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?
1. I would run around all over the world shaking ladies trying to be superwomen, but are dying on the inside…and shout to them…LADY, YOU ARE FREE to live. Take off the mask! You have already been accepted! LIVE!
2. I used to ride motorcycles. Before Marriage and kids. Now, I drive a mini van (Go figure)…I would purchase a sports bike and RIDE fast, long, and hard!
3. Ochastrate a safe environment for women to come together to encourage, uplift, and empower each other to freely be ourselves, taking off our masks, makeup, and other “stuff”, and declar I AM FREE because MY DADDY said SO!
AMEN Shareese!!! Preach it!
Go for it Shareese, you have a great personality to pull it off! You personify free to be me!
1. Be a stay at home mom
2. Own a beach house
3. write a children’sbook that my sister would illustrate
Oh I’d like to own a beach house too. 🙂
I triple love this…
If I could I would
1)Master a musical instrument -piano, violin, or maybe tuba!
2)Run a little Bed and Breakfast at the convent -:)
3)Learn Greek and Hebrew to read Scripture in the original!
Sweet Sister Lynn,
Looking forward to hearing you play!
You can be a ONE WOMAN BAND!! 🙂
Sister Lynn,
I’m all over your answers, especially #3, wow!!
I would:
1) Go to Law School
2) Sing back up for George Strait
3) Play Golf in every European Country
1. Travel to/walk on the moon.
2. Be a superstar performer like Mandissa
3. Be a part of an underground church in Asia.
1) Travel to every continent
2) Learn several languages fluently
3) Be a professional photographer
1. publish a novel
2. live in Hawaii for a year
3. learn to sew clothes
If I could, I would…
1.) live in a century where electricity, cars, and email didn’t exist and make all my food from scratch!
2.) Live somewhere other than the US, maybe hopping around to different places.
3.) Write a book.
If I could, I would..
1. Travel all over the world for several months with my hubby, my two kiddos, our 14 “daughters” here at our orphanage in Guatemala, and all my family back in the states.
2. Have a house with a HUGE library (with books in English and Spanish so the kids here could read them too), a fireplace, and a big comfy chair for reading
3. Own a small little Children’s bookstore with a small coffee shop next store so the parents can have a break and drink coffee while I play and read books with their kiddos!
Sara Salguero
LOVED your list!
if I could, I would:
1) get a pool for my special needs girl- it would solve many of our day to day struggles!
2) travel- with no agenda- places with history- Italy, Spain, Ireland
3) open my own bookstore. with multiple copies of everything so i could always keep at least 1 🙂
If I could I would…
1. become a worship leader like the amazing women in Hillsong 🙂
2. fly out to Houston to see you speak in person!
3. go shopping all the time, haha.
1. Have a beach house…and invite my friends and family to enjoy it with me often.
2. Be a stay at home mom.
3. Learn to speak spanish and use it on a yearly trip to Honduras.
1. Homeschool and travel the world with my family.
2. Be a decorator.
3. Teach as a profession.
1. Travel to Ireland and stay for as long as I wanted to so that I could visit castles and maybe find some long-last family (my maiden name is Maloy).
2. Own a garden center and help people plan their gardens and select flowers and plants.
3. Live close to you, Beth, so that we could walk together and maybe visit occasionally and have Bibby-Gran Jan time with our grandchildren – and watch them play together while we had some coffee.
I LOVE THIS!
Love to Beth, Amanda, Melissa, LPM Staffers, and all you amazing Siestas!
Georgia Jan
I would buy Hydrangea’s from you sweet PJ!!!!
By the way, Could you fly out and design my garden on the coast. I NEED HELP!
1. Buy a summer home in Scotland so my husband and I could live in his homeland for 3 months every year.
2. Have a handful of children and stay home to take care of them.
3. Lie in a hammock with some sweet tea nearby and read all the books on my to-read list.
1. Become a family/couples therapist/counselor.
2. Birth a child every year. 🙂
3. Travel the world! (sounds generic but it is still a great dream! one that doesn’t become obsolete to me!)
If I could, I would~
1. Travel all over the world, eat their food, experience their culture, & not gain weight!
2. Go with Beth to Israel.
3. Volunteer time and give money to all charities and/or people as God directs my heart.
If I could, I would a)take violin lessons b)live in the Big Sky state and work for a Christian non-profit. xo eileen
IF I COULD I WOULD…
1. Be married and have children (STILL believing God has this desire for a 40-something, Single, Sassy, and Satisfied Gal).
2. Write a book (titled The Clutter Diaries)- I was called to the Closet Ministry 10 years ago. Time to come out of the closet and write about what the Lord is doing in there! P.S. I’m a Professional Organizer – grin.
3. Travel and visit people I have not seen in years, as well as leisure travel overseas.
I’ll buy your book Kim…or better yet, just come visit me HaHa
Sounds like a plan!!
And since you’re a U of L Cards fan, I’ll give YOU a discount! Louisville is my birthplace!
Thanks Kim and GO CARDS!
1) Travel the world (beginning with London, of course).
2) Run a little coffee shop/book store in a small mountain community.
3) Be a wife & mom.
If I could I would……
1. Rock to sleep every orphan on planet Earth tonight, kiss them, and tell them how much their Daddy loves them.
2. Have back every dog I have ever owned
3. Take my husband to Italy
If I could, I would….
Move back to Texas 🙁
Get a second car for our family.
Move to a bigger house.
If I could I would:
1. Have a soup kitchen for the homeless here in town.
2. Travel – anywhere and everywhere
3. Love to sit and talk with Celine Dion
If I could, I would…
1. Travel to the Holy Land, England and Germany
2. Learn Sign Language fluently–(I’ve been trying to find a source for the last couple of months!)
3. Be an Interior Designer!
Ok, it just freaked me out because the person who wrote before this has the same name as me and I thought I already wrote something and I forgot and ok, whatever…just a little humor there….
If I could, I would…..
1. Be bold enough to actually color my hair red and wear it short and sassy.
2. Take my girls to Hawaii or Paris or somewhere excessively cool like that for their 16th birthday (just the two of us)
3. Build two rooms on to my house – one for simply books and one for scrapbooking.
O:)
Melissa
If I could, I would:
1. write a book
2. travel with my family all around Europe
3. heal my mom from her past
Rachel
if i could, i would…
go to college and get a teaching degree.
take classes, just for fun and for the sake of learning, at Midwestern Theological Seminary, where my son is a senior.
go to Israel and live for a while!
jackie from MO.
LOVE your picture Jackie!
If I could I would…
1) Travel the world and learn about all cultures and have beautiful friends that are different from me.
2)Sponsor 100 compassion children.
3)Have a good belly laugh every day for the rest of my life :).
If I could, I would…
1) be a physical, occupational, or speech therapist. (I am a dyslexia therapist, so obviously therapy of all kinds fascinates me)
2) invent instant travel so I could travel somewhere in an instant and not have to get on an airplane
3) sing professionally in a Broadway play.
One of my BIGGEST dream is to have a starbuck coffee and talk with Beth!! ;-))
I will second that!!
Amen! Wouldn’t that be fun
If I could..I would..
1. Visit & Tour Australia
2. Run a marathon with my dear friends
3. Participate in the Amazing Race with my best friend
If I could, I would:
1. Own a pet giraffe and name him Ernest.
2. Adopt two children from every country – one boy, and one girl. (I might settle for two from every continent.)
3. Get in the pool every day. There’s just nothing like be completely submerged in water 🙂
1) visit Israel
2) learn to play the guitar or piano
3) read the Bible in its original languages
This excersize has opened my eyes to how very much I AM living my dream…homeschooling my boys, being a stay at home mom and teaching women through my Bible studies! Thanks for the reminder, Beth!!
1. Find a new job!
2. Have that job be writing and teaching in-depth Bible studies for teen girls. (Just as much MEAT as Beth’s, but designed for younger girls).
3. Buy a little house with my husband.
1. Stand in the face of a hurricane or tornado and call out “Peace Be Still” and the storm stops
2. Pray for a dead person and see them raised to life.
3. Live such a GODLY LIFE that it brings conviction of sin upon people and that my shadow would heal the sick.
1. Sing with Travis and the praise team all.the.time!
2. Hire a maid
3. play the piano
I would:
1. Open a bakery and not gain weight even though I taste everything first. (This is make-believe right?)
2. Volunteer more at the Pregnancy Crisis Center
3. Snuggle and play with my boys and then wiggle my nose before hubby comes home to clean laundry/house and great food. 🙂
1. Travel around the world — and hopefully meet Beth somewhere along the way.
2. Jet in to see my parents/family more often.
3. Write a children’s book.
If I could I would:
1. travel to China and walk the Great Wall.
2. perform worship music like Travis w a group for church conferences ( actually sound as good as they do) 🙂
3. heal my nephew of his seizures so he could be a normal little boy again
If I could, I would…
1. Own a home in northern Florida on the ocean front.
2. Have time to read all the books on my list before I pass on.
3. Have a Starbucks and/or Caribou coffee card that is fully paid for the rest of my life.
1) Walk a long trail from England to Scotland.
2) Build a house with a stream running through it.
3) Speak fluent French.
If I could I would…
1. Go on a mission trip outside the country.
2. Ride in a hot air balloon.
3. Live on a farm.
1. Live in a house at the beach with friends that come and visit.
2. Travel everywhere with my husband and kids, outer space included
3. Own a bed and breakfast (at the beach of course)
Thank you for asking Beth. Sometimes, we get so busy we may forget to dream. Love and Blessings to you and all Siestas everywhere!
If I could I would:
1. become an author
2. Learn to speak Thai
3. pay for a housekeeper so that I could spend my free time enjoying my children rather than cleaning up after them.
In no particular order:
1. Be in a Broadway musical with the lead role.
2. Open my own European Style bakery. Breads and pastries… no cake.
3. Own a car with only 2 seats that goes faster than stink. And if it’s a classic muscle car, all the better.
PS – feeling a little shallow after all the “write a book” “write a Bible study” posts. 😀
Don’t worry,Donna,
When your dreams come true, you will find some incredibly creative opportunities to minister to people!
1. Own a little coffee/breakfast/tea shop designed for girls. There would be books, magazines, funky furniture, great music, bright colors, yummy food!
2. Go to Africa and teach elementary school for a year
3. Design a dream home with my husband…on the beach. with a dock and a speed boat!
1. Go on a second honeymoon with my husband of 28 years.
2. Walk/Run a half marathon and finish it.
3. Open a made-from-scratch pie shop and call it, “Taste and See!”
1.) Own my own Cake Bakery
2.) If me and my husband are ever blessed with children to be able to stay at home with them when they are little
3.) Travel the World
1. Go to Italy.
2. Speak Spanish fluently.
3. Build a huge house in the country with a greenhouse/country store and live there and make it a home for pregnant teenagers. They could work in the store and we could teach them about Jesus. (sorry that is kind of more than one, but this is a life goal of mine that I hope comes true one day, God willing).
if i could, i would…
1. personally bring God’s truth to 10 different unreached tribes
2. personally adopt 10 orphaned children
3. climb every mountain there is!