Hey, Siestas! We will do our random drawing later today as promised and, if you don’t mind a little delay, post our biography winners within the next forty-eight hours so we can leave time for you to respond to this post. I learned something new about you over the previous post: YOU ARE READERS. And I love that. Get a load of the number of comments to that post! Of course, it makes sense when you think about it. Blog readers usually are…well…readers. I have already ordered several books from your recommendations and others of you mentioned titles that stirred up great memories of biographies past.I am a dyed in the wool book nerd so this totally spoke my love language.
I’ve been thinking about something since AJ’s recent post about stepping back from her LPM job for the sake of her family. In that post and in the one that followed, we hashed over the painful truth that, actually, no one can do everything and, unless our all is Jesus, no one can have everything. We have limited resources of time, energy, and ability. But, I thought it would be fun to list a few things (dreams, if you will) that we’d each do…if only we could. If only we were not limited by time, energy, and ability, or money, for heaven’s sake. How would you complete the sentence, “If I could, I would…?” Here are the ground rules: YOU CAN ONLY NAME THREE THINGS. You have to choose. Keep in mind, these aren’t regrets. (i.e. “If I could, I would…live my whole life again without making that stupid choice.” We all have plenty of those and they’re not likely to encourage others much.) The things we’re listing on this post are wishes! Dreams can say a lot about a person and reshape how we picture one another. For instance, maybe I’ll find out today that Moose Mama secretly wishes she could sky dive, or katiegfromtennessee has a long standing dream of being a zookeeper, or Sister Lynn has always wanted to take tuba lessons. You see, this could change everything. OK, well not everything. Not even much. But, for crying out loud, wouldn’t it at least be a little fun in a grueling week? Here are three of mine:
If I could, I would…
1) Travel to every country on earth.
2) Teach elementary school Sunday School.
3) Learn sign language fluently.
OK, how about you?
If I could I would…
1. Travel with my husband at least twice a year (to places in and out of the US).
2. learn to speak Spanish fluently.
3. have children.
1. Still be a nurse
2. Swim again
3. Practice hospitality often
If I could, I would…
1) Build a house for my little family and one for my parents.
2) Travel all over Europe
3) Have lunch with you, Beth and your daughters! 🙂
1) See my family much more often (esp. my niece)and be an active part of their lives.
2) Be married to the man of my dreams and stay home and raise the children we’d adopted (that’s kinda 2 in 1, sorry!)
3) Have 2 Pugs named Petunia and Violet. 🙂
That was fun, thanks Siesta Mama! 🙂
1. I would write that book that has been in my dreams for years and in the works for many months.
2. I would learn a new language.
3. I would travel, travel, travel 🙂
Great post!
1. Own a delightful little coffee & tea shop.
2. Live in Germany for a year- preferably, Berlin.
3. Board a space shuttle, eat astronaut food, and walk on the moon.
I love you so much, Honey. I even learned something about you today. I knew #1 but numbers 2 and 3 were brand fresh insights. You know, Jackson is obsessed with being an astronaut right now since he went to NASA. I’d feel so much better if you went to outer space with him. Thanks for playing!
My 4 year old daughter wants to be an astronaut as well. I actually homeschool so we started preschool this year with her. She informed me that she hated school the 2nd day, this may be a long 13 years of schooling her. Then a few days later she told me she wanted to be an astronaut. So, I told her she can’t be an astronaut unless she went to school. Every day since she is so eager to do school. I just love moments like this.
My husband dropped off at jet at NASA in Houston on Tuesday, and talked with an astronaut! (and made it home in time for dinner) 🙂
Melissa,
I have always wanted to have a TEA SHOPPE!!
Maybe we can collaborate on a future
SIESTA TEA/COFFEE/CHOCOLATE goodies outreach!!! 🙂
We can have Sister Lynn play her tuba.
Georgia Jan can decorate with floral arrangements.
KaraLinaFan can create a Willy Wonka chocolate river with lollipops & cream mushrooms on the side. 🙂
What do you think?
You can see my answers @ 1:05 pm
Oh WOW! Abs and I LOVE Berlin too!! Just went this past summer for the first time and we fell in LOVE with the city and country. GREAT PLACE!
oops…I think I replied to someone else’s comment. Anyway Melissa, Abs and I went to Berlin this summer and we absolutely fell in LOVE with it! LOVE LOVE LOVE that city and country. We would go back in a heartbeat!
I can’t believe you actually want to eat astronaut food! Who actually wants to eat the food?! I can’t imagine it’s much better than school lunches or camp food! It keeps you alive, but that’s all!!!
If I could, I would:
1) Quit my job and go back to school full time
2) Build a home for Foster kids who are moved out of the system once they turn 18 and offer them a place to live while they pursue higher education or a trade and give them encouragement and resources they so desperately need at that age.
3) Get a personality transplant and become the woman I’ve always wanted to be
I love your #3! so……Do it.
If I could I would..
1) travel and speak about children’s ministries
2) be brave enough to pursue publishing
3) buy a vacation home on the UP shores of Lake Michigan
Heidi, I have family who own property in the UP (no house on it yet though)…. my parents were there visiting this summer and loved it up there, someday I want to travel to see the Mackinac Bridge. I am gonna hope someday you get that vacation home ‘UP’ there!!
If I could, I would…
1) skydive (but my husband’s afraid I’ll get hurt and not be able to support him while he finishes school 🙂 )
2) see all my patients for free (but again, that supporting myself thing would be a little difficult)
3) be a speaker and vocalist (however, my desire far outweighs my abilities in those areas).
This was fun. Thanks!
1. Live in Australia with my family for at least 2 years
2. Speak Spanish fluently
3. Own a two seater convertible sports car 🙂
1. moved to the rural town we minister in (we live 15 minutes away).
2. host retreats/conferences and dinner party roundtables for people in ministry with notable ministers in attendance. it would be a small intimate setting where ministers and ministry people can have access to some of the best minds in churchdom. a time to be encouraged and refreshed without having to fight the crowds at the megaconferences or have to take out a second mortgage to attend. it would be particularly focused to ministers in small rural churches.
3. open a restaurant
WOW! your #2 gave me goosebumps (chill bumps as Beth would say) I too love the idea of small intimate gatherings, 20 tops. Good food, good word and strong encouragement. Your on the right track.
thanks Marjie! God is pulling it together. Hopefully the dream can be reality very soon!
1) Spend months and months traveling each year with all of my family. Every state and lots of countries. Mission work, educational and fun stuff – all of it.
2) Have unlimited funds to help every cause that my heart desires.
3) Get a college degree – probably Nursing
1. Write and publish a book that would help women towards spiritual health.
2. Lead a Bible Study for teen girls. Girls need mentors!
3. Turn my Biblical counseling ministry in to a non-profit, supported well by donators, so that women and girls could get free counseling.
Wow God is amazing I submitted my comment and this one was right above mine and said exactly what was on my heart. I am a Youth Pastor’s wife and I love tean girls and YES they need mentors! And then your last comment was to turn your counseling ministry into a non-profit for women and girls which is exactly what I would LOVE to do! I just love how God can re-affirm a dream and to know that He has called others to do the exact same thing! Praise the Lord he amazes me all the time!!!
how fun to find kindred sisters here!
Ellen and Meredith!…
I hear you girls! I have the same passions for ministering to young girls. I too am married to a youth pastor so I have the privilege of leading a small group of teen girls every Wednesday…they are such a delight! God has placed so many hopes and desires in my heart for helping young girls know their identity and beauty in Christ! Thanks to you both for sharing! This is such a great community of women!
I would write the great American novel that I’ve been planning for years.
I would divide my time more evenly among the grandchildren. Since I babysit 2 of them, they get more of my time than the other 3.
I would study herbalism.
1) work with children suffering with Aids in Africa
2) travel
3) spend a week with Beth – talking and learning
“If I could, I would…”
1) Have a baby (God is bigger than infertility!!!)
2) Go back to college and finish my degree in Psychology
3) Be a stay at home Mom, while also heading up a Women’s ministry and couseling women who need help!
Praying for you Meredith! We just found out this week that we are pregnant with our 2nd IVF baby- after 4 tries that didn’t work. Our 1st IVF baby (actually our third child) took 5 tries which equaled almost 2 years of infertility treatments. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that it’s all about God’s perfect timing and His perfect plan. Hang in there, sister!
If I could I would…
1. Write a book
2 Write a bible study
3. Write a song (do you see a theme here!)
By the way, I learned a little sign language this summer as we had a young man who was deaf from birth on staff at Camp Grizzly. My kids studied and could have complete conversations with him by the end of the summer!
wow! great (and fun and difficult) question!! 🙂
If I could, I would…
1. Homeschool my kids and go back to work all at the same time. 🙂
2. open a homeless shelter in our area, we need one very badly!
3. write a book
If I could I would…
-raise an unwanted child, even though I’m a Nana now
-become a published author
-beome really great at photography
Elizabeth
http://www.justfollowingjesus.com
1. Take a nap
2. Take a nap
3. Take a nap!
Susan in OKC
I hear you!! Hope you can today…….. 🙂
Our pastor always says, “Sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is take a nap.” I agree. 🙂
Susan in OKC
Amen and amen!
I’m so with you, sister!
1. Be a web designer/developer.
2. Learn a bunch of languages fluently – starting with Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, oh yeah and English (I didn’t realize how much I don’t know about English until I tried to learn Greek).
3. Go clothes shopping with Beth.
p.s. – Beth, the other day I watched the “Woman’s Heart” intro from ’95. All I could think of was, “Wow, that is the Biggest Hair EVER!” Haha.
But after doing your studies for 7 years and seeing you in person at the SSMTC, I think you are more beautiful now than ever. 🙂
If I could I would:
1. Like to tour the Vatican
2. Speak a foreign language fluently – my choice would be Spanish
3. Be able to surf at 60 plus years old! 4. Get a preview of heaven and be able to tell of it’s wonders!
Hugs in Him,
Pam H.
Buena Park, CA
Pam when you tour the Vatican, I hear there is a tour under the Vatican! 🙂
If I could, I would:
1. visit every state in the US
2. climb Mt Everest (it is so beautiful!)
3. live by the ocean
If I could, I would…
1) Work in ministry full-time as my husband’s helper
2) Learn to play the cello
3) join Melissa on her mission into outer space (I always cry when I watch the movie “Apollo 13” – not because it’s scary or sad, but because I long to view the earth from that perspective in person.)
About your #3, that movie always makes me cry too…I’m glad to know I’m not the only one.
God’s universe is so vast and amazing. I hope someday we get to see all of it from every angle!
If I could, I would……
Get paid to travel the world and have that be my job.
Be able to have a child. (Doctor’s say I can’t. But I know whose report I’ll believe due to a condition I was born with). Hard for my 26 year old self to deal with sometimes.
Be a singer. I find great joy in music. (And secretly have found myself singing in the shower on more than one occasion).
Fun post!!
I couldn’t have a baby either. BUT GOD!!! My miracle is 4 yrs old now.
What can I say? I know the pain of infertility all to well. Hang in there sister! (((HUGS)))
1. Own a farm that rescues horses (but I’d take cows, dogs, too)
2. Travel – don’t care to where – just be cool to see other parts of the world
3. Hang out for the weekend with some of my favorite bloggers.
My daughter would love to be your helper on your farm for horses (cows and dogs too!) 🙂
1. Travel outside of Minnesota and the USA.
2. Speak to others about how God is still present when things like suicide, abuse, lack of parenting, etc have touched your life.
3. Learn Italian and Irish.
If I could I would:
1. Visit Australia
2. Own a 1965 Ford Mustang Convertible
3. Go on a missions trip, preferably to the Holy Land
1. Travel the world with my husband/family for 1 year.
2. Open a wine tasting shop
3. Be a veterinarian
1. visit Italy
2. build a house with more than one bathroom!!!
3. had more kids
If I could:
1. I would operate a place of rescue one yard from Hell!
2. I long to go to Israel
3. Feed every single, solitary hungry mouth in all of the world … daily!!!
Blessings galore in my Love, Yeshua/Jesus,
jean dean <
I love that 🙂 I’d help you 🙂
I’m in too jean dean and Pam! That’s a great would if I could’ve #1
If I could, I would…
1.) be a Christian children’s book author and illustrator
2.) travel the U.S. and the World with my family while photographing nature, people and places and blogging about it along the way (what a way to get closer to Jesus than to see His creation first hand everywhere around the globe!)
3.) go on an archeological dig and discover something that had been lost for centuries!
I just so loved this! Thanks!
Prayers and blessings,
Rebecca
If I could, I would:
1. Live in a quaint little cottage with a thatched roof in the highlands of Scotland with a “hee-land” cow or two grazing in my front lawn.
2. Heal the heart wounds of all the orphaned, abandoned and unloved children in the world and tell them about the One who loves them the most.
3. Eat all the lucious and delicious food I wanted without gaining one ounce or having to exercise.
1. spend the rest of my life working as a full-time Children’s Pastor, introducing those precious little wonders to the best friend they’ll ever meet.
2. write a book chronicling my life and the power of God’s healing from abuse, heartache and terrible self-confidence, and use it to encourage other women to excel beyond their limitations and to look to the One source of excellence and Worth in their lives.
3. find a way to bring Willy Wonka’s Wonkaland to life– complete with the chocolate river, mushrooms with cream, lollipops and ever-lasting gobstoppers that all taste amazing–with no fat, no calories of course!! (a girl’s gotta dream!)
Love #3!! haha!
Ever since I was little I have loved that part in Willy Wonka!! And definitely no fat or calories would be awesome!!
Oops! I’m so sorry, I scan read the post and didn’t realize I only was supposed to make 3 choices…I’ll blame my advanced age! As soon as I posted I began reading the comments and realized I had goofed. Mea Culpa!
Pam H.
I just thought you were a rebel! 🙂
1. Travel.
2. Remodel my house. I have very 70’s, very Brady Bunch looking , Kitchen and Bathrooms.
3. Become a librarian.
1. Travel the world.
2. Learn to really dance.
3. Buy (and ride) a motorcyle (my husband is totally against this one — so I won’t.) 🙂
Great idea, Beth!
If I could, I would:
1. Dye my hair a sweet shade of red
2. Move back to Tennessee, or to the beach, or both!
3. Have a helicopter at my disposal so that I could see my friends and family more often, without a car ride.
If I could, I would:
1)Learn to play the piano.
2)Live at the beach.
3) Learn sign language (in fact, I am trying to learn a new page each day from “Talk to the Deaf” by Lottie Riekehof. I have tried off and on over the years, but never had the time or energy to really get it! Funny that you mentioned that also.) 🙂
karen:)
I would love to live at the beach! East coast, west coast any coast!
My most favorite place is Cannon Beach, Oregon, and Haystack Rock. 🙂 but I agree, any beach would do!!
1. Travel to every country with Beth
2. Be a stay at home wife/(mom later on)
3. Run a marathon (working on this one)
Oh Melissa!! You go girl. I am running my first half marathon on Monday!!!! You can do it. Keep working on it.
1. Learn Chinese
2. Open a Tea Room/bookstore that serves loose leaf tea
3. Get a PhD in Chinese Studies
If I could I would…
1. be a storm chaser.
2. take my boys to the zoo everyday.
3. run a marathon…I guess this is something that technically I could do, but not really. 🙂
Fun post!
Cynthia in OK
I always wanted to be a storm chaser!!!!!
I live in Texas, a storm chased us in our car once and I would not want to be within seeing distance to chase one back ever. They are fickle.
1. Follow an Operation Christmas Child shoe box from Oklahoma to the child who receives it.
2. Visit missionaries around the world.
3. Learn a foreign language, especially Spanish.
Oh Kathy…I’ve always wanted to deliver shoeboxes to the kids with Operation Christmas Child too! Forgot about that one 🙂
1. Travel the world
2. Be a stay at home mother
3. Own a book store
If I could, I would…
Own either a bookstore (much like the one in You’ve Got Mail”), a bakery that specializes in cupcakes, or have a hometown restaurant.
Adopt
Buy a cottage on Sunset Beach, North Carolina.
1. Take my kids to the ocean
2. Travel
3. Learn to speak French (I have tried)
1. Move to a cabin on a lake with just my husband and our two Schnauzers, Edith and Mildred.
2. Influence every one of my grandchildren for Christ.
3. Be fit enough to run a half-marathon.
:O
If I could, I would:
1- quit my accounting job and start my own business- either wedding/event planning or even a bakery!
2- travel much more
3- be able to sing so that I could play Dorothy in a play version of the Wizard of Oz- I already know all her lines! 😉
I’d quit my bookkeeping jobs and make a joint effort of a bakery! 🙂 The two finance gals with a bakery!!! 🙂 Love it!
If I could I would:
1 – Learn how to play the violin (or fiddle if you are from the south like me)
2 – Go to Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia
3 – Adopt any and all children that I could that needed a home from the US or International
Sherrie Watson
Oak Ridge NC
And I know that it was suppose to be three but I would also invent the most amazing pocketbook ever.
In case anyone else feels like me, I just wanted to throw in a little encouragement that Jesus can do so much MORE than any of us dare to ask or dream!! If the main things you’re writing here are the dreams and desires He’s given you, He will bring it to pass at the right time, so keep trusting Him and don’t get discouraged… God CAN, and when it’s right, He will! 🙂
“Trust in the Lord and do good; so you will live in the land and enjoy security. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him.” ~Psalm 37:3-7