God Cares About Our Dreams By Latta-Claire

If you would have told me a year ago that I would have a website, blog, and an online shop I probably would have thought you were crazy.

Last year at this time I was navigating college and the dorm life. I was navigating coexisting with other people on their career journey, and I was also balancing school work and social events. My mind was in no way thinking of a website, blog, or online shop.

It was that November when I came home one weekend and had previously gone to TJ Maxx (one of my favorite places). If I was ever stressed out my first year of college I would drive to TJ Maxx and just walk around. Sometimes I would not even buy anything, but just walk around and look at things. They call it retail therapy for a reason :)

But when I came home that weekend and unloaded all of my week’s worth of dirty laundry and TJ Maxx finds, my mom mentioned to me that I should start an Instagram page to share fun finds that I got from different stores. So I did!

I remember feeling so anxious about making this account. I was afraid that people would judge me or think it was cringey. My mom said something to me that I will never forget. She said, “Claire, people are going to talk no matter what so you might as well give them something good to talk about.”

The thought of people talking about my page still terrified me. I knew that what I was doing was something I enjoyed; if someone did not like the content (or thought it was cringey) then they would simply not follow me, and I knew I would learn to be okay with that.

The night I was going to officially make my page public, I remember our family was in the kitchen getting ready to eat supper. I asked my dad to pray over this account. I wanted this account to simply be a joyful place for others, and for people who loved home decor.

Little did I know, God had so much in store for this little page. Sometimes we do not realize that what may seem like a small simple prayer really is a powerful weapon we can utilize to stir up heaven.

A couple weeks after this, I remember being in my dorm room. It was probably 2am, and my roommate had been contact traced so I had the room to myself. I remember feeling the Lord’s presence so heavily in that room that night. It was a challenging season of life, and during that season I was dealing with unmet expectations, the stress of school and social activities, and really was just going through the motions.

But this particular night, I knew something needed to change. God wanted to expand territory in my life. In that moment I told God that I was going to take off all of the limits I had placed on Him. I was not going to place God in a box and limit His work in my life.

I prayed that night after I told God that I was taking all of the limits off, that I was going to be expectant (if you are struggling with your expectations, be sure to check out my blog post, Getting Your Expectations Up) for Him to do things in my life so great that they would be above anything I could imagine or dream up myself.

About a month after that night, I had a dream of creating a website that focused on creating cozy spaces since my Instagram was all about decor and creating cozy atmospheres. I had no idea how to create a website or how to do it well, and so I prayed that God would put resources and people in my path, and He did. A little while after that I had a dream of starting a blog and having other people write for it in hopes of encouraging others.

And what is so wild about this is that in middle school I always desired to start a blog, but did not feel it was my “time”. Little did I know God had that become a part of my story just a little later down the road. Additionally, in my freshman year of high school, I would daily read Sadie Robertson’s Live Original blog. My freshman year of high school was a tough one, and reading her blog everyday really got me through some hard days. I knew that if I could encourage at least one person through a blog, then it would all be worth it.

One night a few weeks later, I could not fall asleep and I had a dream and vision of having an online shop. At that moment I came up with the sweatshirt designs that you can NOW buy. CRAZY.

I say and tell you all of this to show you how big of a God we serve. When we stop limiting Him in what He can do in our lives, He will blow us away. I would have never been able to come up with the website, blog, and online shop if it was not for Jesus. If I would have not given up control last year, my life would look a lot different today. Because I knew it was Jesus working in me, I had more confidence.

The old Claire would have said, “I can’t start a website. I do not know how.” Latta-Claire said, “I will pray that God will provide resources and connections.” The old Claire would have said, “I cannot start a blog. My writing is not good enough, and I would have to reach out to people to write for my blog and that is awkward and out of my comfort zone.” Latta-Claire said, “God has given me the gift and enjoyment of writing out my thoughts, and I will use this to glorify Him. I will reach out to others who have impacted my life to share a part of their story on my blog.”

The old Claire would have said, “I can’t start a business; my major is counseling. I do not know the first thing about owning or running a business, and how would all of the logistics work and how would I be able to financially do it?” Latta-Claire said, “My major is not business, but God has blessed me with entrepreneurship and I am going to use these dreams God has given me to glorify Him. I will have faith that God will provide financially and He will place people in my life that I can gain wisdom from in order to successfully run this business and navigate all of the logistics.”

Stepping into your dreams and executing them also means taking a leap of faith. Sometimes you will fall, that is just the reality when starting something new. But it does not mean you give up. Have faith that God will see you through. What God starts, He completes.

I will end with this: God gives us dreams all the time, but He gives us the choice to do with them what we want. What are you going to do with the dreams God has placed in you? And if you are reading this and do not have a big dream and feel “blah” with your relationship with God, what are you limiting Him with? Take all the limits off of your life and let God begin to do some amazing things in your life. When you say “yes” to the dreams God has placed within you, be prepared to be blown away and in awe of Him.

• Latta-Claire