I can't be held responsible...


... or can I?
Where is the line drawn between thinking and dreaming - not daydreaming, but the images that fill our minds when we sleep. Are we accountable for that dreamworld? The more I ponder this, the more I think of the passage in James where he talks about temptation and desire giving birth to sin which leads to death. It isn't necessarily the thinking of the thoughts, or the dreaming of the dreams that gets us into trouble. It is how we choose to respond.

I believe that God speaks through dreams, I believe that He reveals through dreams. But I also believe that Satan masquerades as an angle of light. He will use things that look pleasing to the eye, and the heart, to entice us.
The key must be discernment. Which makes me smile, because that's the trait my 6th and 7th graders have been studying over the last week.

I could easily live in my dream world. It isn't perfect, but the pictures are beautiful. It is easy for me to discern that the images I see while I sleep are not real, but it's harder to keep my mind from straying towards them during the day. But I remember that the Word tells me to set my eyes and mind on things that are not of this world. And I'm ever so thankful that God has deepened my desire to do so.

So no, I can't be held responsible for the magical world I spent my night in. But I will be held responsible for how I respond to it when I wake up. And so I choose to set my eyes upon my Heavenly Father. In Him I am known and loved. In Him I find the intimacy I hungrily search for in the world. In Him I am given the strength I need for each situation that arises in my day. In Him I find the ability to say "no" to me and "yes" to Him. And that, to my eyes that are daily being unveiled, is more amazing than any dream my brain could ever conjure up!