This is my third blog entry here on Wet Feet. If this is your third time reading, you know all about my daughter’s dream of going to Disney World, and I hope you’ve been able to spend some time reflecting on your own dreams or how you can help someone else experience the blessing of having a dream fulfilled. If this is your first visit to Wet Feet, there are always the archives.

Our dreams are important to God. He authored many of them.

I put my dreams to the test by asking six investigative questions I learned back in high school: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? Whether it’s wild and ambitious or practical and common, I find myself using those questions to determine what to do with a dream.

If a politician can’t or won’t answer each and every one of those questions, they might be hiding something. I won’t get started on politics. That’s for another blog, but think about those six questions. Our English teachers were right. Those six are the basic questions we need answered in any situation.

Extra words are merely filler. Answering five of the questions twice or two-thousand times can’t make up for the one left unanswered. Politicians shouldn’t get by without answering all six and neither should we – even in our dreams.

Most of my dreams are like marshmallows. They’re soft, sweet, harmless, and have a limited shelf life. They bounce around in my head, doing little more than take up space. Need an example?

Okay.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about our unfinished basement. I imagine a finished ceiling, walls, flooring, great lighting, and electrical outlets in all the right places. Oh – and a bathroom with an oversized whirlpool tub.

My marshmallow dream is too much for our budget to swallow in one bite. That’s why it remains a dream. As long as we have a higher priority financially, it won’t happen. Do I plan to squelch that dream? No way. Because I dreamed it, and have answers to the six basic questions. I know exactly the best place to start following through on my dream, if and when my financial priorities change.

Other dreams are like peaches. Timing is important. I give them a home in my heart and brain, waiting for them to reach their peak of ripeness. They look appetizing. I’m tempted, but I love a perfect, juicy peach, and most often, that requires restraint.

Several years ago I had a peach of a dream. If I had followed through on a small business idea, it could have made me a millionaire. (Probably not, but as long as we’re dreaming, give me this one.)

I worked on my plan, knew who would be involved, what I would produce, where my customers were, why this product was needed, and how things should to be done. I struggled with only one question. When? My idea, my research, my effort, and my prayers led me to take the first big step into my dream. Then, for lots of reasons, I waited for the right time to take another step.

While I waited, a major organization came out with a similar product, and my peach of an idea got wrinkled and mushy overnight. I didn’t get to taste success, and the remnants of my dream are currently stored in my unfinished basement.

Wealth, fame, and power are often the impetus behind dreams. I call them ground beef dreams. No matter what flavor of sauce we pour over it, it’s still ground beef. If there are 101 recipes for a tasty ground beef meal, there are a million and one dreams of wealth, fame, or power disguised as ministry or not for profit.

We all know (or we should) it’s not that wealth, fame, and power are bad. (I Timothy 6:9-10). God provides all three to be used for his purposes. But the scale tips too easily for most of us. It’s hard to keep our dreams focused on God’s original plan when we get close to any of those three things.

Answering the “why” question about a dream can be harder than all the other questions put together. I know. I’m in the process of putting a dream through the six questions, and feel the need to frequently remind myself of the why. I want to make sure no ground beef gets added.

I did a brief search, looking for some biblical teaching about dreams. You know, I couldn’t find one whole chapter devoted to teaching on dreams. Not that dreams aren’t scattered from Genesis, with the mention of Abimelech’s dream, to Revelation, where John records his most important dream.

The sort of dreams I wanted instruction for are not the involuntary kind of dreams, but what we refer to as aspirations, ambitions, desires, or perhaps brainchildren. For those who don’t dare to dream, let’s call them goals, intentions, or objectives.

It wasn’t long before my search brought me to the realization I would not find a simple checklist of do’s and don’ts for dreaming, but I wasn’t ready to end my search. There had to be something in that worn, leather-bound book. There is, and it’s good news.

The passage I found had no “Thou shalt not’s.” Philippians 4:4-9, with little creativity, can be made into a list of ingredients for some pretty sweet dreams. If I were a list maker, I would have fun with this one. (I’m not a list maker, but don’t let that stop you.)

If we don’t honestly assess our dreams we’ll be disappointed, and probably disappoint those around us. At the very least, we will have stolen time away from a better dream. Sometimes I don’t like an answer to one of the six questions. In the past, I’ve settled for a good answer to four or five out of six. Those dreams didn’t turn out so well.

Funny thing. Lately, I still ask my pragmatic questions, but I’ve also been measuring my simple goals and outrageous wants against the instruction from that chapter in Philippians.

Is anyone surprised that God has been offering grace? I can’t always answer my own questions, but God can. He’s been giving me new and sweeter dreams.

Read: Philippians 4:4-9

1. Name one of your dreams, aspirations, ambitions, or desires.
2. Is it a marshmallow, peach, ground beef or some other kind of dream?
3. Do you have answers for:  Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How?
4. Start dreaming sweet dreams!

Lord, Thank you for the dreams we hold in our hearts. Help me to align my dreams with your truth. Keep me honest, just, pure, and lovely. Continue to show me value in virtue and sharing of good reports. Remind me of the things I’ve seen in you and learned from you. Amen.