“Dream, dream, dream, dream. Dream, dream, dream, dream.” So says the famous Everly Brothers song ‘All I have to Do is Dream’ – do you remember that far back? Apparently, we all dream every night (or day if on shift work) – it’s the wonderful way that God has made us to work through the stuff of the previous day that our minds and brains have assimilated and need filing! I find that if I wake up really early in the morning, I can sometimes remember what I was dreaming about.  In fact, that part of the day seems to be when I find that I am most sensitive to the Holy Spirit of God who sometimes reminds me of things I need to attend to that day or puts people/things on my mind that I need to pray about. God has this amazing way of communicating with us humans.

Of course, some dreams (if recalled) can be scary or frightening or we can even experience nightmares about certain things that have happened to us even in the distant past. My dear late hubbie, Mike, was troubled with nightmares shortly after we got married ( – no they weren’t about me!) He’d had a troubled childhood particularly in the boarding school he attended and some of what he went through became vivid in his dreams. Fortunately, we were able to pray about these things, revisit these experiences and we were even able to visit the actual place where all the trauma happened and met the present staff there who were so pleasant. His nightmares stopped and he became a healed man.

At our church we are studying the life of Joseph who as a teenager (see Genesis 37) had some vivid dreams about future happenings. His family were not impressed when he blurted out the details of these dreams but God used these dreams to help Joseph know that God had a plan and purpose for him even when he went through some very troubled times when he was growing up into adulthood and beyond. God had to work on Joseph’s character before his dreams came into fruition. Nothing is wasted with God, not even hard times we go through.

Keeping a notebook by the side of the bed is helpful to write down any dreams that God might want to speak to us through. Similarly, when our children dream, we can try to understand what these are about and write them down also. The dreams might make more sense later. Our children need to know that dreams matter and even though they might dream about wanting this or that, the reality of dreams can be most precious.

Encouraging children to think about (like day dreaming) what they would like God to do and then praying about those things perhaps with an adult can be a way of children realising the reality of God. I had friends who lived on the outskirts of Birmingham in a flat. Their two boys longed to have a garden so they started to pray about it as a family. In quite a short time, they were offered a house with a garden and of course the boys were delighted as were Mum and Dad! God is faithful in the details of what we pray and children can prove God for themselves over and over again because of their simple faith and God intervening in their lives.

Dream on as I am doing – believing God to provide 11 more sets of books for children to enjoy the wonders of God and His word. Set A ‘The Creation Series’ is already available; Set B is being published at the present time; and 10 more sets are in the pipeline (7 of which are written already and another 3 yet to be done). I taught reading to struggling readers with the sole purpose of wanting them to enjoy reading the Bible, indeed the best book in the world so that they would be given the hope and confidence that they needed to enjoy and succeed in their lives.