Do Your Dreams Really Mean Something?

Do you have recurring dreams? Sure, we all have that dream about showing up for the first day of school and not being able to find our classroom. It doesn’t take much of a dream interpreter to figure that one out. We do all have that dream, right? Personally, I have a whole mini-series of “school-type nightmares.”

Let me be totally honest here. I’ve never put much stock in dreams. Generally, I consider them the result of the day’s activities or the spicy food I had for dinner. When one of our boys was little he came running into our room in the early morning hours petrified from his scary dream. It seems he’d had a nightmare about a huge shark that was trying to get him. After giving him a reassuring hug I asked, “Did it look anything like the shark you saw on Scooby-Doo today?” With total and complete awe in his voice he responded, “EXACTLY like that!” Hmmm . . . imagine that.

There was a season in my life not that many years ago when I had a non-school related dream over and over again. Like I said, I don’t put a lot of stock in my dreams but I did find its constant repetition a bit odd. The last time I remember having it was just before leaving for a mission trip to Armenia. As our team was hanging out in the Paris airport waiting for a connecting flight I casually mentioned this recurring dream to my friend, Carol. She proceeded to ask what my dream was about. I’m sure by now you are dying to know, too. Ha!

In my dream I lived in your typical two-story house. Every time I had the dream I discovered there was a basement with all these rooms I had previously not known about. I’d walk down the stairs (which apparently had been inaccessible for all the years I’d lived there) and find room after room. Each room had a little bit of stuff in it left from the previous owners but I was always so excited to find a spot that would be perfect for storage, or a guest room, or an office. I would dream of the room’s purpose and be excited to start cleaning it out and getting it ready.

Upon hearing my dream Carol told me that she believed the dream represented potential or talent in me that I’d yet to discover. She seemed to think that God has great plans to use me in ways I haven’t even considered. I’m good with that. That seems like a reasonable and even exciting dream interpretation. She didn’t mention the fact that there might be some stuff in my life that I needed to get cleaned up before God places me in the next role but, to be honest, I may not have told her about the little messes in each room. Giving every single detail seemed unimportant to me, the girl who didn’t put a lot of stock in dreams.

I have to admit though; I kind of liked Carol’s interpretation so when I got home from my trip I told my husband, John, about the incident. But, before I got to the part about Carol’s interpretation he decided to interpret it himself. He said, “I think God is showing you that you are disorganized and need to work on getting things put away.” HEY! It wasn’t MY junk laying around in the previously undiscovered basement in my dreams! Seriously!

And this, my friend, is why you should avoid using your husband as a dream interpreter.

The interesting thing is that once Carol told me what she thought my dream meant, I never had it again. I guess God felt like he’d gotten his point across to me. So, I’m excited to discover all that God has to show me about myself and how he plans for me to use that knowledge. Whatever it is, I pray that I will always bring glory to him.

And, just in case there’s any merit to John’s interpretation, I cleaned out a couple of drawers this weekend.