Repackaged Dreams

I may have told bits and pieces of this story before, but I'll tell it again, just to catch everyone up. :)

When I was little, I so wanted to be a teacher. I was the product of my parents, for sure. My Dad taught public high school and mom worked as an assistant in first grade, so it was no surprise that I'd spend my evenings and summers lining up my dolls and stuffed animals to teach them. I passionately taught all I'd learned in my own classes, and then I'd read stories to them and help them do craft projects. Mom would even bring home old worksheets destined for the trash for me to use in my teaching.

My first actual term paper of my high school career was supposed to be about what I wanted to be when I grew up. Teacher headed the list, followed by nurse (uhhhhhh no) and secretary. Let it never be said I lacked career diversity goals! I made a passionate case for why I wanted to be a teacher and received an A on that paper.

The only reason I didn't pursue teaching when I got to college was I'd begun to see the huge changes in the public education system and I didn't think I could be the teacher I'd be required to be over the teacher I wanted to be. So I said goodbye to that dream and pursued writing instead.

But it has become clear to me over the past several years that God didn't deny that teaching dream. He just repackaged it.

It started way back after college when I spent a few years as a rubber stamp demonstrator, teaching groups of people to stamp and scrapbook. Then it moved into writing and leading Bible studies at church. It even showed up in my Financial Aid job when I worked to educate parents and students about paying for school and surviving loan payback. It carried into writing, showed up in radio, continued into speaking, and I think it even makes appearances on this blog.

Over the course of the past month, I've had the chance to teach an online workshop, and I've loved it. Lesson plans, instructional videos, pages of curriculum, assignments and feedback - the whole bit. The teacher is still inside me; she just doesn't stand in front of the classroom like she always envisioned.

I have no idea how God will continue to use this passion in me and how else He might package it, but I'm grateful for what I've been able to do so far! I'm grateful that I've learned teaching has many faces.

And I share this with you, because I don't know what dream of your heart might not be turning out the way you always thought it would. Maybe what you thought was a farewell to a dream is really just a temporary release of it into God's hands so He can repackage it and allow you to enjoy it in ways you never envisioned.

You know what?

I think those dreams can be even better.

Take your repackaged dreams and embrace them fully, my friend!