Other than parenting books, I've been trying to nourish my reading diet beyond research articles that are required for work, or stuff from Facebook. Well Joerg has reminded me that good books are important- for inspiration and edifying the mind. Of course nothing compares with the Good Book, but there are other books which can play a part in soul-feeding too.
Sometime back, Joerg downloaded Chip Ingram's "Good to great in God's eyes" for his Kindle, and having enjoyed it so much, recently got hold of a few hard copies from Christian Book Distributor (http://www.christianbooks.com/). I started reading the hard copy (for me there's nothing like turning physical pages!) and was inspired too. I'm still halfway through it, but the thing which has gotten me excited is the exhortation to dream. And dream BIG. Honestly speaking I'm the kind who's typically bogged down by the day to day stuff and hence have no mental space for longer-range goals. Right now, it's work and Gabrielle that take up most of my physical and mental energy, and my passion for other stuff like music has just had to take a back seat.
Do you have any dreams for the future? After reading that chapter in "Good to great in God's eyes", I realised that my own dreams are puny, centred around a very small sphere of influence! For one, there's the usual Singapore dream of wanting our own private property with lots of space for our kids to grow up and play in- I have to confess I do feel somewhat envious of friends who have managed to secure their own and are very happy in their new homes! Well this is a personal dream which impacts mainly my own family, and not many other people.
So what other kind of dreams are there? Chip Ingram reminds us that God has a big purpose for our lives. God wants to do big things through us! How big? Parting-the-red-sea kind of big. Saving-the-world kind of big. So that's why I said my own dream was puny. Ingram suggests four areas to dream about: 1) ministry; 2) personal / career development; 3) family commitment, and 4) spiritual growth. Ultimately He wants to do great things through ordinary people like us. Well you couldn't find anyone more ordinary than me, that's for sure!
So I'm thinking about it. I don't have a dream or a big vision as yet, but I'm praying for one. One that is bigger than myself, that will impact the world around me and bring glory to Him, because it's a dream that I couldn't have achieved by my own power, but through His. Dream on...!
