Chapter 3 – Awakening – Part 1

All who are skilled among you are to come and make everything the Lord has commanded.
Exodus 35:10

Exercise 1: Visions and Longings

What were your favorite things to do when you were a child? Mentally put yourself into different venues. Try to remember the activities you really loved and looked forward to doing.

I loved to pretend. And daydream. Outside. The world was my Narnia. I could travel to ALL of the planets on my grandmother’s outside swing. I could drive anywhere I wanted on my grandpa’s riding lawn mower. The pasture lane was a bridge to a fantasy world. My favorite place to play was always Allerton Park. A real fantasy land.

When I got older, if I wasn’t reading, I was daydreaming. Long car trips were special occasions.

When my cousin and I got together, there was one phrase that our parents probably wanted to beat out of us, “I want to make something.” Give us crayons, paint, staplers, tissues, glue – we were content.

In Girl Scouts, we learned how to dance with sticks … four girls beat out the rhythm with the sticks, while a couple of us danced in between them. Very much like jump rope, but oh so much more fun in my opinion. LOVED doing that. Or singing silly songs around the campfire.

During recess, my friends and I were always known for making up stories to play. We’d play a game until the entire class was involved, and then we would quit and start a new game with just the three or four of us again. A never-ending cycle.

Learning something new was always something to look forward to. You would learn a routine and then move on to the next piece. Once you had all the moves – polish it off. Lovely. Precision.

Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.
Proverbs 16:3

Now be it known to the king that if this city is rebuilt and the walls finished, they will not pay tribute, custom, or toll, and the royal revenue will be impaired.

Ezra 4:13 (ESV)