Praying Your Dreams

I would sit on my bed and dream about what my life would be like. As a 13 year old, I began telling the Lord my dreams. I felt like He was telling me that if I stuck with Him, He’d make all my dreams come true. I did stick with Him. Some of my dreams were rather mature and some were very 7th grade. These were my dreams:

1. That year I had a friend at church who was valedictorian of his high school graduating class. He asked me if I’d ever like to be valedictorian. I told him that I would like being number one in my class, but I didn’t like the idea of all of the pressure that comes with being “valedictorian.” I also would not want to give a speech. I’d rather sing instead. I’m sure he thought I was a cute little girl.

2. My intent was to study psychology in college. Even as young as I was I knew how wacky that major could become. Therefore, I wanted to go to a Christian university. I also wanted it to be a three hour drive from home. That was close enough to come home every now and then but far enough away that I couldn’t come home every weekend. However, in Daytona Beach, FL where I lived at the time, there wasn’t a Christian university within my driving distance specifications.

3. My best friend had my body style…except she was about 3 or 4 sizes smaller than me. I wanted to be her size. I went straight from kid sizes to size 7 in juniors in the 7th grade (ladies you know what that means). I wanted to be thin like my family and friends.

4. People would ask me if I was going to do something in the ministry when I grew up. I told them that all I knew was that my husband was going to be in the ministry and I was going to be very involved. I didn’t quite know what that meant, but I had a few ideas about how I wanted to meet this guy. My favorite show was Who’s the Boss. I wanted to be best friends with a guy and then all of a sudden, we would realize that we were in love just like the characters on the show. I did not know how that could possibly happen. How could you not know that you loved your best friend?

5. I wanted to travel to every state. Whenever we went on family trips, I’d ask my parents to stop at the welcome centers in every state. There, I would collect brochures with information about the state. I was fascinated with the differences in each state just because you crossed some imaginary line.


When I was a junior in college, we moved to Texas. There, my dreams began to come true:

1. In the little school from where I graduated, I was number one in my class, but I could not be valedictorian because they had a rule that you had to attend that school for a certain amount of time before you could be valedictorian. I didn’t meet that requirement. However, they acknowledged that grade-wise I was number one. They didn’t quite know how to handle the ceremony because the valedictorian was to give the speech. Someone suggested that I sing our class song. Therefore, I sang "Hero" by Whitney Houston at my graduation.

2. One day, as I was sitting in the counseling center of my school, I looked at all of the posters on the bulletin board about different colleges. There was a tiny bumper sticker that read “East Texas Baptist University.” I decided that was where I needed to go. My parents encouraged me to apply to other schools, but I was set on this one. I knew it was where the Lord wanted me. Guess how long it took me to get from my house to the college? It was a three hour drive.

3. The summer before my senior year of college, I started dropping weight for no apparent reason. My mom was afraid that I had a tapeworm. I dropped five sizes in less than six months. At that time, the Lord was calling Brock (my future husband) to be a Christian illusionist. Later, I discovered that had I been the same size that I was in high school, I would not be able to be Brock’s assistant (my future career). You have to be rather small to fit in those crazy boxes!

4. Brock Gill fasted for 21 days at the beginning of his ministry. The Lord told Him during the fast how his ministry would go. He also told him how he would meet his wife. He told him to stop dating because he would marry his best friend. I met Brock two days after he finished that fast when I was a senior in college. We became best friends instantly. People were always asking me if we were a couple. To which I would reply, “Nah, it’s just Brock!” A couple of years later, after I had already graduated and Brock was in his senior year of college, I realized that I was in love with him. It was crazy! (More about that in the next blog).

5. Because we have lots of big equipment, we must drive to most of our shows. Before I turned 30, I had driven to every state in the Continental U.S. I’ve since then been to Alaska. I’m sure we’ll make it to Hawaii sometime soon!

The Lord took those tender dreams and prayers at such a young age and made them come into being. In fact, it was all part of His plan for my life. I don’t know if He gave me the desires of my heart or if He put those desires in me. Either way, it’s been a wonderful journey that I’m still going through. I still pray my dreams and am watching the Lord make them come true. Don’t be afraid to pray you dreams. The Lord wants to share those with you.