Dream Big!

I spend a lot of my days doing ordinary stuff. Boring stuff. Familiar stuff. I clean bathrooms. I wash clothes. I fix meals. 

Sometimes it really gets to me, you know? I have big dreams of doing important things! As a speaker and writer, I dream of seeing thousands surrender to Jesus. I have big dreams of women breaking free of stinkin’ thinkin’. I have big dreams of infusing hope to the bowed down.

But sometimes those big dreams get lost in the day-to-day drudgery of life.

You too, right?

Doesn’t that happen to your big dreams, big goals, big plans? I’m not talking so much about your bucket list. I’m wondering about the big call on your life. The thing that makes you hopping mad or brings you to tears or makes your heart beat faster when you think and talk about it.

Maybe you have a vision to change the world, or at least your corner of it, but you get interrupted by
unexpected pregnancies, and babies who need changing, and toddlers who need training, and teens who need redirection, and your neighbor’s car that needs a jump, and your house that needs cleaning, and your marriage that needs a spark of romance. And your dream/goal/project sits dormant.

Facing down resistance

We lose momentum when we encounter resistance. We begin to complain and grumble. We falter when the tasks become hard or mundane. Fear of failure, rejection, and judgment seizes us and threatens to derail us.

That’s when we need to dig back in and start pursuing our goal again. There’s a little verse in Zechariah 4:10 that tells us not to despise small beginnings, because God celebrates when he sees us beginning the work. Beginning is just as important as accomplishing. Even if it’s slow and filled with interruptions, God wants us to get to work on that dream, goal, or plan.

Do you need to be reignited?

Don’t be discouraged by the distractions of life, the naysayers, the slow starts, or the interruptions of your everyday. If you got derailed or detained or distracted or even temporarily disinterested, don’t despair. Keep dreaming big dreams! Take as many fresh starts as you need.

Small beginnings lead to big things.

  • Your child raised well.
  • Your business flourishing.
  • Your book completed.
  • Your home renovated.
  • Your church revived.

There is no shame in starting again . . . and again. Keep giving yourself fresh starts until you have accomplished that big dream, goal, or plan God has given you and created you for.

What’s your big dream to change your corner of the world? FYI: if you aspire to do any speaking, I’d love to support that dream. Get my best pro-tips for speaking by clicking here. 

Verse for today: Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin. —Zechariah 4:10 nlt

Prayer: God, sometimes I can become so frustrated because I have big dreams but I feel like I’m stuck in the mundane routines of everyday life that keep me from pursuing them. Thank you for reminding me that small beginnings are nothing to be ashamed of, and that you rejoice in the work I start. Help me start—and keep pursuing—even if it’s in small steps along the way. Amen.

11 Comments

  1. Susan Clark on June 26, 2022 at 8:17 am

    Hi Robyn
    It seems all I do is work not much time for fun things in my life for sure. I live alone and hate it, I want to be with my man who doesn’t want to get married and really not ready to live together cause of bad relationships he has had before. He leaves 2 hours away from me and we see each other on most weekends. He has an elderly mother she 94 and lives in Missouri so all his vacation time he spends seeing her, I do not fought him for that but sometimes not sure where I fit in his life, He is a very hard worker he works 3 jobs at times and has been putting lots of money away for retirement. He wants me to stay in my house cause he says it is investment for. I don’t care about this cause when I die that state can have what I have which isn’t much. I was never taught as a young person to invest money only learned it when I started seeing my man. I am alittle old now but doing what I can. I really want to have fun in my life I have lived a boring life I want to go places and do things enjoy the things God has to offer us on this earth. So I know how you feel. I love my God and pray to him all the time. I have not been to church but once since COVID things changed in my church I did not like how it felt when I walked in

    • Robyn Dykstra on June 27, 2022 at 3:16 pm

      Susan, my grandma used to say, “Don’t put all your chickens in one basket.” I hear your longing for this relationship to work out and I hope it does, but Girl, don’t depend on this fella to have a more interesting life. Grab a friend, go see a movie, join a book club or take a mini-adventure. Go and do the things you enjoy now. I hope one of them in wandering back to church. 🙂

  2. Maggie Donahue on June 26, 2022 at 8:33 am

    10 years ago, Jesus gave me a dream of teaching children, and their parents, of our nation’s beginnings, based on original documents, and Almighty God, Jesus Christ, as the Creator of all things, and of America as a nation to spread the Gospel around the world!!
    But Life happened along the way, leaving me exhausted, discouraged, stretched to the snapping point with caregiving, and too many responsibilities.
    And questioning whether this Dream really is of Jesus’ plan in my life. Did I miss my real calling? Now, as a widow, with broken health, what is my true direction?
    This article is spot on for me. And I move forward ”with what I find in my hand to do”.
    Thank you!

    • Robyn Dykstra on June 27, 2022 at 3:00 pm

      Maggie, I hear your heart. It’s never too late for God to use us and I’m praying he fills your hands with wonderful opportunities to use the health and time and knowledge you have.

  3. Sharon Stults on June 26, 2022 at 9:25 am

    Such a good word, Robyn. Thank you. My current big dream is to help people understand The incredible season of God that we are going through right now. I believe our culture is about to go through an exodus Event just as the Hebrews did. I believe we are watching worldly systems fall all around us but they’re going to throw out a lot of ugly on their way down. The Israelites had to choose whether they were going to keep their focus on the oncoming Egyptian army or whether they would trust God to do something beyond their imagination there at the Red Sea. I believe we are in a Red Sea moment in America. . I wanna help people realize how small we’ve made God in our minds and how great and unprecedented his ways can be when we fix our focus on him even though our stomachs may be churning and our knees may be quaking and all of hell may be screaming in our faces. I wanna help people take that attitude of, “I don’t know what God’s gonna do but he’s going to do something great, and even if he doesn’t answer my prayers Exactly the way I want, I’m not gonna take my eyes off him. “

    • Robyn Dykstra on June 27, 2022 at 2:59 pm

      That’s a great big dream, Sharon and I’m happy to partner with you for it.
      Jesus, revive America, raise up leaders and heroes, empower us with your righteousness and courage. We ask these things in Your name, amen

  4. Judy on June 26, 2022 at 4:48 pm

    Thank you for your words so I don’t feel so alone. I have struggled so much over the last 2 years doing things for family members to the point of breaking. In the end really didn’t accomplish anything for any of them…only my health has been hit, relationship with my husband put to the test. I have lost what my big dream really is any more. I have prayed for God to use me. I am His. Whatever He wants. Let Him take all the hardship of my entire life to His Glory. I just want to Love people like Jesus. I feel my prayer has not been answered yet…just waiting on the Lord

    • Robyn Dykstra on June 27, 2022 at 2:57 pm

      Oh Judy, I hear your disappointment. I’m praying that the Lord revives not just your dreams but your hope.

  5. Sterling Dimmick on June 27, 2022 at 5:49 pm

    My dream is to take Toastmaster training and be a paid professional speaker. I have much education, a four year college degree in radio and television, two-year degree in Journalism, several correspondence courses in writing and editing as well as photography (to supplement college photojournalism course. I believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour (and Coming King!). I need an “Open Door”. Something I should pray about.

  6. Susan L on June 27, 2022 at 6:37 pm

    Thank you
    So true.
    Seems like I’m the only one who cooks, cleans, folds, run up and down the stairs etc.
    while the rest, sit in their chair& write their sermons.
    So frustrating.
    Thankful that I can run up and down the stairs but…..?

    • Robyn Dykstra on June 28, 2022 at 7:26 am

      Oh Susan, Thanks for your honest post. I can so relate. I tell the LORD, “I’m happy to serve! As long as I’m not treated like a servant.” lol
      The LORD is showing me that ministry happens everywhere.

Leave a Comment