It’s a wonderful life

How many of you watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” during the holidays? (if you are like my family, it is a tradition!)  At one point during that movie George Bailey says – “Aren’t you tired of just dreaming about things?”  I think about that line a lot during the holiday season.  It seems that many people are just going through life – day by day – doing what they need to do to get by, but not really living the life that they dream of living and not really ever doing the things they sincerely want to do. Let me share with you how I stopped just “dreaming about things” several years ago during the Christmas season.

One of my dreams – “someday” – was to have dear darling Dan and I renew our wedding vows.  The year previously we had attended the “I Still Do” conference (now called  “Weekend to Remember” put on by Family Life Ministries – I highly recommend it) where we received a beautiful marriage covenant certificate that we brought home and put high up on a shelf in its plastic covering to do “something” with at a later date.  Well on December 16 that year, I looked up at that certificate and said to Dan – “Let’s renew our vows for our 15th anniversary” (which was just four short days away).  To which he smiled and replied “Do you want me to rent a tux?” (gotta love that guy!)

And that is exactly what we did – four days later we had a meaningful ceremony here in our home with our closest friends.  The girls all dressed up in their red velvet Christmas dresses and carried candles and flowers.  I bought a new dress, shoes & had my hair done up & Dan rented the tux.  We even had music, flowers, a cake and toasted with a bottle of Martinelli’s to many more years of blessings from the Lord. (We are getting ready to celebrate 21 years later this month!) It was an awesome and memorable moment.  It was a highlight of our marriage and the girls were impacted greatly about the importance of finding a godly, loving & kind husband to spend their lives with.  I am filled with joy just reliving it again as I share it here with you.

And the beautiful marriage covenant certificate hangs prominatly in our living room today for everyone to see our covenant to one another and to the Lord.

But do you know how easy it would have been to NOT have renewed our vows – just to have continued on to say – “someday” we’ll do that. We could have easily talked ourselves out of it by saying – Yes, but…

....maybe we should wait until our 25th anniversary?

…we only have four days to plan it – how can we pull it off? …our friend, Donnie, who married us has a Christmas dinner to go to that night and can’t come..…we aren’t giving our friends enough notice. …I don’t have anything to wear

…I have so much to do this week

…we really shouldn’t be spending the extra money (we decided to use our anniversary trip fund to pay for it…so the girls put together their money and treated us to dinner & a movie and then when we came home they had a sign on the door that said “The Robinhood Hotel” and they had cleaned our room spotless – put sparkling cider & candles in the room & acted like they were innkeepers – too cute!)

The “yes….but” list could go on & on.  We chose not to listen to that voice but to begin living our dreams and doing what we really want to do in this life – right now! It is now a priceless memory that we will cherish forever!

Are you tired of just dreaming about things? Are you ready to begin living the life you want to live this year?  I see so many people around me waiting to really live, waiting to fulfill their dreams.  We’ll do that –

• after…we get married
• after…we have kids
• after…the kids get older
• after…we’ve moved to a new house
• after…we have more money
• after…I get that degree
• after…the house is clean
• after…the laundry is done
• after…(fill in the blank)

OR we are constantly saying I’ll do that –

• next week
• next month
• next year
• or if its a diet…next Monday 🙂

Its time to stop waiting & stop putting off living the life we dream of and its time to begin to “start doing” the things we really want to do.  Put away the excuses, destroy your “yes…but” list and begin today to live that “wonderful life”.

Some things we must wait to do because we lack the finances but many of our dreams -things we want to do, or see, or experience – we could do now or at least in the foreseeable future (enough to start planning, working and saving for), if we really wanted to.

What are your dreams?

What is the life you want to be living?

What are you doing to make it happen this year?

Take some time here during this “most wonderful time of the year” and right before we turn over the calendar to 2008 and really reflect on your life and the changes or rearranges you want to make happen.  What would your “wonderful life” look like? What do you want to see come to pass this year?

As you read this weeks motivation….don’t just “save it as new” or put it in your filing cabinet as something to get to later.  Take some time today and sit down with your pad of paper & a pen and make that dream list.  Write out what your “wonderful life” will look like this year. Include your personal goals & dreams, your family life, your marriage, and even your career. Then begin to set things in motion to have those dreams become realities!  

We only get one wonderful life – lets stop just “dreaming about things” and start living it today!