Following your dreams is not always easy especially if you’ve made some decisions you regretted along the way. In today’s Welcome Wednesday post, Kathleen Caron talks about how to find your dreams if you’ve lost them.
Kathleen visiting a Compassion project in Rwanda
Back to School Night
Have you ever been to “Back to School Night,” when you visit your kid’s classroom and sit on those little plastic chairs, while the teacher talks about the curriculum for the coming year? I always felt uncomfortable going to “Back to School Night,” and not just because of the little chairs.
I was uncomfortable because I could tell that the other parents were doctors, lawyers and engineers, and I felt inferior to them. The questions they asked, their cool confidence; everything about them said, “We are educated people. We have something important to say.”
The truth was, I needed to go “Back to School.” I was a lowly bookkeeper with no college degree or important title. I was just a big old bundle of blown potential, doing my best to get through life.
I made some dumb choices. I dropped out of college, which I eventually came to regret. It never occurred to me that I could go back. It was too late, my fate was sealed. I would forever be a college dropout, a failure with a capital F.
God’s sneaky ways
But God had other plans for me. He unearthed dreams in my heart that I didn’t even know existed; dreams about traveling the world and being an advocate for poor children, about finally getting a degree and becoming a writer. I might have given up on me, but He had not.
It’s sneaky how God works, how He will lead you where He wants you to go by a circuitous route. God will plant an idea in your mind and let you believe it was all your idea.
How it happened, I’ll never understand, but as a volunteer for Compassion International, I was given an opportunity to go on a mission trip to Tanzania. I had no means and I was scared to death of flying across the Atlantic Ocean. But when you get in God’s will, it’s like an inexorable tide, you just get swept along.
Going to Africa and seeing extreme poverty up close awakened something inside of me. I wanted to write about what I experienced. It also shattered my belief that it was too late for me. I decided that I would finally finish that college degree and become a writer, because now I had something to say.
So I did it. Thirty-five years after I started, I finished my bachelor’s degree through a distance learning program focused on writing. I started blogging and now I have a platform to share my advocacy for rescuing children from poverty. I am a writer. I have impact.
A caveat
Listen kids, don’t be like me. Stay in school and get that degree. You will never regret it and going to college is a lot easier when you don’t have a job and three children. Trust me on that.
If you lose your way for a little while; if you make some bad choices and give up on yourself, don’t think it’s too late for you to have a dream. That is simply not true.
You may give up on yourself, but God will never give up on you. It’s never too late to go back to school. It’s never too late to follow your dream. God can use a dreamer like you.
Do you have a dream you would like to follow? I would love to hear about it!
Kathleen Caron lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, three children and two rescue dogs. She has been a Compassionate advocate since 2005, and has been blessed to travel to Tanzania and Rwanda to meet some of her sponsored children. Kathleen writes about food, faith and family at {full of life} soul food.
Teresa Shields Parker is a Christian weight loss author, coach, podcaster, and speaker, who has lost 250 pounds and kept it off since 2013. Her books include: “Reconnecting Jayne: Her Sister’s Support,” “Rebuilding Jayne: Her Father’s Protection,” “Sweet Grace: How I Lost 250 Pounds and Stopped Trying to Earn God’s Favor,” “Sweet Grace Study Guide,” “Sweet Victory: Winning the Battle,” “Sweet Surrender: Breaking Strongholds,” “Sweet Journey to Transformation: Practical Steps to Lose Weight and Live Healthy”, “Sweet Freedom: Losing Weight and Keeping It Off With God’s Help,” “Sweet Freedom Study Guide,” “Sweet Change: True Stories of Transformation,” “Sweet Hunger: Developing an Appetite for God,” and “Sweet Excuses: Stop Lying to Yourself & Start Losing Weight.” She also offers Overcomers Christian Weight Loss Academy and VIP intensive coaching. Don’t miss her weekly podcast, Sweet Grace for Your Journey, where she shares tips from her personal journey of losing weight and discovering healthy living. Contact her at [email protected].
Didn’t you just want to scoop those kids up and bring them home in your suitcase? But that would have been selfish, right? We, as Americans, always think we can solve things by bringing those in need to our more “advanced” culture. God, however, is not American. He is African, Asian, global. To know of God, we have to know and experience more of the world and the people He created. In doing that, how can we not share our resources with those less fortunate, wherever they live.
Those kids were so much fun! As a family, we sponsor three Compassion kids in Rwanda that I got to see on my last trip there, and they are doing great. Compassion is such an amazing organization, because they partner with churches in the poorest communities in the developing world to bring change within the community. The Compassion projects are completely run by people from within the community, and the leaders of each country project are from that nation. The president of Compassion Rwanda, Samuel Rugambage, is one of the most humble, Godly men you could ever hope to meet. Being from Rwanda, he is uniquely qualified to understand the needs of Rwandan children. Even nearly 20 years after the genocide, Rwanda is a deeply wounded place, but Compassion has played an important role in the healing and reconciliation process. The Rwandese people are heroes of forgiveness, an example to the world.
What encouragement, Kathleen. I smiled when I read how God puts an idea in our mind and lets us think it was ours all along (reminds me of husbands). I never dreamed I’d get my first opportunity at college after my youngest child was nearly grown. Now, my direction has taken a different turn. I still have dreams of teaching somewhere in the future.
And I pray God grants you those dreams, you are an excellent teacher, it comes through in your writing and your enthusiasm for life.
Thank you, Kathleen. That means a lot.
Loved your post, Kathleen. I had received a scholarship years ago, but after my mom died my motivation was gone. Initially I did start but, dropped out. Then 24 years later I returned to school. I went part time so it took me 5 years to get my Associates degree. In 1994 I earned an AA in English. Then 10 years later I returned again and in 2006 I received a BA in Human Services. You’re right, it’s never too late to go to school. I LOVED going.
Wow, Anne! That’s so awesome. It’s never too late! I’m sure you could come up with thousands of excuses not to go back to school … but God had other plans.
You’re right, Teresa. I had read that the percentage of graduates diminishes as you go higher in education. Fewer doctorates than those with AA degrees.
Me too, Anne, I loved school as an adult! I was such a diligent student, even though I had been an indifferent student when I was younger. I appreciated my education, as an adult. Your story inspires me!
Aw, thanks Kathleen. I can always count on you for an encouraging word.
SOOO good Kathleen, I love your heart writing and am encouraged today
Aw thanks, Christa, I appreciate you reading my story :-)
Yes Kathleen, it is never too late to follow your dream. I loved this story.