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. Get married. (Does anyone know where in the world my future husband is? And, could you point him in my direction?!)
2. Have children.
3. Travel to Australia, Ireland, Scotland, and Hawaii.
If I could I would…..
1. Quit my job and start a Christian daycare/school.
2. Take mission trips to other countries.
3. Hmmmmm. I don’t know.
Thanks for a great post Beth!!
Amanda
What a concept, I don’t know?
1. Play the piano for an evangelist
2. Go back to Italy.
3. Take my family to Hawaii.
1. Read the Bible in it’s orginal languages
2. Have a voice like Celin Dion…I can just see myself belting out her version of O Holy Night at the Christmas Communion Service!
3. Eat anything I want and not gain weight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If I could, I would:
1. Fund a worldwide program for treatment, housing, and care of mental illness
2. Knit everything I love looking at and touching
3. Hike and bike a million miles
If I could, I would…
1. Take classes in painting/drawing
2. Write
3. Travel to see all of Alaska
1. Take my Momma to England
2. Own a children’s book store just like the one in You’ve Got Mail
3. Eat ice cream every day
If I could, I would…
1. Travel to Kenya for a horseback riding safari, galloping along with a herd of zebras.
2. Learn to play the violin.
3. Raise Golden retriever puppies to be guide dogs for the Seeing Eye foundation.
Lisa, You are never too old to learn to play the violin. I am a violin instructor and have several adult students! 🙂 The kicker is to find a great teacher, and to make sure that you carve out some practice time. YOU CAN DO THIS!
Bitsy
Write a book
Take my entire family on a one year vacation
play piano
If I could I would…
1. Take the train to Glacier National Park and then to the West Coast with my family.
2. Sing back up for a professional performer
3. Cuddle my children all day long
1. Learn to tap dance (and dance with Fred Astaire-types). 🙂
2. Become fluent in German, French, and dolphin,(Don’t you think it would be so interesting to talk to them?), then travel to the places where those languages are spoken. 🙂
3. Consistently live on 10% and give away 90% 🙂
If I could, I would…
1. Teach elementary school
2. Travel every month
3. Live near water (lake, river or ocean makes no difference to me!)
Leslie
Apple Valley, MN
If I could, I would:
1. Write and publish a children’s book
2. Participate in a triathlon
3. Grow any kind of green plant without killing it!!
1. Ride my horse on every amazing stretch of beach that exists around the world! From Big Sur, CA to Greece!
2. Be a part of an archeological dig with training in restoration of objects and learning Biblical application.
3. Build a God centered resort so that lonely elderly who have no family can eat for free and with friends, never alone. War veterans will get special attention 🙂
Oh Lynn – I think I like yours better than mine. I would love to do all those things too. #3 sounds like a superb idea.
God has truly blessed me. yet, after marrying at the tender age of 16 1/2, I would love to travel and see some of this great world He has created. Also, to be able to study God’s Word more in-depth. And to worship as one who has no inhabitions. I feel sometimes as if I have missed soooo much of who God is to me, but I am glad that His Word tells me that His mercies are new each morning and hopefully so are new beginings. Love musch, Carla
1. Travel to exotic places with my husband all over the world
2. Eat anything I want and not gain weight
3. See more and more international students won to relationship with Jesus and impacting their countries for Him
1) Move my family from Alaska to Texas
2) Travel to Jerusalem
3) Stay home with my kids and not have to be in school!
1. Build a family retreat home in Brenham.
2. Travel to every country in the world.
3. Learn violin.
1. Get married.
2. Travel to Disney World at least once a year.
3. Go to New York, Hawaii, Australia, California…
1.Spend a month in Hawaii with my husband and children.
2.Live on the beach
3.Love perfectly
1. I would adopt a child or two from anywhere.
2. I would become a published Christian writer.
3. I would buy a little place in Italy to spend summer.
1. teach Hebrew to students or be the teacher’s assistant.
2. Financially help Mom. Mom is as Sunday School teacher. She would like to receive a certificate in theology at Moody Bible Institute or Dallas Theological Seminary.
3. Speak to Jews, especially Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox Jews, about Jesus Christ in different countries, epecially in Israel. It’s where I’ve wanted to go for a while.
Only 3 huh??? tough, but here are my top 3.
1. learn to play the guitar
2. help/be on the team that plans Beth’s Living Proof Live events
3. would start a ministry similar to Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch. Work with animals and kids and put God right smack dab in the middle!
1. Spend every other weekend in Hamburg, Germany – my favourite city.
2. Go to an open mic night, get up, sing and play the guitar.
3. Bake lots of cakes and give them away.
If I could I would:
1. Live oceanfront!
2. Go back to Bible College
3. Donate a hundred times back to the people who have helped my family!
1. Buy about 20 acres of land. I would use it to plant about every fruit bearing tree that grows in Louisiana, and plant about 3 acres of garden! : )
2. Travel often with my husband, wherever we would desire to go!
3. Go with my husband on a mission trip to Africa.
My top 3:
1. learn to play the guitar
2. get married and adopt lots of kids (i’m getting to old to actually have babies, I don’t have the energy for that in 40’s so they will have to be older) :0)
3. run a ranch similar to Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch. Work with animals and kids and God right smack dab in the middle of it all!
IF I COULD I WOULD
1) BE THE OPENING ACT FOR A CECE WINANS CONCERT.
2) PLAY FOR THE WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association).
3) VISIT EVERY COUNTRY ON A HISTORICAL TOUR.
1) travel with my kids to meet my sponsored Compassion kids in India & Ethiopia
2) be an Egyptologist or archaeologist
3) buy a villa in the Tuscan countryside, learn Italian, grow my own vegetables, and be able walk into town for espresso and pastries!
Great idea Beth! Thank you for reminding us we all do have dreams!
1. Read all these posts! (I indulged in at least 50 – you are all so FUN!)
2. Plant and tend the garden and veggie patch I see in my mind for my yard but is definitely not currently in my yard. (I’m barely planting seeds in my kids right now)As I type this my 8yr old and 5yr old boys are putting mini robot bugs – they move around – IN MY HAIR!
3. Homeschool my three kids with our first year curriculum requiring rv-ing (sp?)across the U.S. (Bonus from you guys: stopping at best Diners/Drive-Ins and Dives highlighted on Food Network!)
Love Triple “D”.
If I could I would…
1) Start a Christ-centered girl’s school in Kenya and teach them not only acedemics but pour into them God’s Word to help them become all that they can be…women of God, to affect their generations…
2)Adopt children since I cannot have my own
3)Have a beach house and eat ice cream everyday
if I could I would:
become fluent in Japanese
visit Greece, Italy and Spain
sing with a band and tour the country
if I could I would:
write my own life story
visit all the countries (like grandma goodie)
sew and craft the rest of the days of my life to share these items with everyone
If I could, I would…
1. Go back to Romania and work in the orphanage I came from.
2. Learn to play the piano.
3. Have millions or dollars- to travel and give away money to the poor in other countries.
If I could, I would…
1) work less and travel more
2) be a full time NHRA Pit Reporter
3) own a place at the shore where I could bring friends, for free to be spiritually encourage and refreshed but also have this place to share with my, soon to be husband, as a time to slow down in our busy lives and just be still and be together.
If I could I would:
1. Have a gardener.
2. Have an in-home chef.
3. Make my wheelchair-bound grandson walk (I sigh for the day when he will in Heaven!)
1. Write books and teach Bible study full time (hmmm, I think I know someone that does that).
2. Belt out a song in early worship like I do in the car (not that it’s all that good but it’s uninhibited)
3. Start a non profit
1. Be a missionary.
2. Build my mom a house with a big bay window in it.
3. Learn to play the piano.
Dear Beth, I LOVE this post! I’ve already commented, but I’m seeing a million other things I’d do if I could 🙂 Thanks for a day brightener.
If I could I would love to sing
I would love to teach
I would love to do a medical mission trip 🙂
Thank you Beth…for not only reminding us to have dreams (I listed 3 but once you got me going, I could have listed many more), but to also be reminded of the dreams that we are already living.. 🙂 You are a blessing!
1. Hike the Appalachian Trail.
2. Have all of my kids and grandkids live nearby.
3. Use my large home for a bed and breakfast for traveling Christian speakers or evangelists. Or, use our houseboat for pastor’s families needing a respite. (I would be there to cook for them, and my husband would captain the boat.)
1. I would write a great book
2. I would travel in the US to all the states with my man
3. I would go to all the Chris Tomlin concerts in the US while I travel. HA!!!
If I could, I would:
1. Go to Israel and see the ground where Christ walked.
2. Quit my job and devote all my time to the non-profit world.
3. Gee-Whiz, can’t think of the last thing….how about solve all the world’s problems and tell them about Jesus!!!!
If I could, I would…
1. Perform with a Symphony Orchestra just once as their pianist.
2. Build a second story onto my house. In fact, I would settle for just a second bathroom… and a scrapbooking room. 🙂
3. Live on one income, debt free.
1. Be in Bethleham for Christmas.
2. Eat without worrying about carbs or fat content.
3. Own a children’s bookstore and use the profits to supply books to underpriviliged children.
1. Adopt 1 or 2 (or 3 or 4) of the orphans I met in Panama while I was on a missions trip this summer, and have the money to stay home and raise them as a single mother
2. Spend at least a month (or two) traveling around each continent
3. The first two pretty much cover it for me! 🙂
Hey, Bethie!
Sorry I’m late to the party… Full student schedule this fall… I’ve turned into a violin-teaching crazy woman, I think! LOL
Here are my three:
1) Grow six inches taller. (I’m 5’0.)
2) Play a violin duet (something Christian… Maybe a David Ritter arrangement of “Great is Thy Faithfulness”) with Joshua Bell… Just once! (I watched him play “Ave Maria” once with tears streaming down his face… Makes me wonder if he knows Jesus… or whether he would be open to knowing Him…)
3) Remodel the inside of my house and paint every wall inside of it in hues of Tennessee Orange and White…fully decorated in pictures from games, and so forth then call it “Rocky Top.” 🙂
Reading through these posts is so sobering. I’ve been fortunate to have done so many things that others only dream about. Caused me to stop and be thankful.
My dreams? Haven’t changes in the last 27 years (since I was 12)
1. be a wife
2. be a mother
and a newer goal
3. run/walk a 1/2 marathon – workin’ on it!
I’m so incredibly thankful for where I am and where God has me but I can still dream and pray, right?
1. Travel to the Middle East (specifically Egypt!)
2. Get married……still waiting!
3. Teach at a Christian elementary school and still be able to pay my bills!