STEPPING INTO YOUR FULL BLOOM By Lori A Alicea

“What do you dream about?”
“What do you sing about?”
“What do you cry about?”
Author John Maxwell

 What dreams keep you up at night thinking, imagining, rehearsing,
“I was born for this?”

What have you been called to do?
We’ve all been called.
We’ve all been called to make a difference, to be a difference.

We’ve sensed God’s voice in our calling.
In quiet whispers He calls.
His gentle wooing speaks of a special plan on our life.
A Father’s love bids us not to fear; He’s gifted us perfectly.

God has a dream for us.
God has a dream for you.
God has a dream for me.

Yet we allow the years to pass us by.
The journey to our destiny takes unnecessary detours.

We justify our delays with the “if only”.
If only I were smarter….
If only I had gone to college…
If only I had more money….
If only I were a bit younger….
If only I hadn’t let them talk me out of it…
If only I would have believed in myself….
If only I hadn’t waited so long…
If only I could go back in time…

If only….If only…

The dream, the call, the “if only” are relentless and follow everywhere you go.

You feel alone in your call.
Yet God has joined me on the journey every step of the way.

We just haven’t trusted the God in us, the dream in us, the call in us.

Whatever your dream, whatever your call, you were born for it, and you know it.

God longs to see us step into our destiny, our dream, our calling.
Our Heavenly Father delights to host our “stepping out” party.

He anxiously waits to see us Step Into Our Full Bloom.
I’ve had a love affair with words my whole life.

From an elementary age I began authoring short stories, poetry and creating homemade cards for my mother on her birthday and Mother’s Day.

Teachers honored my early writing efforts with epic fails on my assignments believing I had copied my work. As a child I didn’t understand it nor did they understand the tears of a young girl attempting to bloom.  But now as an adult I realize God was validating a writer’s call through the blind eyes of my teachers.

As an author, the artist inside paints detailed pictures without a single brush stroke. Blank canvas’ come to life with the spoken word.  Ears see what eyes cannot, when recited words bring the painting into full view.

Sadly for most of my life, I delayed in God’s call with the “if only”.

If only I wrote as good as “that person”.
I didn’t believe in myself.
I didn’t believe God’s gift in me bloomed as beautiful as those on the other side of the fence.

Blind eyes couldn’t see the garden God wanted to bloom in me was beyond beautiful, more than I could ever imagine for myself.

A day didn’t go by that God’s whispers didn’t prompt me with words he wanted me to say.

A week didn’t go by that God’s wooing didn’t nudge me with a picture He wanted me to paint with my words.

A year didn’t go by when I was desperate inside to say to the gift giver,
“I have finished the work you have called me to do.”

Here I am almost sixty and the call on my life still waits.
Six decades of dreaming, imagining, rehearsing what God gave me life for.

We all are born for greatness.
But greatness for the Kingdom doesn’t happen until we step into our destiny,
Step into Our Full Bloom.
Almost sixty and the “if only” haunts me.
If only I hadn’t wasted so many years.
If only I had kept the faith when my garden wasn’t blooming.
If only I had trusted in the gift giver I would really bloom in my calling.
But our Heavenly Father is forever good, forever patient, forever encouraging.

He reminded me that His Son’s ministry, His greatest years were in his last three years of life.

If God could speak the world into existence in six days and rest on the seventh, then God’s dream in me could still make an amazing impact.

God’s call on my life could still cause a great splash for his purposes.

It’s never too late.

As long as you have breath in your lungs it’s never too late.

I just had to believe in His dream for my life.
I needed to embrace the call on my life.

I needed to
Step into the Full Bloom of my life.