Around Christmas time I was going
through some things from my childhood and having fun looking through many of my
memories stored in binders and in books. I pulled out the first journal I ever
owned and opened it up to the first page. It had pictures of friends and other
items scattered about with chicken scratch writing underneath each item. My
favorite color was blue, my favorite animal was the lion, and I wanted to be a
police officer when I grew up. While many things had changed since I had first
written in that journal, one thing stuck out to me more than the others.
Growing up is full of choices, some small and some great, but what truly makes
a difference in our lives is having dreams
worth fighting for.
Dreams in our lives can often be fragile things, left to die
without hope of ever achieving those goals that we truly want to accomplish.
Our dreams die because the world
wants us to think that we are not capable or that our dreams are not worth anything. In The Pursuit of Happyness, Christopher Gardner tells his son, “Don’t
ever let somebody tell you… you can’t do something… You got a dream… You gotta protect it… If you
want somethin’, go and get it. Period.” Gardner himself proved the power of
having a dream by achieving the
impossible of becoming a great entrepreneur and stockbroker despite the
challenges of being homeless while raising his young son. The concept of
protecting our dreams and going out
and getting them is applicable to all people. We need to resist the urges to
give in, despite how difficult it may seem to achieve our goals, because these
goals fill our lives with meaning and help us to become better than we were.
As we protect our dreams, and fight for them, there are
only two results possible; we achieve them or we don’t, but no matter what, we
gain something better for having given it our all. Fighting for our dreams requires patience,
determination, and sacrifice, and we are the only ones that can make the
decision. Thomas S. Monson once shared:
“You
are the fellow that has to decide
Whether
you’ll do it or toss it aside. …
Whether
you’ll try for the goal that’s afar
Or
just be contented to stay where you are.”
Imagine a world where most people just tossed their dreams aside. We
would live in a very mediocre place and many important things that we have now
would not exist still. If people like Louie Pasteur had not fought for his dreams, our world would be without the
vaccines that he helped to discover. If Alexander Graham Bell had thrown
down the towel in his creation of the telephone when things got tough,
communication as it is today would not exist. Can you imagine your life not
being able to carry that smartphone with you wherever you go? There would be fewer
doctors, less law enforcement, fewer technicians and engineers, etc. There
would be a lack of all that we need for a nation to strive and progress
happily, and all because people decided to not follow their dreams. But you can make a difference.
There is a young man that I know
very well that grew up having a dream
to be able to change people’s lives by serving a mission. He was one of those
boys that sang “I Hope they Call Me on a Mission” with all his heart every
chance he got. He grew up in a great household with loving parents that always supported
the idea of him serving a mission. While in high school, most of his closest
friends were not members of the LDS church, except for a select group. When the
time finally came, he happily turned in his papers and waited for his mission
call. During this time in which he waited for his call and after getting it, those
around him began to bring doubts to his mind. “What about college?” “You've got
a girlfriend! Are you willing to lose her for a bunch of people you do not even
know?” “How can you just leave your family and friends behind for two years and
almost not have any contact with any of them?” These and other things confronted
him, trying to make him give up his dream
of serving a mission. So he turned to the greatest source of strength that he
had in order to keep moving forward strong towards achieving his dream. He turned to God. Through more
devotion in prayer, scripture study, and church activity he kept the strength
to go out on a mission. He returned from his mission not too long ago, and he
was able to make a difference in hundreds of lives, he was able to accomplish
his dream.
All it takes is a decision to
fight for our dreams. Once that
decision is made, go out and use the tools available to make sure that you
accomplish what it is you set out to do. The little boy that wrote that he
wanted to be a police officer when he grew up is still fighting for that dream, although now he wants to join
the FBI. A dream may take time to
accomplish, it may be very difficult, but as we rely on God and keep on taking
the necessary steps forward, we will come out victorious.
Bring in the Light, then make
yours dreams become a reality.
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