing! I enjoy your words!

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  4. That little poem was actually incredible! If you don't mind, I'm going to keep a copy of it (with you as the author of course) so I don't forget it. If I -ever- use it anywhere, I'll make sure to let people know where to find it and who wrote it.

    And...you're right when you say God has given you your dreams. I always chuckle when I see how He gives us our desires and we don't even know it until at some point the light bulb goes on over our heads and we just kinda do a stutter-step for a moment as we realize it. We always have an idea of what our dream goals look like...so much so that we often don't know that God has fulfilled them because we weren't open to see that at first.

    Great post.

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  5. What a lovely little poem Mary, thank you for sharing it.
    God did hear and there you are, at the right time, writing this beautiful blog :)
    Books are indeed a treasure for humankind!

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  6. Oh my gosh; Holy Spirit moving not only with the sheep/goats thread but this one!! Used to go with my mom to Catholic bookstore (from age 7) and owner would smile as i just sat and read everything I could. Later stopped reading/writing like I used to and only since my blog, going strong as had just told God that I feel like I wasted most of my life? Plus everything else you said exactly!

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  7. Maria,
    More than coincidence I would say. The Lord is guiding people to others who also love Him dearly and he's doing it for a reason.

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