Most of my vivid childhood to adult memories took place at the ball field. Family, Sunday softball games, little league, high school games, traveling to see games, Ga. Tech field, Rome Braves Field, Tulane University, Disney World fields, Turner Field...each field holds a memory of watching a great catch, home run, dive, or just being there together. The brother closest to me started the family in baseball at age seven when he started playing ball. I remember going to one of our little country town's worst fields almost daily to watch him practice. No playgrounds, only dirt roads and trees and yet it was fun. Saturday morning was a zoo at the Owings home, with usually all three brothers getting dressed out and ready to play a game at a different field and maybe all at the same time.

At twenty two I took my twelve year old brother to his traveling team tournament at Disney World. Just the two of us went, my other siblings were all doing their sport so Jr. and I went to Florida. What great memories of spending that time with him. I can travel back in my mind's eye and see myself with braces, a cheer leading outfit, sorority T shirts, an engagement ring, pregnant, and with one, two and three children all at the baseball field...making memories cheering on the Uncles.

My parents taught us early on, as dad would say "we serve a Big God, dream big, live LARGE." Somehow in that message he communicated to me that we serve a God that we should expect to do amazing things for us and through us, for we are blessed. Early on my brothers' signature on their baseball autographs always contained Phil. 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." At age two or three, my brother Micah decided his dream was to play major league ball. At a very young age I remember him practicing daily even if all he had to practice with was throwing a rock up and hitting it. And somewhere along the way my parents instilled in us that as we live out our dreams we must live out each other's dream also.

Watching a dream materialize took on a whole new meaning as my oldest son, Owin, and I boarded a flight to watch Uncle Mo pitch his first major league game in Washington DC. Later on in his rookie season, Micah, my brother who plays for the Diamondbacks pitched at Turner field. He hit two home runs going 4 out of 5 and pitched an awesome game. What a night! I will never forget that one!

Last year at twenty four, his dream materialized before my eyes and I was taken back to a curly headed little boy with intensity written on his face as he "rocked and fired" his little league pitches. My tears of joy were not just for his success, but for a lifetime of focus, hard work, integrity, and dreams. In our family sharing a dream was always part of the dreaming and as Micah rounded the bases and tipped his hat to us that August night at Turner field, words could not capture the moment.

As I talk to teens I am shocked at the lack of dreams and adventure. It is as if dreaming is bad or untouchable. Maybe kids are told that they can not rise above the status quo? I am not sure. I wonder if it is fear, rejection, loneliness? What is it that keeps kids from dreaming? In John Elderage's book, Waking the Dead, he talks about how our deepest fear is our "glory." "It is an awkward thing to shimmer when everyone around you is not." "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light that most frightens us not our darkness...You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us...As we let our own light shine we unconsciously give others the permission to do so..." Nelson Mandela Waking the Dead by John Elderage

After a lost competition in college, I retreated to my favorite spot at the lake under a big oak tree to journal. I wanted to hide in the shadow and just forget the spot light altogether. Then the craziest thing happened, a man with a huge camera walked up to me and told me he was doing an article on the lake and could he take my picture and ask me a few questions. I was so dumb founded that I could barely tell him my name and therefore he misspelled it two weeks later when I had a full page picture in the Gwinnett County News. I laughed at this point because I had been thinking to myself, "maybe the stage is to prideful" or "I cannot serve God and love to sing in front of people too." And there God found me under a tree trying to hide from my dream and fear of being glorious.

Many people have told me, "Your family dreams big and goes after there dreams." I guess I thought that everyone had a dream and would fight for it until I went to college. Somewhere in my mind I believe that there is a part of our heart that longs to dream and another part that longs for God make our dream a reality. A dream does not have to be huge like being a major league baseball player. Your dream may be to be a parent. Your dream may be to start a company. One of my dreams is to finish this book.

Examine your heart and think of what God might be leading you to imagine. Picture your dream materializing. Then ask God to show you how to move toward your dream.

Just a side note: the way of dreams is not a sprint, but much more like a marathon. So be patient and work diligently and reflect God in the process. Psalms 37: 4-6 states, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; Trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, and the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

How to begin to dream:

• 1. What do you love to do? What makes your heart beat fast when you talk about it? What would you rather do than anything else?
• 2. What do people affirm you about? "You are a great artist." "You can sure play that guitar." "You are so great with children."
• 3. What is the most amazing setting that you can envision yourself using your gifts to glorify God?
• 4. Pray about your dream and ask God where to start.
• 5. Practice whatever that "thing" is that is what you dream of (dance, sing, run, draw, speak..._
• 6. Ask God for Divine appointments to help you in your dream.