Dreams Fulfilled

When I was about six years old, my brother and I used to sit in a field of tall grass behind our old, dilapidated house and eat two-for-a-penny cookies that we'd bought with money we found in that same field. The coins were usually dropped by alcoholics staggering through trying to get to their own poor homes.
While we ate our precious treats (we were dirt poor and indeed they were precious) I would dream. I would dream of being rescued from my abusive home and showered with with love and presents. I would dream of a new family coming to take me and my brother away. I would dream of feeling safe.

When I became a teenager I dreamed of being freed from the pain of childhood. I dreamed of one day having everything I needed or wanted in life and not having to depend on anyone for anything. I dreamed of not being afraid of people, of one day breaking free of my emotional prison.

When I became an adult I stopped dreaming for a while, becoming bogged in the ways of the world and completely losing my way. Then one day new yearnings began to enter my mind and pierce my heart. I dreamed of being forgiven for past mistakes, of being able to overcome my past, of moving on, and being deserving of future blessing and new dreams I had for myself. I dreamed of truly living life the way I was meant to live it.

Despite the evil and hopelessness that are now running rampant in the world, I still have many dreams, but most of them are for my family now, for they were my biggest dream. Every righteous desire of my heart is fixed on them, and doing everything in my power to help them stay close to Christ. Because my greatest desire is for our family to be an eternal one, and staying close to the Savior is the only way we can achieve that.
Dreams come in stages. Never stop dreaming and hoping for the future. The day that you do is the day you stop living.