I do not usually bring God into these blog posts because of the diversity of beliefs represented by the people that I know. However, for the religious among us, our God has certain characteristics that are shared among all of the major religions, and the first among those is that God will never, ever try to crush your dreams. It is up to us to ask for guidance on how to live our lives and what dreams He has for us, but once we realize the path He has chosen for us we should pursue it will all possible vigor. God is uplifting and hopeful, He will never try to keep you from succeeding; He may test your faith, but He will not lie to you about your dreams. His opponent will, however. The enemy of God will whisper in your ear and use Dreamstealers to divert you from the path you are supposed to walk, and that is how you shall know them, by their negativity and discouraging words.
Finding the negative is easy; it's all around us, invading our world whether want it to or not. Two incidents lately have made this very clear, and stand as a warning to us all that if you let the Dreamstealers into your life, they will snatch away every dream and ambition you have and leave you an empty shell. If you learn to spot them, however, you can focus on what is positive and good.
Last month I met someone who was looking for positivity and light in their life, and we quickly agreed that God had lead us to each other. Within two weeks, however, the Dreamstealers had snatched their dreams away, dreams that we had both agreed were God's will. I witnessed this negativity first hand but am no closer to understanding it than I was before, perhaps because at its root there is no understanding to be found. I only know that God would not step on someone's dreams to help others.
The second incident deals with, of all things, a negative blog post. Since you are currently reading a blog, mine, let's be clear about something: there is no fact check that my writings have to pass before they are published. Everything I write here is my opinion. As a responsible adult you can count on the fact that I will not intentionally lie to you, but if I wanted to, I could. With few exceptions, I can say anything I want.
And so can anybody else, including Dreamstealers.
When you read something on the internet, be it a comment after a story or column, or especially a blog, understand that behind the words there is a motive. It may be a good and positive motive, or it might be a negative one. Does it shock you that unscrupulous writers often say bad things about whatever writer they see as their biggest competition? It happens on Amazon.com all the time. So when someone showed me a negative blog about something I hold dear they were upset, wondering if it were true. A short investigation made it clear that the post was written by a new competitor who used a blog because in a blog you can say almost anything you want, and they were trying to steal customers from the giant of the industry. Their negativity had become infectious as they tried to steal the dreams of others.
Does that sound like work of a good and positive nature? Not to me it doesn't. Dreamstealers, begone!
