Dreams Deferred-Pour Your Heart Out

For the last couple of weeks, I have been using breakfast as a time of quick devotion and “girl-talk time” for me and my daughters.  This morning, I read them the poem A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes.

I asked my third grader if she knew what deferred meant.  She paused for a second and then said, “expired”? (In reference to the line about rotted meat.) “Perhaps”.  I responded.  Then I asked them what was necessary for a raisin to dry up in the sun, for meat to rot or for something to crust over.  “TIME!”  they both chimed!

Yes, time is key ingredient to a dream deferred.  When our dreams are deferred, they don’t happen on our time line.  Dreams, hopes, aspirations not occurring when we expect them to are bitter pills to swallow.  Especially since most things in our modern day lives (emails, texts, faxes, online purchases, digital images), happen instantly.

Proverbs 13:12 states:  Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

One of the things I have been “queen” at in the past is taking things into my own hands to try to MAKE them happen.  Things in my own hands usually leads to regret because my focus is on the dream instead of the dream giver.

So what DOES happen to a dream deferred?  Does it sag like a heavy load or does it explode? 

Some dreams will explode and just like Proverbs 13:12 states, we will feel fulfilled.  Others may never come to fruition and we may be heartbroken about them. The point is to not focus on the dream and all of its details but to focus on the ONE who gives us the power to dream.

Focusing on HIM means thanking HIM for our many blessings and then trusting HIM to navigate us towards our best.

Where do you need to shift your focus and begin an attitude of gratitude and trust?

This post is part of a weekly meme hosted by Shell at Things I Can’t Say.