There is a saying that goes like this, “The average person dies at age 25 and is buried at age 75.” The idea behind this saying is that most people have dreams as children and youth, however, most have let their dreams die by the time they are 25.The average age of physical death is around 75 years old with the average age of our dreams death is around 25 years old.How sad is this, most of us have our dreams robbed from us when life has only just begun.
Trust me, 25 is just the beginning of life, there is so much to accomplish and live out way beyond 25, and yet, most of us let our dreams be robbed from us by other people or by circumstances. We need to hang on tight to ALL our dreams and never let anyone or anything take them from us. We were all built to dream of success, to dream of achieving worthwhile things in our lifetime.
Our dreams and desires will all be different as we all have different gifts, interests and priorities, but we all dream of something bigger than ourselves at some stage in our young lives. I want to encourage us all never to give up on our dreams, never think they are too big, never be embarrassed about our dreams and always believe they will come to pass.
I love listening to children as they talk about who they want to be and what they want to do when they grow up. One of our Little Miracles Centres at their Christmas Concert had a video of all our graduating students saying what they want to do when they are adults. They, of course, came out with some very beautiful dreams of all kinds of professions.
Some wanted to be Doctors, Firefighters, Dancers, Teachers, Builders, Mums, Dads, Superheroes etc. the usual things children at five years old dream about. We need as parents, grandparents and carers always to champion on these dreams and encourage the children never to dream small, always dream big and never give up on their dreams. Life throws us all obstacles to achieving our dreams, we need to teach the children that obstacles that come to rob us of our dreams are just there to create more strength and determination, equipping us to walk out our dreams well. So many people want to tell us why we will never see our dreams come true, let’s be the people who always encourage others including our children to fight for their dreams, hold on tight to them and never give up. It takes courage and persistence to see our dreams come true, children need to know while it isn’t always easy to walk the road of success if we keep believing in our dreams and keep going forward we will see them come true. As parents and carers, we need to help them explore all the
possibilities of their dreams, help them map out a plan of action as to how they can achieve, letting them know all the time that we believe in them and their ability to achieve their dreams.
We can do this by starting to show them how small dreams can come true after a plan of action being put into place. As they see that small dream come true they will build on that and you can teach them how to work towards other dreams a bit bigger and so on.
Imagine how different this world would be if we didn’t have men and women who have believed in what seemed impossible at the time and just kept pushing through until it became the possible. There are so many wonderful men and women who achieved the impossible and changed the world, they just kept dreaming big, pushing forward until it came true. If we didn’t have people who believed in the impossible and who chose not to listen to the doubters we wouldn’t have things like, Electricity, Motor Cars, Aeroplanes, Cures to so many diseases etc etc. When children come to you and tell you about a dream, encourage it, don’t tell them why they will never be able to achieve that dream, help them believe in it and dream even bigger.
Are you a dream stealer or a dream enabler, do you spur people on or do you put people down when they share their dreams with you. Would your children be excited about telling you their dreams or would they fear to tell you because they know you will see why they can’t achieve them.
Do you know your children’s dreams, they will have them, it is natural for everyone to have dreams, it’s just that most of us learn how to stop dreaming for fear of failure and we forget how to dream because others have scoffed at them. You are the most important person in your child’s life, if you believe in their dreams, they will find it hard not to keep believing themselves, however, if you hinder their dreams they are very likely to stop dreaming.
Rob and I have always encouraged our four children as little ones and as adults to go for every dream they have. We have seen them all go further than they thought they could because they kept believing in their dreams. Our eldest son Ben is off to Canada in a couple of days pursuing a huge dream he has had for many years now. He has come up with a new invention or using in the snow called a Snoogee Board; it is amazing. It has taken him and one of our other sons, Michael, many many hours and quite a few years of imagination and determination. They have experienced lots and lots of hard work, disappointments and knock backs yet they have never given up on the dream. I know it will be successful because he has done and will keep doing whatever it takes to make his dream come true.
It was an enormous privilege for me to drive him to the Airport at some ridiculous hour the other morning to catch the plane. He is off, yet again, to show it to some people who might be interested in this invention. I have watched this wonderful son of mine dream dreams since he was a little boy. His imagination has always been huge.
I know this is a God-given gift. Being able to come up with concepts others haven’t thought of before coupled with Michael’s gift of knowing how to build the product and then make it work. A winning combination, indeed.
The real pleasure for me is not going to be when they both make money out of this invention; it is going to be when they both see how Ben’s gift of dreaming and Michael’s gift of practicality were given to them by God and together the impossible happens.
Always teach your children to dream big, believe they can do the impossible and do whatever it takes to make their dreams come true. Don’t let them ‘die at 25 and be buried at 75’, because we didn’t teach them to dream big and never stop dreaming. I believe in you as parents and carers to be able to speak life into every dream your child has and never be the dream stealer.
Bless you all,
Susanna
