Has your dream been sitting on the shelf all summer?
As the school year approaches and routines shift, it’s the perfect time to reconnect with the God-shaped dream on your heart. But after months of being in “mom mode” (or simply navigating a busy season), picking that dream back up can feel overwhelming. Where do you even begin?
IF SUMMER SIDELINED YOUR DREAM, THIS IS THE EPISODE FOR YOU!
This episode will help you focus on five intentional steps you can take to reset your dream in the transition from summer to fall. You’ll consider new rhythms for reconnecting with God, getting clear on your “why,” identifying who your dream is meant to serve, surrounding yourself with the right people, and taking those brave first steps forward.
Here’s what you’ll walk away with:
🙏 How to reconnect with God’s heart for your dream
🎯 The key question that will bring clarity to your purpose and help you focus
🚶♀️ Why starting small is the secret to building courage and momentum
Whether you’re sending kids back to school, stepping into a new season, or simply longing for renewed purpose, this episode will help you stop waiting for the “perfect time” and start moving in faith toward what God has called you to.
Press “play” and let’s reset your dream together.
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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Dream Out Loud – practice talking about your dream with other dreamers
Join the Dream Believers community for $40/month or $400/year (2 months free)
Scripture:
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
~ Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)
Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.
Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
~ John 15:4 (NIV)
Enjoy This Episode?
Here are some others you might also like:
Ep 312: What Will Kids Going Back to School Mean for Your God-Shaped Dream? Apple | Spotify
Ep 339: Is Imposter Syndrome Keeping You Stuck? Here's How to Know Apple | Spotify
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The unedited transcript for this episode of The Devoted Dreamers Podcast follows:
If you're a parent with kids still living at home and you're preparing for them to head back to school this month or next, you might be feeling that little nudge like this could be the time for you to refocus on the dream God has given you.
This episode of the Devoted Dreamers podcast is all about the five steps to reset your dream when summer break ends.
If you have felt disconnected from your God shaped dream during the summer, this is the perfect time to reset, refocus and reignite what God has placed on your heart.
In case you're new around here, hey, I'm Merritt, host of the Devoted Dreamers Podcast. I'm a Christian life coach, kind of like the Joanna Gaines for women of faith who have big dreams about how God might reorder the second half of your life so you can use your gifts and life experiences to usher in beauty, redemption, healing and service to others. It's not a redesign of your home that we're working on. It's a brand-new way to live in freedom. Free from fear, free from second guessing yourself all the time. Free from the lies that the enemy has used to keep you quiet and playing small in the past.
Isn't it about time that more of us who believe in Christ started living that way?
I'm on a mission to engage 10,000 Christian women worldwide to start taking intentional, purposeful steps that will bring their God shaped dreams to life. If you believe in Jesus and you see his work in your life and you're aware that you have been given beautiful gifts, talents and a life story that can serve and benefit others, maybe you're among those 10,000.
I hope that you are, because you're here listening to a podcast about God shaped dreams. Maybe you're looking for a chance to see if your dream has legs or you want to just try it on for size. Figure out if it's possible, you want to be inspired and encouraged that there is hope for what you have been dreaming all these years. Maybe you've been too fearful in the past, or someone dashed your dreams with a comment that hit too close to home, or you just haven't had time to figure out how to proceed.
Well, my friend, this is your time. If you are here listening to this, it is no mistake God wants you to hear this conversation.
If you have big dreams for how he might use the gifts he's given you and the years of your life that remain. Let's figure out how to turn that heartfelt hidden dream into real, actionable plans with impact for God's Kingdom work in the world.
Stay tuned and at the end I will tell you how you can get involved in my Dream Believers community and start taking real action toward your God shaped dream.
Back to School. It's this bittersweet season. Just the other day I had opened up an email from the school and my 10-year-old walked in while I was watching a welcome back to school video from the executive director of my kids’ school. After a minute of kind of looking at my screen and looking back at me, Madison said, mom, are you crying?
Yes, sweetie. It is incredibly emotional after the summer that we've had, really after any summer, it's incredibly emotional to think about not seeing my kids for eight or nine hours a day while they're at school.
And yet I know this is the way things go. This will be good for them. It'll be good for us. It's a shift. It's hard, but it's good. So for those of us stepping into a transition season like I am, it might be that you're thinking about how God might use your newfound time to reignite a dream that's been on the back burner. Or maybe you've just put it on hold while you're in summer mode.
So that's what we're here talking about today.
There have been some years that I have navigated this summer transition better than others. Usually this is like par for the course for me. I'm incredibly hopeful at the start of summer for different rhythms, more daylight hours, time with my kids going on fun outings, enjoying kind of a less scheduled season, and feeling hopeful for the opportunity to teach or refine some life skills.
I recall at the beginning of this summer I was focused on wanting them to fold their own laundry, empty the dishwasher, learn to cook something new. I am so optimistic that first week of summer break. But what I forget every year is that structure is helpful for all of us. And as they transition from that structure of getting ready in the morning to go to school and then being at school all day and being on and having their interactions with their teachers and their friends and their brain just going and going and then coming home and wanting to crash.
Like then they come home at the end of nine months of school and want to crash for like two to four weeks. So those first two to four weeks of summer break are a huge adjustment in our home. Less structure often equals more chaos. They want to recover. I want them to engage. I've got a bit of mom guilt in those two to four weeks of not making the progress that I wish we were making on that new chore chart. It is a lot in that first month back at home.
And we joke in our house during Christmas break. You know the song that goes: “And mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again.”
My husband and I sing that every time they have a little bit of a fight and they hate it when we sing that song.
And honestly, the only times I really feel that way, that I can't wait for school to start again is when they're struggling to navigate things as well. They're fighting, they're bickering, they're blaming. It's not fun. I honestly don't want to get rid of them. But there are these moments where in my weakness, I'm like, oh Lord, this is hard. This is hard. I don't want to deal with this.
But right now, here we are. August. It's the week before school starts, and we have found our groove. Like six days ago, maybe. The kids are getting along mostly. They've figured out which neighbor kids they really enjoy playing with, the books they could read for hours on end, the independent play that never gets old, the ways to communicate better with one another and us. That's actually been really beautiful to watch them apologize and ask for forgiveness this summer, without a ton of prompting from us. We have grown a ton and it has been a fun summer. We've really loved being together.
But here we are. The kids are about to be away for big chunks of the day. And yes, as a side note, public school is something we've deliberately chosen for our children. And sometimes that's easier than others. If you've made different choices, like homeschooling or something hybrid. Or if your kids are already grown and off on their own. Or maybe you have tiny ones, preschoolers, kids that are home a whole lot more, and summer break ending doesn't really change things a lot for you. This episode might hit differently if you fall in one of those categories.
But when we get to the five steps in just a minute, I think there's going to be something there for you as well.
Wherever you are in this. If this is a season of transition, let's start by returning to scripture from Ephesians 2:10. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
God has given you good gifts, good works that he intends for you to participate in while you live on this earth. And if your schedule is about to shift, if your kids are going to spend big chunks of their day, learning at school and being away from home. Then obviously you're going to have more time on your hands to pursue different good works than maybe you did this summer.
Maybe that's your God shaped dream.
And this back-to-school season, it isn't just a reset for your calendar, it can be a reset for that dream.
Okay, here are the five steps I alluded to just a second ago. I want to walk you through these simple, faith filled steps that you can take right now to reset your God shaped dream as summer comes to a close.
So step number one—and these all start with C just to make it easy. Step number one is where we always begin. Connect with God.
John 15:4 says, Remain in me as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
How's your connection with the Lord right now? Are you spending consistent, regular time with him, not as a check the box, but to build a relationship with the Father who loves you.
And if it could be better, which is probably true for all of us, what rhythms do you need to reestablish to stay rooted in the Lord? Maybe it's daily word time. I've got a wonderful, very popular episode in my Habit series about how to get in the Word every single day. Even if you don't have a ton of time. I'll link that in the show notes for you. Another rhythm is prayer. Maybe it's Bible study, not just Bible reading.
Think about how's your connection with the Lord? What can you do to deepen your relationship with him, your connection to Him. Because here's why: He's the author and perfecter of our faith and he is also the author of our dreams. So this is of course the place to start as you transition into this new season. Pursuing a dream is going to require dependence on Him. You're not going to have all the answers. You're not going to know what to do all the time.
In fact, there are a lot of times when you are going to deeply need Him. And of course, you want to have been pursuing him and building that relationship with him as he pursues you. Remember, he pursued us first. So step number one is connect with God. Figure out what rhythms you want to build into your fall season to carry on through the rest of the year and into the new one.
Step number two is clarity. This is clarity about the dream. I think it's really important to spend some time focused on why, like remembering the reason this dream is important to you.
Think about things like, what gifts do I feel called to use? What has he given me that maybe I'm not already using or not using to the extent that maybe I'm capable of, or that he desires for me? Has he maybe put on your mind or your heart to do something that's the next level up to pursue a greater degree of that gift? Process through that and then think specifically what excites me about this dream? Why? Why do I want to do this? What wakes me up in the middle of the night? Or what am I mulling around in the shower like to spend time in step two, this clarity step would be to journal some answers to those things or to pray through them. What gifts do I feel called to use? What excites me about this dream?
And then resetting your agenda. So if you were pursuing something related to your dream before school ended in the spring, this may be a great time to reset. Whether you've done anything with it in the summer or not. Think through in this new school year, in this new season, what time and space do I realistically have? And then what's one small step that I can take this week? So that's step two. Clarity. Remembering your why, journaling through your gifts and your excitement about the dream and then resetting your agenda. What do you need to do to focus time in your schedule on this dream?
Step number three is connect with who your dream serves.
So when I talk about God shaped dreams, there's one part of the definition of what is a God shaped dream that's significant and that is the dream is not for you. The dream is actually for God to use it to reach others. And a lot of times our dreams come from wounds or difficulties from our past, things he's brought us through that he wants us to relate to others with and maybe give them support, encouragement for how they might get through it too.
So connect with who your dream serves. Step three, it is so vitally important for you to know who the people are that would benefit from the work of your dream, the good works that God prepared in advance for you. So who do you serve? Who is that person? I think it really helps to think about a specific person, like to have to visualize somebody in your mind of who that might be.
So maybe that's a friend, or maybe that's a stranger. But thinking through and processing and journaling, writing some of these things down. Who does your dream serve? Have you had any real conversations with that person or those people?
If not, or if you haven't recently, write down the name of one person you could talk to this week or whenever that first week is that you have those extra hours with kids at school. So step three is connect with who your dream serves both internally in what you believe and understand about them. And then externally having real conversations to enhance what you believe and understand about who those people are for the purpose of being able to serve and support them better because you know more about them.
Step 4 Connect with other Dreamers it is incredibly challenging to pursue our dreams alone. A lot of us, because the dream is only in our head or we've tried to share it and hasn't really gone the way that we hoped. A lot of us are functioning on our own when it comes to our God shaped dreams.
But it is so important to walk alongside other women who have dreams, who get what you're going through, who get the struggles and the mindset issues and the fears and the, you know, which step do I take next? The spinning our wheels, the things that you're just not quite sure about. It is so helpful to speak with and engage other women who are pursuing dreams too.
And one of the best ways that I know to find that kind of community is in the community that I've built called Dream Believers. If you're craving that deeper connection not just with God, but with others who get what it means to walk out a God shaped dream, this is your opportunity.
Inside Dream Believers, you're going to find a safe, welcoming community of Christian women who are walking through some of the same doubts, the same wrestling feelings of being stuck and the desire to move forward in faith, trusting God for who he is and who he made them. As dreamers, we often share the same hurdles, even if our dreams are different. Somebody can be pursuing something that's like a brick and mortar and another person, something online and another can be a coach or a consultant, an artist. They're a writer. There's so many different dreams, but the struggles are similar and it's why we need each other.
Dream Believers isn't a place to prove anything or hustle harder. It's a place to pause, to reflect, and to dream again with others right by your side. If you've been trying to figure it out alone and it's just not working, maybe what's missing isn't strategy. Maybe it's sisterhood. You can join Dream Believers right now at merrittonsa.com/dreambelievers. We have got a seat saved for you.
So that was step four. Connect with Other Dreamers don't miss this opportunity to join dream believers.
And then finally Step five, our final C is courage. Courage is not something that we muster up on our own. Courage is also not the absence of fear. Courage is actually stepping forward in the face of fear.
And the way we build courage is by trusting that God is with you, that he gave you the dream so he knows what you need, he knows you, he knows where you feel deficient and he is trustworthy. And then by taking imperfect action, even if we're not sure how it's going to turn out despite the fear, regardless of the outcome. But when you do that, when you take imperfect action, don't let that moment pass and move on to the next thing. Pause.
Take time to reflect. Celebrate every small win. I mean every. And I mean small. However tiny and however many there are. Celebrate every single one of them.
Reflection, though, is where we learn. Examine the action you took, see what went well, understand what didn't. Figure out what you'd like to do differently next time and make a plan to take the next step.
This all falls under that courage step because it's all connected. We have to over and over and over again trust God with what he's given us and continue to take imperfect action anyway. And that's the biggest thing. What you repeatedly do, you will eventually get better at. So don't neglect any opportunity to keep taking faithful steps forward.
My friend. Your dream doesn't have to be big to be worth pursuing.
Remember good works that God prepared for you before you were born. This is the time to walk in them, especially if you have more time on your hands going into the fall.
If God planted it in you, he's going to water it as you step forward in faith. So your next steps at the end of this episode is to just block off a few hours to journal and consider your dream, your bandwidth, your boundaries. Like mine, for example. I've always said that I want to do this. This year I get an opportunity to reset and try again because I have not been great at it.
I want to shut down my work if my kids leave at 7:30 in the morning or 7:45 if we're running kind of late. I want to shut down my work at 3:15 before they walk in the door at 3:30. I want to be in the kitchen available to have snacks with them or discuss their day or just be present. This is what I want you to make space for as well. Blocking off that time to consider the dream, consider what your bandwidth is to pursue it, and then set those boundaries so that it doesn't take over your life. Right?
If I can help you make progress on your goals and the good work that God has given you. Let's connect. You are invited to my Dream Believers community where you'll not only have access to me, but also other women with dreams who are taking faithful steps forward.
Not because they have more skills, more time, or more courage than you, but because they've chosen the dream over the fear of what could happen. Trust me, all of this is way harder if you're trying to do it on your own.
Join Dream Believers today to build a community of others around you so you can go further together.
Let me pray for you, Father, God, it is such a season of transition, and in the midst of it all, the sadness, the happiness, the structure, the needing to get school supplies, back to school clothes, shoes, all the details in the midst of it all, you are faithful and you love us and you see us. You see the stress that this season brings. You see the relief that this season brings. And you know each one of us intimately.
And so I pray for the woman who has a dream on her heart, who is saying to herself, this is the year, who is inviting you into it, who is praying for courage to take steps. Lord, I lift her up to you. Would you meet her in that place and remind her that she is your beloved daughter?
Would you help her to see that nothing that she does could earn your favor, that nothing that she is would turn you away from her?
God, would you help her to think less and worry less about what others think about her and to be focused as fully as is possible on you, on Jesus, on the power of the Holy Spirit that lives in her, Lord.
Would you do a beautiful good work in her in this season? Would you help her to, if she's a mom, to nurture her kids as they transition, to be gentle with them and with herself? In the shift, in the adjustments in the couple of weeks it's going to take for things to kind of settle into a rhythm?
And Lord, if the dream is from you, if the dream is good, if it is the good work that you have prepared for her beforehand, would you not let her heart let go of it? Show her a next step, direct her into community and may she live and work and love for the praise of your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Finally, daughter of the King, you were made for a beautiful purpose. Your identity and security rest in him, as does your dream, because the Lord is good and his ways are always good. No weapon formed against you will prosper because you belong to him.
Until next week: Stay faithful, keep dreaming. And remember, trusting God with your next step doesn't mean it isn't going to be scary.
It means taking the step anyway. That's what faith is. You are welcome here among women, braving those scary steps in faith, knowing our dreams matter because they are his.
Until next time, I'm Merritt Onsa, your dream coach and sister in Christ, walking by faith with you in the dream.
Have a great week.
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