Dreams

I’ve always joked that daydreaming is my hobby. My mind has always been in the clouds. As a little girl I spent countless hours thinking about the future. I imagined my handsome husband with his gentlemanly nobility, my children with their sweet dispositions, my home with its lovely décor, and my career with its ease and rewards. These, of course were my imaginings and thus I made no room for challenge, hardship, tragedy, or the slightest struggle. A beautiful family of my own was what my young life was to amount. This is a rather typical dream for little girls; one that big girls rarely ever give up or expand upon. In all honesty, I still think of my handsome, gentlemanly husband and I pray for him daily. Moreover, I already pray for my babies who, as my mom would say are “just a twinkle in God’s eye!” Do I need the grand home and easy career anymore? No. Do I still hope for it? Sometimes. Since the times of young Cait’s musings, my dreams have grown and like me, they’ve been transformed.


When in my teens it hit me that I may never marry. That was a tough concept to grapple with, but grapple with it I did! Jesus and I had long conversations about life and marriage and desires. He patiently taught me to surrender those dreams to Him and trust Him with my future. Eventually I came to a point where a life of singleness no longer taunted me but excited me! Why? Because my life in the hands of Christ was sure to be a life of adventure, fulfillment, and purpose! Perhaps I would not have traditional fulfillment, but knowing that He would love countless hearts through me promised to be fulfillment in itself! By surrendering my future and my love story to Him I was able to become even more determined not to settle for savvy young charmers that would hold me back in serving Christ. Jesus gave me a vision of a godly young man with a surrendered heart and life, a young man with zeal, compassion, leadership skills, humility, purity, and selflessness. This was the young man with whom I would share my life if Christ led me to such a decision. However, this man is not my focus or my goal. He is simply the standard I have for my future teammate in accomplishing Christ’s goals.

An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. – 1 Corinthians 7:34

It’s relieving to serve Christ because it means that I can have a life outside of earthly romance. So many girls and women amount their whole lives to marriage. If marriage does not happen for them by a certain age, they seriously have no idea what else they’ll do. With a sad sigh they default on career and social life for fulfillment. When Jesus took over my life and taught me to surrender the desire for marriage to Him, He allowed me to have wonderful new dreams! Looking into the next ten to fifteen years, I see awesome possibilities! I won’t go into the details of these new dreams because they are rather personal between God and me. However I can assure you, they are not dependent upon marriage. These are dreams that can be accomplished with or without a husband. If the Lord pairs me with that young man He gave me a vision of so long ago, then we will live out His dreams together and have a magnificent adventure doing so! If the Lord asks me to remain single, then I will continue to rely upon Him and live out His dreams joyfully!

My dreams have certainly changed since childhood which is more than okay. As long as I am single I will be devoted to intimacy with Christ, that I might serve Him with a pure heart. When the time comes that I become a wife I will be devoted to intimacy with Christ, that I might serve my husband and Him with a pure heart. Regardless of my relational status, my dream is to serve the Lord.

Sanctified and Surrendered by Caitlin Marie Stacy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.