Dream, Pray, and Believe

If it's alright with you guys, I want to change the subject for a little while. (Actually, that's a silly sentence because "I want to change the subject" is true, even if it's not "alright with you guys.")

God is eagerly waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. But He can't if you don't pray, and He can't if you don't dream. In short, He can't if you don't believe.
- Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, This, The Greatest of All Dispensations, Ensign July 2007

There are a few things I'd like to highlight in that quote, mostly because I'd like to understand them better.
"God is eagerly waiting..." I think I understand that part well enough, but it still sounds pretty incredible.
"Just as He always has." This one, I'd like to know more about.
"But He can't..." But, God is omnipotent, isn't He? He could, theoretically, do anything He wanted to. Then again, He can't go back on His word, and some blessings are reserved for the faithful. So maybe there are some blessings that God can't give us unless we meet the requirements - not because He lacks the ability, but because He promised not to.

But leaving the over-analysis and speculation for another day (which probably means never), let's stick to the message Elder Holland was actually trying to convey.

God wants to answer our prayers and fulfill our dreams, but first, we need to dream, pray, and believe (yes, I'm listing them out of order, but there's a reason for that).

A lot of Disney movies address the subject of dreams, mostly of having dreams, believing in them, and achieving them through a combination of hard work, perseverance, and wishing on stars. Though, I have to say, some of their "wishing on stars," especially in The Princess and the Frog, looked an awful lot like praying.

My own take on this formula is that you first need to have a dream, then pray for help achieving it and work hard for it, believing that if the Lord wants it to happen and you refuse to give up, it'll happen.

(I just spent at least half an hour writing a page worth of material, then decided not to post it on my blog. Don't you hate it when that happens?)

So, step one, define your dream. Only you know what you really want out of life. I recommend seeking Heavenly guidance on the selection of your dream, so you pick something that you both want to happen.

Step two, pray for help. If your dream is big enough to be worthy to be called a dream, it'll take a miracle to make it happen, so make sure you pray for one.

Step three, work hard for it. I knew there was a catch. Though Elder Holland doesn't mention this step (at least, not in that short quote), I think I'd be misleading you if I left it out of this blog post. In my experience, God's not big into giving out freebies. He wants us to work for what we get so we'll A) appreciate the blessings we receive, and B) become stronger as a result of our effort.

Step four, believe. This is another step that I struggle with. Sometimes I wonder whether God is trying to help me achieve my goals or whether He's holding me back so I have more of a chance to work and struggle for it. Either way, deep down, I know that God wants what's best for me, so whether that's for me to reach my goals or to become stronger by trying to reach them, I can trust Him enough to put forth the effort, knowing that He'll provide whichever miracle I need most.

We've all got a lot of hard work ahead of us. That's just how life works. But if you pick a good dream and stick to it, you may accomplish some great things by all that work you'll have to do, and I'm pretty sure it'll be worth the effort.