The American Dream? Hmmmm

So lately God has been shifting my ideas, or should I say my perspective about MANY things. This comes a result of me bombarding him with relentless questions all day long. You know the why's, and what next's, and when's...those kinds of questions that still plague my brain more often than not. But, one of the many things that I have began thinking quite differently about is this illusion of the quote unquote "American Dream". (Cause I can assure you I do not feel as if I am living a dream at the moment in all honesty.) You know the old 2.5 kids, house in the burbs, dog in the yard, white picket fence hoopla that you grow up believing is what it's all about. Boy meets girl, they get married, buy a house and a dog, they make some babies and shuttle them around to various extracurricular activities. But who on Earth decided that was the goal to shoot for? That, that was this amazing accomplishment we should all pat ourselves on the back for having attained?

Now don't misunderstand me, I am not in anyway saying this scene, this dream, this life is wrong. No. Not at all. But God is really teaching me that His dream for my family is going to look soooo different. His dream from my family is the perfect and most amazing dream. One that I could never have dared to dream up or concoct on my own.

I feel like so often we(or maybe just me) have this feeling that what we had dreamed up or planned out for our lives is the way it should be and we push and try everything to make the relationships and circumstances in our lives fit into this plan, or timeline. We(or me...I'm really just speaking to myself here) sometimes get so wrapped up in this daily grind of making life go according to our predesigned idea or plan that somewhere in the mix we lose sight of God and we stop truly listening to the directions he is giving. 

I know that God has taken Michael and I down this path for a reason. If not for anything other than the realization that our dream, HIS dream for us is not what many would consider perfectly aligned with the all American dream. The realization that the plan for our lives together that we had going into this are not the same plans that God had for us. We don't know what those plans are...still no clue...like none. BUT we aren't afraid. We know better now to listen, and look to him for direction because he isn't in the business of leading us astray. His map for our lives is perfectly laid out.