You Were Created to Dream... Yes, Even Now
You Were Created to Dream... Yes, Even Now
Somewhere along the way, many of us quietly stopped letting ourselves dream. Life got full, faith got tired, and the colours faded. If that is you, this week's session is a gentle invitation back.
You can watch the full Week 2 livestream just below, then stay for the reflection and a small, gentle practice to carry into your week.
Somewhere along the way, we stopped imagining
Do you remember the last time you let yourself truly want something? Not for your family, not for the household, not for anyone else. Just for you.
For so many of us, that muscle has gone quiet. We were busy. We were needed. We poured ourselves out, year after year, and somewhere in the pouring, our own dreams got set down. And when we dare to think about picking one back up, three familiar voices tend to arrive. It is too late. It is selfish to want more. You should be over this by now.
I want to say gently what we said on the livestream this morning: not one of those voices is the voice of God. He is not disappointed in you for still longing. That longing might be the truest thing about you.
You were created to dream (yes, even now)
Here is the foundation this whole series is built on, and it is worth reading slowly.
You were created to dream.
Not as an indulgence. As part of your design. You were made in the image of a creative God, which means imagining, longing, and making are written into you. Scripture says it plainly: "For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." (Ephesians 2:10, NLT) Long ago. Before the loss, before the tiredness, before you set the dream down, he already planned good things for you to do.
And the dream itself is not something you have to manufacture. "For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him." (Philippians 2:13, NLT) The desire is his doing. Rick Warren, in the book this series is named after, makes exactly this point: a God-given dream is not a distraction from your faith, it is one of the main ways God grows it. Dreaming is spiritual work.
"For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11, NLT)
Why God starts with a seed, not a garden
On the livestream I painted a single seed going into the soil, and I want to tell you why it is the most hopeful thing I have painted in a long time.
A seed looks like nothing. Small, plain, easy to overlook. And yet folded up inside it, in the dark, is a whole tree. This is how God so often begins: not with the finished garden, but with something so small you could walk straight past it. "Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin." (Zechariah 4:10, NLT) He is not standing back waiting for you to produce something impressive. The beginning itself makes him glad.
But here is my honest confession, and maybe it is yours too. I am not patient. I want the flower without the burial, the harvest without the wait, the whole garden this afternoon, please. I am the sort who would dig the seed up just to check on it.
And the seed will not be rushed. It is not behind. "Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time." (Ecclesiastes 3:11, NLT) The waiting is not God forgetting you. The waiting is the forming. The slowness is not neglect. It is care.
One small yes for this week
So here is your gentle practice, and it is a small one. You do not need a five-year plan. You just need one small yes.
Take a fresh page in your journal. Using the Spirit-Led Sketch Method, prepare and pray, just a breath: Lord, I am here, and I am willing. Then ask one honest question: What is the small dream you have planted in me? Then doodle or paint a seed, a shoot, a tiny green thing, and beside it write one word or line for the dream that came to mind. It might be to write again, to paint, to help other women, to open my home. Bob Goff, in Dream Big, says the first move is simply to get specific about what you actually want. Not the whole plan. Just naming it. That is exactly what we are doing on the page this week.
If you would love to colour along with me each week, the free Dream in Colour companion is yours: https://creativesoulspace.com/dream
You were never meant to dream alone
If planting this small seed has stirred something in you, and part of you does not want to tend it on your own, I would love to welcome you inside.
Creative Sanctuary is my community of women weaving faith and creativity back together, one honest page at a time... a soft place to land, and a circle to dream inside of. The doors are open until 30 July, and you would be so welcome. Come and see:
š https://creativesoulspace.com/creativesanctuarygrace
And if you are not ready for that yet, that is completely okay. Here are two gentle next steps:
šØ Download the free Dream in Colour companion and colour along: https://creativesoulspace.com/dream
ā¶ Subscribe to my YouTube channel, Creativity Released, and tap the bell so every Friday's session finds you
"Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm 37:4, NLT) He gave you the desire, friend. Perhaps it is time to trust the One who planted it.
š The two books behind this series, if you would love to go deeper (affiliate links): Created to Dream by Rick Warren: https://amzn.to/4gfREC9 Dream Big by Bob Goff: https://amzn.to/44JOqjb
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A Space to Bring Your Whole Self
And if you're not quite ready for a retreat but want to begin doodling with God today, start here: creativesoulspace.com/quiet ā it's just $7 and it's the gentlest possible first step.
Come and find me at https://christianartjournaling.com/creative2026 ~ there's a whole community of women here who are finding their way back to God, one mark at a time.
