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. Go up in a hot air balloon. This was one of my mom’s dreams which she didn’t get to do before she died. So I would like to do this for both of us.
2. Have time to read every book on my “To Read List”.
3. Live for a year in a cabin in the woods ala Thoreau in Walden.
Great post. Have a blessed day Sisters!
1. Learn to play the drums. (I always wanted to, but in my young days, my mom told me, “Girls don’t play the drums’ hmmmpf!!!
2. Learn French
3. Learn to ball room dance with my husband.
1.Travel with my husband (…not my kids. I love them soooo much but want to be with just my hubby.)
2.be a preacher (I’ve been spending much time lately asking God if this is His desire for me or a flesh thing)
3. devote a day or more to just being with the Lord (Some one posted about Smith Wigglesworth’s prayer life yesterday and it just clicked with my hearts desire to be with Him more. Not easy with 3 kids and husband but I have carveed out a little time for it this fall)
Deana
MadeforHim
1. Take my 7 yr. old daughter to Austria to see the Lipazanner horses perform.
2. Settle down in one place for a while back in the States.
3. Get a tan just one time.
I would if I could:
1) Swim with dolphins
2) Run a marathon
3) Open and run a residential facility to minister to women who have endured sexual abuse.
Marcella Alldredge 🙂
I am fluent in American Sign Language and work in the interpreting field professionally.
I am encouraged to see so many have the desire to learn ASL. The harvest is ripe, the workers are few. There are MANY Deaf people who don’t know Jesus.
if i could, i would….
1) learn a second language
2) own a cute little bake shop
3) live at the beach
If I could, I would…
1. Go back to school and get my Masters in Christian Education…or even my MDIV.
2. Adopt a child today.
3. Quit work and stay at home.
I would if I could…
1.Clothe
2.Feed
3.House…the homeless in my city (Little Rock)
I help when I can but…there’s just so much more to be done.
If I could I would…
1. Build my parents their dream log cabin
2. Own a red convertible and take my Grandmama for a ride (one day on the streets of gold…)
3. Open a home for orphans in Uganda
Fun post!
Thanks for all you do Beth (and crew)!
1. Be in ministry full time
2. Sing in a praise and worship band ( I can not sing . . at all!)
3. Shop in NYC twice(Summer/Winter) EVERY year.
The Journey Continues ~
If I could, I would…
1. Travel & speak every language in the world.
2. Own a Tea Cottage called
“The Olde RoyalTEA Cottage”
(designed with memorabilia of
royalty from Queen Esther to Princess Diana)
3. Produce/Direct/Set Design ~ a FAITH BASED SITCOM
for television. (Without Spittles) 🙂
~ “The Siesta’s” with Beth Moore as the Mama!
Love you,those gorgeous daughters, and the Siestas!!
I would come and visit you and your wonderful tea cottage!
I can totally see you with the tea cottage! And can I be in the sitcom? I’m such a ham. And I would play a great “moosemama”. 🙂
Melana,
I would LOVE to have you play the character “literally” of moosemama!!!! 🙂
I will need Miesta moose as a prop in the background!
On the set, I will be serving tea/scones and Starbucks Pumpkin Spice latte’s during the fall filming!!
I’d even help ou with that tea cottage and we could sip our tea together.
If I could, I would…
1. Live on Lamu. (Google it…you’ll see why.)
2. Learn at least five more languages. (and adopt a kid that speaks each?!)
3. Travel. A lot.
If I could, I would
1. Travel to the Holy Land (If that doesn’t work out on this side of eternity, it’s all good because I have the New Jerusalem to look forward to.)
2. Play the piano
3. Run the race and cross the finish line of a big name marathon – either the Peachtree Road Race or Boston marathon.
PS: I promise I typed mine before reading the other comments. It will be fun now to see who has similar dreams. Thanks Beth. I needed a fun post.
If I could I would find a cure for alzhimers disease, I would pay for all the women to be able to attend wonderful christian conferences and provide child care, I would travel the world and not get tired.
If I could, I would MOST CERTAINLY….
1. Write a book that helps atleast 1 person.
2. Elimate poverty in the world.
3. Travel with my family year round. I could totally do that!
That was fun. Also, I see many people have the same dream to write a book! That’s neat!
1. Not go back to work so I can stay home with my kids.
2. Travel Europe with my best friend.
3. Buy a summer home in Virginia to be close to the rest of my family.
If I could I would:
1.) Adopt a little girl who needs a good home.
2.) Build (and live in) a log cabin in the woods in mountains near a creek and have horses and four-wheelers 🙂
3.) Write a book.
1. Bring justice to abused women, especially in cultures where they are seen as second-class and have no rights… Or just shoot the men who abuse them. I’m kidding. I think. 🙂
2. Live in a humongous lake house with my extended family (parents, grandparents, brother, cousins, my husband, his family, children I hope to have someday). They live half the country away and it kills me so.
3. Go on a World Cruise with about 10 of my favorite people! Probably my husband, some good friends, my brother and sister in law, parents and grandparents.
I agree with your first one!!!
#1 Start a ministry called Good Samarivan and provide assistance to people having car trouble and stranded on the road
#2 Start my own business
#3 Learn to play the piano
1) Be a WNFR world champion barrel racer…on a horse that I bred for, raised & trained myself.
2) Spend 2 years each in rural England, and on a rural East Coast island, and in a rural West Coast beach area, and in Wyoming, and Alaska, and Australia, and Africa, and still be the same age when it’s over, and I come home to resume my life here
3) Win a 5K.
Well since you specifically wondered about moosemama….
If I could, I would:
1. Quit my job and travel…specifically to all of the LPL events.
2. Have a home for unwanted animals. Cats, dogs, giraffes, koala bears, moose :)…you name it.
3. Learn to play the piano.
Oh Melana, if we could have all the land we needed (up north where it’s not so HOT!) and could have all the unwanted children from my comment with all the unwanted animals from your comment… all those kiddos could each have their own pet to love… wouldn’t that be great??? what a nice daydream today!
xoxo love you friend!
I like that idea a LOT, Lavonda! How fun would that be???
I love you too <3
And with my comment, I’d be the advocate to keep the bad people away!!!
Hey Sweet Melana,
I could clean the cages for you.
And I would totally let you, sweet Kim! 🙂
Oh, I always wanted to play the piano…forgot that one…thanks Melana (hope I spelled your name right)
And just so’s you know….skydiving is the very LAST thing I would ever do?
If I could, I would…
1. Live closer to my family.
2. Drive a Honda Odyssey
3. Drink a Starbuck’s pumpkin spice latte every morning during fall. 🙂
1. Travel all over the world, showing my son the great sights.
2. Do something in entertainment like Broadway or being a Christian music artist
3. Write at least one book that moves people
1. Surprise-visit my sister overseas who has dedicated her life to serve Jesus in a place few dare to go.
2. Visit every one of the Great National Parks – my heart is longing for some God-Sightings in His creation right now
3. Learn how to redo furniture and give some of my scruffy looking wardrobes etc. a good shabby-chic makeover! 🙂
Miss Jen Dale,
Regarding your #1, ummmm, thanks for makin’ me cry =]
I’m welcome!
Love in Him,
em
PS – Girrrrl, I’d totally buy you a plane ticket if I had the $!
1. Be part of one of Beth’s overseas conferences….perhaps in Scotland someday. I want to be on the front row.
2. Travel frequently with my husband.
3. Finish my book.
If I could:
1. I would become a full time missionary.
2. I would go to Israel and see it, study it, and absorb it.
3. I would learn Hebrew.
1. Finish my college degree (I’m almost 60 now and it wouldn’t make any difference in my career, but still would like to have that piece of paper!)
2. Have time to quilt until I didn’t want to any more.
3. Have the time and energy to exercise every day and get rid of my jelly belly!
Travel
Learn to Play the Piano
Work with abandoned dogs
1. Open an event hosting house for bridal showers and all sorts of women parties! and then throw parties all the time.
2. Eat or taste every cultural food, not just the same old same ol’.
3. Work at the library or bookstore and read or talk about (or smell, hehe) books all day.
If I could, I would..
1. Hold all hurting babies in my arms while rocking them and sing.. Jesus loves all the little children
2 All different types of dancing
3 Drive a race car…….really fast. I really love old mustangs.
I would LOVE to help you rock all the hurting babies and sing Jesus Loves all the little children to them…I so would love to do that!!!
This is so fun..
I’d love to:
1. Host a short radio program for women. I have a background in Family & Consumer Science (Home Ec) so I’d like it to include things related to making a home, music and end it with a devotion and prayer.
2. Skydive
3. Visit with my college roommate and friends from high school.
Thanks for asking!
Love to all,
1. Go to Jerusalem with my hubby and nephews!
2. Own a dress shop specifically for women “starting over” in life.
3. Learn to play the piano.
If I could, I would…
1. Sing on Travis Cottrell’s praise and worship team
2. Be a fabulous dancer and be part of the Riverdance troup
3. Have acrylic nails and have them done along with a pedicure every week
If I could I would…
1. Find a cure for fibromaylgia
2. Encourage women/men w/fibromaylgia
3. Enjoy time w/my boys w/o the effects of fibromaylgia
Sorry to be a downer but this stupid illness is dominating my life right now.
I commiserate with you Carrie. I have had it for 15 yrs. I have just learned to live with it. I also have a wonderful case of arthritis going….hands, knees and one ankle….the best thing is to stay busy and keep moving. If not it gets worse. Look to HIM!!! I do every morning…..I also think of that little cartoon about a woman getting out of bed and the devil saying, “Oh nuts, she’s up.” I will pray for you to get some relief.
Blessings and prayers…..
Right there with you Siesta. was diagnosed a year ago, and difficult many days. I “heart” you and your thoughts.
please check into eating gluten free! No grains whatsoever look into Primal Eating.
1. Establish a foundation to benefit advocacy efforts for children and historical restoration
2. Dance and sing in a fabulous broadway show (would take more than a miracle!)
3. Discover how to cure mental illness
If I could I would:
1. Own a vacation home in the mountains of Colorado and spend my summers there.
2. Travel to places I’ve never been before.
3. Move to an area with plenty of shopping, restaurants, and recreational activities but live on the outskirts in a “woodsy” region with a great view.
1. Learn a foreign language
2. Learn to dance
3. Be a better wife, mother, and daughter
If I could, I would…
1. Plant and tend a vineyard and an olive grove, and make stuff with the fruit. 🙂
2. Be an opera singer.
3. Own farmhouses + acreage in Spain, England, Scotland, New Zealand, Bali, Greece, and Italy.
If I could, I would…
1) Travel to Greece, Italy, and Israel.
2) Dance professionally. I have danced since I was 3 yrs old. I even went to college for it – yes they have degree’s for dance! HA But gave my life to the Lord and felt called to college ministry after graduating school. Now, I am married and have two beautiful girls – so dancing let alone a career of it is far from reality!
3) Have a fruitful speaking/ministry to women. I recently stepped back from ministry after having my second child.
4) Live on a farm with lots of land and animals!
1. Buy a big farm for my husband, my little boy and I to live on.
2. Lose 50 pounds before the wedding I’m in thats 2 months away.
3. Quit my job without having to worry about money and cherish every moment with my miracle baby.
1. Travel to some of the countries our church supports missions in.
2. Rewrite my autobiography showing how God redeemed my life.
3. Have unlimited funds to support others who need help.
If I could, I would:
1. adopt every child who doesn’t have a mother to love them
2. travel to every country in the world with my whole family – especially Israel
3. have super thick hair that was infallible against humidity
(1) Each paycheck, give the entire amount away as a blessing to someone else. It would be so fun to pray and wait for the opportunity to arise, not to mention add significance to an otherwise ‘blah’ career.
(2) Play cello in a band.
(3) Be a journalist who traveled the world telling the stories of others through pictuers, videos, and words.
1. Travel to Israel.
2. Learn a second language well.
3. Learn to paint.
If I could, I would:
(1) Travel to the Holy Land.
(2) Become an accomplished writer.
(3) Become an accomplished Bible study writer/teacher (just like someone we all know and love 🙂 )
Thanks, Beth…I haven’t thought about these things in so long…it was fun.
1. Sing on Broadway.
2. Sail around the world.
3. For my husband and I to get an RV and travel throughout the States at our leisure. Of course, we couldn’t get to Hawaii that way! I guess we’d get there under #2.
I love that you put sing on Broadway. You are dreaming big, girl!! I was thinking sing at church and just that scares me but maybe I should dream bigger and change mine to Broadway!!! Love it!
I would, if I could:
1. Go to the Holy Land.
2. Travel for a year in an RV with my husband and children and see the 48 states.
3. Go back to school and become a teacher.
Blessings,
Dori
1. Send all 4 of my kids to FBA
2. Buy a bigger house more suitable for a large family
3. Adopt 2 or 3 more children.
If I could I would….
Be a Stay at Home Mama
Volunteer more at my sons school
Catch up on reading all the books on my shelves.:)
1. own a bookstore in an old Victorian style house with a coffee/sandwich shop attached and a little art studio out back
2. write a book
3. send letters and paintings to people, even if they don’t know who I am, just to encourage them.
I would come to your bookstore!!