Do you know where you’d like to
see yourself in a year, five years, and ten years from now? I do. I believe God
has a way of shaking up plans each of us has in mind for ourselves, but I don’t
think it hurts to envision and work towards different goals and experiences as your life progresses. One day I wrote out different lists of things I’d
like to do and experience over the course of a year, five years, and ten years.
I prefer to keep my lists private for now, but I encourage you to make lists of
your own. It’s simple. Make three different lists -- the first starting with
one year, the second starting with what you’d like to accomplish in five years,
and the third will focus on where you’d like to see yourself in ten years. It’s
cool getting an idea of how you’d like your life to change and I hope your
lists reveal surprising things to you.
About a year ago, I had a dream my dad wanted to talk to our family about something serious. I wasn’t sure what he wanted to discuss, but I knew it was something I needed to prepare myself for. Around the time after I had this dream, I remember stopping by my parents place and sensing something was going on that they weren’t telling me. I tried to dismiss what I’d been feeling, but I couldn’t shake it. Something serious was happening. As I returned to my home after visiting them one day, I was in my kitchen washing dishes when a heaviness hit my heart like nothing I’d ever felt before. Something’s wrong with dad. That’s what that dream was about. God, what’s going on? As I continued washing dishes, I started crying and praying. Then in mid-spring, my dad held an unexpected family meeting that would change all our lives forever. He hesitated at first, and as his voice started cracking and he started crying, he said, “Well, I wanted to talk to ya’ll to tell you that I have kidney disea...