Dreams are a growing, living thing, in the hands of God. Field of Dreams, original oil painting by Steve Henderson.

From the time we are schoolchildren, we are regularly assured,

“You can be anything you want to be. Just dream it, and it will come true.”

Do an Internet search on “following your dreams” and you’ll come up with everything from Dream Believe Achieve (or, Dream Believe Receive for the Christian version) to You Can Do It! Just Believe! (Christian version: God Will Do It! Just Believe!)

We all have dreams, desires, hopes, and aspirations — part of being made in the image of God is that we desire to create, just like our Father. The significant difference between us and Him is that while He creates out of nothing, we create under His guidance, teaching, and direction:

“To a man belong the plans of the heart,” Proverbs 16: 1 tells us, “but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue,” and in 16: 9, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”

These verses take us beyond inane reassurances that Belief alone, and enough of it, will lead us to our goal.

Read the rest of the article at When Our Dreams Never Come True, which is at my BeliefNet column, Commonsense Christianity. Please follow the link, because I can’t publish the whole piece in two places.

Are you planning a retreat for your group or camp? If you’d like an image for a t-shirt or other aspect of your group activity, consider the art of Steve Henderson (my husband, the Norwegian Artist). Our licensing company, Art Licensing, will work with you to affordably use an image of beauty, hope, peace, and joy, like Ocean Breeze, below. Contact me, Carolyn@SteveHendersonFineArt.com, to get the process going. You can also use the Contact form on the Steve Henderson Fine Art site.

Ocean Breeze is one of many fine art images by Steve Henderson available for licensing onto products — and you don’t have to be a major manufacturer to do this.

This article is linked to Heart Filled Fridays, A Look at the Book, Friday Flash Blog, That Friday Blog Hop, Freedom Fridays, Family Fun Friday, Christian Fellowship Friday, Christian Mom Blogger, Essential Things, Missional Woman, Snippets of Inspiration, Graced Simplicity, Becoming a Godly Wife, Thriving Thursday, Hope in Every Season, From House to Home, Thrive at Home Thursday, Thursday Blog Hop, My Daily Walk in His Grace, Modest Monday. A Mama’s Story, What Joy Is Mine, Mom’s the Word, Mum Mondays, Missional Call, Manic Monday, Thoughtful Spot