Do you have a dream that maybe now seems impossible because of your single situation? Is it something you envisioned for yourself since you were a little kid or maybe even something FOR your kids?
Is it something that kept you up at night with excitement with anticipation of the day that it would come true? Whether it was a song, a book, a home, a husband, world travel, a career, retirement, your figure, or a certain number of figures in your bank account.
But, now, now that you are a single parent….. have you forgotten it or even let it go?
Have you squashed it, given it to someone else thinking it wasn’t for you or even it wasn’t meant to be?
Picture this, what if I told you can dream again.
PASS IT ON TO THE NEXT SINGLE MOM - If you have been blessed by this podcast, sign-up today with a monthly gift of $ 3-month click here.
Do you have a dream that maybe now seems impossible because of your single situation? Is it something you envisioned for yourself since you were a little kid or maybe even something FOR your kids?
Is it something that kept you up at night with excitement with anticipation of the day that it would come true? Whether it was a song, a book, a home, a husband, world travel, a career, retirement, your figure, or a certain number of figures in your bank account.
But, now, now that you are a single parent….. have you forgotten it or even let it go?
Have you squashed it, given it to someone else thinking it wasn’t for you or even it wasn’t meant to be?
Picture this, what if I told you can dream again.
PASS IT ON TO THE NEXT SINGLE MOM - If you have been blessed by this podcast, sign-up today with a monthly gift of $ 3-month click here.
It's a Single Mom Thing, Not the Single Thing That Stops You!
Speaker 1:
Welcome to it's a Single Mom Thing, the show for single moms by single moms. This is Sherri, your host, and I am happy you are here today. Remember it's a single mom thing and not the single thing that stops you. Do you have a dream that maybe now seems impossible because of your single situation? Is it something you envisioned for yourself since you were a little kid, or maybe even something for your kids? Is it something that kept you up at night with excitement, with anticipation of the day that it would come true, whether it was a song, a book, a home, a husband, world, travel, a career, retirement, your figure or a certain number of figures in your bank account? But now, now that you are a single parent, have you forgotten it or even let it go? Have you squashed it, given it to someone else, thinking it wasn't for you or even it wasn't meant to be? Picture this what if I told you you can dream again, no matter your season or single situation? Oh yes, you can.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to another episode of it's a Single Mom Thing. So before we dream again, I encourage you to press pause for this cause, as you may want to get a pen and paper in hand as we go over some information and inspiration Now, if you're driving, come back again when you have time to be still and jot down what inspires you to go higher from our conversation today. Life is but a dream. As a child, you probably remember this phrase from a nursery rhyme that you heard many times, much like the well-known phrase happily ever after. I think this one has also misled us into thinking that if our life was anything but happily ever after, there was something wrong with it. I mean, you were married need I say more, in my opinion, and so you don't need to make this yours but the phrase life is but a dream. Well, first of all, what does that mean To me? I think it leaves our dreams stuck in a dream state instead of becoming part of our reality. It stays stuck in some far off place, much like a fairy tale that we can't reach. So it, too, keeps us stuck, believing in something that we think is impossible. Well, how exactly does that make you feel? I know for me, it has left me defeated, discouraged, depressed and many times wondering well, what is the point? If you remember our episode last week on brokenness? This, then, can lead me to thoughts of I don't know jealousy, judgment, comparison, coveting and doubting the plans God has for me. Can you relate to the experience these thoughts create for your life?
Speaker 1:
Let me ask you does your life look like how you dreamed it to be, or does it feel more like a nightmare at times? Don't get me wrong. I am grateful for all of the details of my life up until this point, and I hope you are too, or at least God is working that out in you, otherwise I wouldn't be here talking to you. But like you, I have dreams, lots of them, many of which God planted in my heart in some really difficult times in my life that have taken root in other seasons of my life. Did you hear that? Well, the same is true for you. So today, if you will join me, I want to flip the script on the phrase that life is but a dream, and change it to my life is what I dreamed, even if at this very moment, it doesn't look that way. Trust me, your tomorrow's will so stay with me. Please, please, I beg you. Don't shut this off like you have shut off your dreams. Remember, I too have walked in your shoes, and if my dreams have come true, so too can yours, pipe dream.
Speaker 1:
So when I first started out my single parent season you know, you've heard this before I was out of a job for 13 months. My family, my friends, they all left me. True story Someone very dear to me said do not talk to me until your divorce is final, which, listen y'all took two years before it was final, which left me with just me and my son and whatever money I had in my retirement account Best retirement ever More on that, though, in a second During this season. Even though I didn't know God, as I wasn't saved yet, he knew me. He knew what I was going to go through the loneliness, the heartache, the confusion, the sadness, the despair and frustration that my life was not what I had dreamed it to be. Are you there now? Looking back now, 17 years later, I can see that God was there and he had planted some dreams in my heart. He was also repurposing dreams that I had forgotten a long time ago.
Speaker 1:
You see, when I went off to college and let me tell you, I worked my fanny off to get into the University of Florida College of Journalism I had dreams. Get this to be the next Oprah Winfrey dreams. Get this to be the next Oprah Winfrey. I'm talking the early on Oprah Winfrey. I just love the way she encouraged women. After five years of hard work, I finally got into the College of Journalism, even when my high school teachers thought I would never even attend college. College, my dad and mom went to UF and now I'm there. I was so pumped.
Speaker 1:
Well, in the first month of classes, my boyfriend of four years, who I was to marry, cheated on me. My professors all professed that if you think you want a family someday, you're going to get married, look young forever and be the boss of your own time then this career isn't for you. Poof in a puff, all my dreams went up in a smoke and were gone. I was crushed. You see, at the time I valued who, man or who in this case Dr Fleppy head at the university. Even my emotions, my single situation, say who I am, what I can do, what dreams can or cannot come true. And that, my friends, is not true. I know that now and I'm teaching you that now, so you understand that for your now. You see, god had a dream. God knew my dream and God knew one day I was going to be his adopted child. He had, and still does have great plans for me. He planted those dreams. God causes everything to work together for good of those who love God and who are called according to his purpose for them. That's why we can be sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good Romans 8, 28.
Speaker 1:
So let's go back. I'm now going through the process of divorce. Right, that's where we're picking up. I'm alone and alone with my thoughts and what comes to mind? A poem, a story and another. And then I found a camera that I got when we were married which we never used, by the way and I started photographing the world around me. Wow, how different it looks from behind the eyes of a lens. At this time, the stock market crashed and I was out of work, not knowing. A I was working, albeit not drawing a paycheck yet. B God was working all things for my good. And C my dreams were starting to develop, much like the photographs I took, even though I wouldn't see them come to pass for some time. They were for an appointed time Dream, an impossible dream.
Speaker 1:
What I'm learning about dreams is that they are much like seeds that are planted. They need water, fertilizer, light. They need some attention and, most importantly, and listen to this. Say amen if you're listening. They need faith that they will grow. Mark 9, 23 says everything is possible for one who believes and listen. If you didn't know, then how can you grow? Sometimes, just like my olive tree I affectionately like to call Oliver that I've had, for goodness, at least five years now. They need time to grow before they bear fruit.
Speaker 1:
Much like the olive tree, there's a process we must go through to bring our dreams to reality before our dreams bear fruit. First off, in some cases there's a specific season before it will come to pass. In my case I didn't know podcasting was possible. Listen, when I went to college they didn't even exist, but God knew one day they would. He also knew I would have something to talk about to encourage women. But first I had to walk through several difficult seasons of divorce and a single situation. Funny now that I really think about it, because I am everything Dr Fluffyhead said. I couldn't be to have my dream come to pass. You see, everything grows when you grow.
Speaker 1:
Secondly, this I just learned and I love it Don't share your big dreams with small minds, much like my high school teachers, dr Fluffyhead, family members and friends. There are people who said I't, and I believe them. God says you can. Jesus said with God, all things are possible. Matthew 19, 26. This is far more than the power of positive thinking. It is the power of God that makes what seems impossible possible. Nothing is impossible with God. Luke 1, 37. Those are his words to us, found in his word, the Bible.
Speaker 1:
My dreams may have been delayed, with a little interference from me and the good opinions of others, but they were not destroyed. Now, several years later, they look different, as times are different and, quite frankly, I'm different. So you see, my single peeps, just because you've not seen your dreams come to pass yet does not mean that it won't, nor that it is not on its way. Believe it and receive it, even if it comes in some strange wrapping paper, just like my desire and dream to do journalism and encourage women. Thirdly, your job is to believe so God can do his job. Nothing's too impossible for our God. Sometimes we make him and our dreams small. We need to go tall y'all. We need to dream and ask for bigger. He's not the God of. I'm going to bless you with a little. He is the God of abundance, he who knows how to give good gifts, who gives us the desires of our heart when we delight in him, when we seek the kingdom of heaven first. And how do we receive gifts? Y'all With our arms and hands open. Are your hands closed? Is your mind closed off? Maybe because of your single situation?
Speaker 1:
Lastly, proverbs 29, 18 says where there is no dream, people perish. How sad would it be if your dreams died in you. Just because your marriage, your spouse or your relationship may have died does not mean your dreams have to. I know mine almost did, if I hadn't got frustrated enough and asked God to show me what mountain was in the way of my dreams coming to pass. Do you know what he showed me Me? I was in the way, the words I spoke, that said like this that's not possible, that's for someone else. Oh, I never have enough, I am always broke, I will never get married again. Or why did they get blessed and I have not?
Speaker 1:
Do you say similar things to yourself and speak that over your life? Things to yourself and speak that over your life? And you know what he then put on my heart? He said you have not because you ask not and, quite frankly, you don't believe. Ouch Jesus, that hurt. You're done. Hurting, sherry is kind of what he put on my heart. Friends, are you done hurting? Do you need to believe again? Picture this. So I want you to picture this as I walk the line between single parent and empty nest seasons. Now I have started to believe, even if it's just the size of a mustard seed. Right now I believe my dreams will come to pass. So let me ask you faith is what Faith is, believing what you don't see right.
Speaker 1:
Some of my dreams may not have come to pass, some of yours too, but that does not mean that they're not real. We need to make room for them, and that's exactly what I started to do Make room for them. I turned my son's room into my upper room, my creative space where I create with the creator of the universe who spoke life with just one word. I am choosing to speak life into my dreams. I have hung on my walls prints, drawings and artwork that I have created, some of which as early as high school, some even from my single season. I even hung my son's artwork up. It's what I call my life-size vision board of where I've been, where I want to go and the God who has been with me the whole time. Do you have a space where you can do the same? A corner, even a closet behind a bathroom door, a designated space where you can hang your dreams, your ideas, your inspirations on a wall or a door, somewhere where you can see it, speak life into it, pray over it and ask God for it?
Speaker 1:
Something else I've started is on the notes section of my phone. I started recording my accomplishments and dreams that have become a reality, so I can see them and be grateful for the prayers and cares that have been answered. I've also started, in my quiet time, a small prayer journal. I used to do this a while ago, but I forgot how good this is. So now, in my quiet time with God, first of all, I'm simply that quiet and I wait and listen for what he has for me. What I'm finding is that he is directing my steps and fulfilling my dreams. I don't have to sit and labor over them. He does all the work to lay it out for me. My job is simply to abide and follow. I'm recording, let's say, his action steps.
Speaker 1:
Another thing you can do for you once your kids have gone to bed is take an hour before bed and listen. Y'all need to do this to shut off the TV, social media or even the notifications on your phone. Taking time to learn something new. Read a book, listen to a podcast, take an e-course, something positive to grow you, something that pours into you and keeps you excited to keep going and growing through these dreams. Even maybe writing your declarations down over your life, writing your goals down and speaking them out for like 30 days like a habit, because you know when you do something for 30 days, it now becomes part of your normal routine. You see, when you learn, you earn.
Speaker 1:
So what do we say? It may be a single mom thing, but it's not the single thing that stops you. Right that my friends? God gave me to share and teach you over 100 episodes ago. The single hasn't stopped me. It hasn't been easy. I'll be honest with you, but don't let it stop you. So picture this you can dream again. Got an hour before you, rest your head? Want to invest in a little higher education? Sign up for Shepherd's Village faith-based e-course by visiting sb-universityorg. It's self-paced and it's free. Start, stop and come back on your own time. Have a wonderful week and remember it's a single mom thing your own time. Have a wonderful week and remember it's a single mom thing and not the single thing that stops you. Thanks for listening to. It's a Single Mom Thing. I hope you enjoyed our time together. If you have more questions on how to have a relationship with Jesus or need prayer, visit us at wwwshepherdsvillagecom. Backslash prayer. For more information and resources, check out our show notes.
