Creating Dreaming Partnerships

How many times have you and I started a project or new habit and found that after a few days, or maybe weeks our commitment dwindled? Maybe someone in the family got sick, or our job required additional work, or perhaps, like now in the holiday season, the hustle and bustle and festivities took priority.

For the many women who are choosing to dream with God each day and act on those dreams, forming partnerships and small support groups is becoming essential to multiply our results. I know that for myself, I would not have been able to pursue connecting one million and more women to dream with God, if it were not for the gift of a dreaming partner and a group of friends who connect regularly about our dreams with God.

In the midst of an in-between successes time, a friend, Sherry Needham and I were talking about the struggle we were having in keeping our commitments. Both of us were stretching and being led to make bold commitments - larger than anything either of us had ever attempted. Sherry and I began to feel the need for greater accountability and encouragement. We knew if we were to move forward we needed additional support. Have you ever felt that need as well?

We decided to try an experiment and covenanted together to call each other at two designated times per week and dream together about what we knew of God’s dreams within us. There was also a measure of accountability for each of us, as in the process one or both of us would encourage or challenge the other as we were led. Somehow knowing that another human being heard our dreams with God for our children, the community, or the world, made not acting on these dreams less of a possibility. Our initial agreement was for 90 days.

Sherry and I were at first a bit timid in our imaginings. First one then the other would share a dream as we heard it from God’s heart and ours. We’d do this for about 5 minutes or until we felt a natural closing come. Initially we found ourselves and our schedules resisting. This new “habit of dreaming” was not something we easily added to full schedules. At one point, after two dreaming sessions were missed, we seriously asked the question, “How important is this dreaming time to us and to God, really?” After some discussion we recommitted ourselves to engaging fully and giving this a high priority. The day we made that commitment, things began to slowly shift.

There were still days when we missed, but 95% of the time we renegotiated ahead of time. With our recommitment also began to flow a deepening of the dreams we shared. Adjectives, visual descriptions of dreams realized, tears and laughter have become the norm, along with praise giving to God, as we engage more fully with God and each other. We are also advocates for each other and can confidently pray for one another’s pursuits as we carry within us the other’s faith story.

For me this dream partnership has made a huge difference in my level of success, my joy and sense of being with another person pursuing the dreams of God’s heart. This, along with a group of 4-5 other women who are closely connected to me on a weekly or monthly basis, has created a strong foundation for me to dream with God in and through the busyness of life.

What about you? Who supports you in your dreaming with God? If you are seeking a partner I encourage you to pray for someone who is also seeking God’s dreams. Describe her/him to God. Go ahead! Ask for what you want and need in an accountability partner who will accompany you on the greatest adventures of your life!

When you find her/him, sit down together and pray about what you are willing to commit to do. How often, when, and in what manner will you pursue dreaming together and supporting each other? Once the commitment has been made, care enough about each other to hold one another lovingly and clearly accountable to be on time and fully present. Commit for 90 days and then reevaluate where you are in the process.

For Sherry and me volleying dreams back and forth generally has worked best. Sometimes our dreams have been repetitious and at other times they flow in new directions. As we became more comfortable we sometimes verbalized our partner’s dreams with God for them. Although we share by phone, walking together would be a tremendous opportunity for exercise of both the mind and spirit.

The beauty of a dream partner is not in “how” you do it, but rather that you choose to make yourself present and accountable to another person and to God to dream and act on those dreams.

Every miracle began with someone believing things could be different. Do you desire to be one of the women who partners with God to create miracles? If so, I invite you to give yourself the gift of a dreaming partner(s) to give you both the encouragement you need to sustain and expand your dreaming with God.