First Line Friday #40: Put Your Dream to the Test by John C. Maxwell

 

Thanks to Carrie at
Reading is My Superpower
for the Link-up

 

 

Title:  Put Your Dream to the Test
Author:  Dr. John C. Maxwell
Genre:  Leadership/Personal Development

    〰First Line〰

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What is your dream?   Will you achieve it in your lifetime?

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Synopsis:  (From Amazon) 

Do you dream big? Now you can put your dream to the test and bring it to life!

What's the difference between a dreamer and someone who achieves a dream? According to best-selling author and leadership expert Dr. John C. Maxwell, the answer lies in answering ten powerful, straightforward questions.

Whether you've lost sight of an old dream or you are searching for a new one within you,?this book provides a step-by-step action plan that you can start using today to see, own, and reach your dream. Dr. Maxwell draws on his forty years of mentoring experience to expertly guide you through the ten questions required of every successful dreamer.

In Put Your Dream to the Test, Maxwell will help you:

• Discover and define what your dream should be
• Create a blueprint for a path to achieve success
• See real-world examples of what success could look like for you

It's one thing to have a dream. It's another to do the things needed to achieve it. If you're willing to put your dream to the test and do what's needed to answer yes to the ten dream questions, then your odds are very good for seeing your dream become reality.

Don't leave your dream to chance. This book is a must-have and can make the difference between failure and success.

〰First Thoughts〰

I bought and started this book back in 2023, but put it on the back burner because I didn't feel ready to tackle it.  This isn't a speed read through, say "oh that was nice" in my notes, and move on type of volume.  This is in-depth; what I call a "Crock Pot" read.  To borrow a phrase from Bob Ross, the old clock on the wall is telling me that I'm not getting any younger and my dreams cannot continue to sit and fester like a boil.  Sure, some of my dreams are slowly coming to fruition.  However, I believe that there is so much more growth and accomplishment in my future.  

When I first purchased the book, I skimmed through to get an overview of the ten questions Maxwell asks.  They are thought-provoking exercises that will take more than a few minutes of journaling to complete.  I'm trying to keep my expectations low for this book.  Not because of the subject matter or the author; as I intimated above, Dr. Maxwell's books are excellent resources.  However, I don't have access to pick the author's brain, so to speak, and I'm sure I'll have questions that the book does not answer.  Hopefully I can either get suitable answers from others (mentors, etc.), or the questions can simply wait and their lack of an answer doesn't impede my progress.  We'll see.

So, what's the first line of the book you're currently reading?

Plating it Up: The Weekly Hodgepodge

Join the fun! 

Come on over to 

From This Side of the Pond 

for the Hodgepodge link-up!

 

Do you feel like you have a 'full plate' at the moment? In what way?

Yes, and no.  I finished up teaching a course a couple of weeks ago, so one huge thing was removed from my plate.  Now I'm heading into the fun season of a full plate.  I'm prepping for holiday celebrations and my upcoming two week Christmas break.  I'm also looking over my 25 for 2025 list to see what fun things are left to complete.

How did you learn to cook? If you have children did you teach or encourage them to cook? Do you like to follow a recipe or is your cooking style more 'let's wing it'.  

Most of my cooking skills came from observation mixed with trial and error.  I took Home Economics in 7th grade.  However, as I've mentioned previously, the teacher's "Pitchfork and Torches" technique of instruction did nothing for either my sewing or cooking skills. Fortunately my mom and my older sisters Ida and Margie were great examples to observe when I was younger.  I "inherited by osmosis" their propensity to be able to either follow a recipe to a T, or tweak it depending on what's needed.

Last time you bit off more than you could chew? Elaborate. 

Although I've been at this for four years, every new college course I teach feels that way to some extent. The students who dig deep and challenge me with questions aren't the problem--they are a delight.  The students who don't care, don't do the work, and have no respect for the subject (and sometimes the instructor) infuriate me and occasionally send me into existential dread.

Hey, I take theology seriously. 

When did you last say 'the more the merrier' and mean it? 

Whenever any of my friends and I get together for something fun, I'm game for as many as are able to enjoy. 

Write an acrostic using the word T-H-A-N-K-S. 

Today
Have 
A
New
Kind of 
Song in your heart 

"Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts." - Colossians 3:16 (The Holy Bible: New International Version)

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all. 

Insert your own random thought here. 

In case you missed it:  

• My previous Hodgepodge post "Puppy Power" is here.
• My latest Weekly Digest "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" is here.
  
• My latest First Line Friday post: #39:  The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald is here. 
• My "25 for 2025" challenge is here.  (Updated regularly)
• My "2025 I Can Only Blame MyShelf Reading Challenge" is here. (Updated regularly)

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?: The Weekly Digest

 

Looking out the window....

Our first snow of the season is quickly approaching.  The fall colors are fading fast, but bright holiday decorations will soon take the grey out of the corners.  The crows and magpies are still screaming their morning heavy metal riffs.  Hopefully they will hang around all winter since they are not migratory birds.  The bunnies and squirrels are still scampering around making their last preparations for sheltering for the winter.

Favorite quote(s) of the week... 

 

Come, then, and let us seek His face. There is no reason for despair, or even for despondency. Let us love a God who disciplines us, and before long we will sing, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me (Isaiah 12:1). Be gone, you dreary forebodings, you ravens of the soul! Come in, you humble hopes and grateful memories, you doves of the heart! He who pardoned us long ago as a judge will again forgive us as a father, and we will rejoice in His sweet, unchanging love. - Charles Spurgeon, Faith's Checkbook, p. 343. 

 

It is my heart-warm and world-embracing Christmas hope and aspiration that all of us-the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage-may-eventually be gathered together in heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss-except the inventor of the telephone. - Mark Twain, Mark Twain's Helpful Hints for Good Living, 49:37 in audiobook version. 

 

Many imagine that faith is entirely irrational.  But Scripture never sets faith and reason over against each other as incompatible.  On the contrary, faith can only arise and grow within us by the use of our minds. - John Stott, Balanced Christianity, Chapter 2, around 12:41 in audiobook version.

 

The melancholic is both outgoing and shy--in love with people and yet craving of time alone. He can be the center of attention and yet one who walks the solitary hills for hours alone with his thoughts. - Michael R. Phillips, George MacDonald, Chapter 3, around 1:50:18 in audiobook version.

 

"If persons are often highly affected when with others and but little moved when they have none but God in Christ to converse with, it looks very darkly upon their religion." - Jonathan Edwards, qtd. by Donald S. Whitney in Chapter 7 of Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health.

 

I'm thinking about... 

• My 26 for 2026 list.  Anybody got any ideas?
• My one word for the season.  I think I have one and I'll blog about it soon. 
• What I want to call my 2026 reading challenge and what art to make for it. 
• Remaking my "Auntie's Workshop" logo...yes again. 

   

What I've read since the last digest...

• The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis by Jason M. Baxter  ✮✮✮✮
• Balanced Christianity by John Stott ✮✮✮✮ 
• Ester Ried by Isabella MacDonald Alden ✮✮✮✮ (a glorious reread).  Please see my review of this work here.

I'm currently reading...

• The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
• The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald.  Please see my First Line Friday post here.
• Mansions of the Heart by R. Thomas Ashbrook 
• Streams of Living Water by Richard J. Foster 
• Faith's Checkbook by Charles Spurgeon

Recent blog posts...

• My previous digest, "Orange is the New Chicken'" is here.
  
• Puppy Power:  The Weekly Hodgepodge is here. 
• My "25 for 2025" challenge is here. (Updated regularly)
• My "I Can Only Blame MyShelf" reading challenge is here.  (Updated regularly). 

From the Workshop... 

Well, it's finished!  Yes, this is the project I've been hinting at for a couple of months.  It's called a "String Quilt."  If you want to see the instructional video on how this is made, please watch here.  Normally, it's made with leftover scraps from other projects.  However, I purposely planned out the color scheme of this one.  I purchased the 10-inch paper piecing squares online, cut several fat quarters into 2.50-inch strips, and followed the instructions in the video.  This was so much fun.  BTW--a plain Elmer's washable purple school glue stick works just as well as the glue they recommended.  This pattern will be yet one more good use for scraps.

I am thankful for...

• Pleasant smelling candles and essential oils.
• Relatively consistent sleep.
• Early morning coffee or tea. 
• Our IT team at work. They have to deal with some weird stuff.
• The "skip ad" button on YouTube. 
• Finishing my yearly reading challenge early this year.