Dreaming dreaming

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Kathrin

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Is there anything bad about really getting into something, having a dream?
I fell in love with a country I visited and I listen to the music and it makes me feel so much and I am trying to learn the language.
Is this giving too much credit to earthly things, deriving such joy from something like this? Should such feelings of purpose only come from purely religious purposes?
(But then EVERYTHING is from God and I thank God for the beauty of this world and I try to listen to Him leading me…)

Or what if somebody is a fan of something, let’s say a football team? A music group? And derives joy from it?

It feels so good. Is it wrong?

Kathrin
 
There is nothing wrong with these things, so long as God is first in your life.

Your shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind and with all your strength.

If your like or love for other persons or things is above God, then you are in sin… Then, Please see a priest…
 
There’s nothing wrong in enjoying harmless natural pleasures. God intended the pleasures of creation to point towards Himself.

Did you ever read C. S. Lewis’s SCREWTAPE LETTERS? In it the demon Screwtape says that whenever we deal with pleasures, we are actually on God’s territory. “All our research has not come up with a single real pleasure yet. The only thing we can do is persuade humans to take their pleasures at times, or in ways, or to degrees that God has forbidden.”
 
Thinking now… yes, God is, must be, first in life. The first priority is to listen to Him and to follow His commandments and to spread His love in the world, to be a witness.

Maybe I am just scrupulous again, but just now I had the following scenario: I was praying the rosary, and suddenly I got distracted by my own thoughts. I don’t know how but the next moment I can remember I was reciting something I wanted to learn for my new let’s say “hobby”, that gives me great pleasure.
OK, I focused back on the rosary and said the next mystery.

But here is what I am struggling with, struggling very hard with sometimes: If we have dreams and hobbies and they sometimes distract us from let’s say praying, does that mean they are bad? Like, we have to “purge” ourselves of anything that might distract us from God?
But then, if you are really excited about something, have found something that has made you happy and gives you a new sense of well-being, a high-on-the-world kind of feeling, how could you possibly just stop that? And do you have to?

Or can you just offer it to the Lord and thank Him for it and remember that all good things are from Him?

Confused, me, here. Would so much like to enjoy things and do. But sometimes there is so much guilt inviolved.
Kathrin
 
Thinking now… yes, God is, must be, first in life. The first priority is to listen to Him and to follow His commandments and to spread His love in the world, to be a witness.

Maybe I am just scrupulous again, but just now I had the following scenario: I was praying the rosary, and suddenly I got distracted by my own thoughts. I don’t know how but the next moment I can remember I was reciting something I wanted to learn for my new let’s say “hobby”, that gives me great pleasure.
OK, I focused back on the rosary and said the next mystery.

But here is what I am struggling with, struggling very hard with sometimes: If we have dreams and hobbies and they sometimes distract us from let’s say praying, does that mean they are bad? Like, we have to “purge” ourselves of anything that might distract us from God?
But then, if you are really excited about something, have found something that has made you happy and gives you a new sense of well-being, a high-on-the-world kind of feeling, how could you possibly just stop that? And do you have to?

Or can you just offer it to the Lord and thank Him for it and remember that all good things are from Him?

Confused, me, here. Would so much like to enjoy things and do. But sometimes there is so much guilt inviolved.
Kathrin
No - every good thing (including the country that you love) is a gift from God - he doesnt want us to be gloomy all the time. Remember David and the prophets wrote some really beautiful things about Israel and Jerusalem, obviously they dearly loved these places.

See if you can turn your distraction into an opportunity - offer your Rosary in thanks to God for your time in country X, perhaps offer a prayer that you might return there one day. 👍
 
It may just be my scrupulous brain again… I have just been struggling with this. Like, I feel guilty that I have found something I dream about that makes me feel good. The turning into an opportunuty and offering it all up to God, that is really what I want to do.
And in some ways it feels like it IS a gift from God because it has changed the perspectives of my life in ways that may be really helpful, not only for myself, but make things easier for my family as well.
Maybe.
See, this is where I doubt: If there is any doubt that something that is good feels wrong, and we do it anyway, isn’t this like risking our soul for it???
But then again, it may be wrong to NOT accept the joys…

Thanks Lily, a lot.

Kathrin
 
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