Every Girl's Dream

I usually never have trouble falling asleep. So when I do, I’ve realized that it is on those nights that God wants to talk to me; He wants to tell me something or show me something. I dreamt this dream on one of those nights.

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In my dream, I sat across from an older gentleman as he told me stories about growing up in a gorgeous, sprawling Southern mansion. This man had a knack for storytelling and when he spoke about his childhood growing up on this sleepy little river, it was almost as if I was there.

The way that he described the house and it’s grounds made it seem like something out of a fairytale. Imagine a huge, white estate home with a grey-stoned, circular driveway, columns on either side of the front door and at least three stories visible from the front of the home.

It sat on the edge of one of the most serene rivers you will ever see. There were huge magnolia trees everywhere you looked and the riverbank was lined with weeping willow and Spanish moss. In the yard sat a set of white wrought iron lawn furniture just begging you to sit down and enjoy an ice cold glass of sweet tea.

While the outside of the estate was indicative of the inside décor, it paled in comparison. As I sat at my desk and listened to this man describe his childhood home, I couldn’t imagine someone growing up a child and surrounded by such splendor.

He described rooms with ceilings so high that you needed a ladder to change the light bulb. Each room was painted in a color more vibrant than the next; turquoise, burgundy, shades of green and purple and even a pale yellow. But no matter the color of each room, there was gold trim everywhere. From the doorknobs to cherubs on the headboards to intricate designs on the crown molding…everything was adorned with gold!

Each time he finished his stories, he would get up from his chair and invite me down for a visit. I would always accept but yet I never made the trip to see his home. But one day, for whatever reason I finally made the trip.

Following his directions to a T, I pulled into the grey-stoned circular driveway to find him waving from the steps of the home. Everything was just as he’d described it and just as I’d imagined it. The trees, the lawn furniture, the river, the sight of this massive home…it was surreal!

We began our tour on the outside with him walking me around the grounds and pointing out different sights. Over there was the tree he used to climb as a child, to the right was his favorite hiding place while playing hide-n-seek, there was even a tree trunk still bearing his initials which he’d carved there years ago.

Finally, the moment I’d been waiting for. We walked up the front steps of the home and I found myself holding my breath as he turned the doorknob. But my vision of walking into a gorgeous array of colors, vintage furniture and pictures quickly came crashing down.

There was no furniture.

There were no pictures on the walls.

“In fact, what happened to the walls?!”, I said to myself. The gorgeous colors he described in his dream were gone. Where I had expected to see turquoise, reds, greens, purples and yellows…there was only white. Everything was white. Everything, every room…what happened to the vision he had painted for me?

As we walked room to room and he described what each room used to look like, I tried my best to look interested. But inside, my heart had sunk. As we passed through each room and he kept describing them in their forgotten splendor, I found myself getting irritated with him; angry even.

Why would he invite me to this place; why would he describe it to me as it was, if when I got there all that was…was gone?

Making matters worse, if you looked closely in certain places you could see remnants of the colors that used to grace the walls peeking out from under a thin coat of white paint. That only fueled my fire! How inconsiderate of him to paint over this beautiful home and not even do a good job!

But, not wanting to be rude, I politely smiled and nodded when he looked at me but inside I was fuming. I felt as though I’d wasted my time coming to see something that failed to meet my expectations.

We exited the house through the same front door we’d entered and I paused on the final steps, preparing to say goodbye, get in my car and go. But before I could open my mouth, he began walking towards two wrought iron chairs and I felt I had no choice but to follow.

I sat down across from him and finally I couldn’t hold it in anymore, “What happened?! Why would you paint over everything? I don’t understand!”

He looked at me with sad eyes and offered an even sadder smile. He began to explain that at some point in his family’s history, the home fell into the hands of people unrelated to him. Different people in the family had different stories as to how this happened (of course). Some say the family fell on hard times and had to sell the estate, others say the deed was lost in a high-risk poker game. But no matter how it happened, another family moved in and everything changed.

They didn’t appreciate the house. They didn’t understand the love and care that went into building, designing and decorating the home. Without being attached to it or having any respect or appreciation for it…they painted over everything and made it their own. But sadly, they only lived there for a very, very short time.

What he said next brought tears to my eyes.

“It doesn’t take long to show how much someone respects or disrespects something. Isn’t it amazing how little time people need to cause such a great deal of damage? I have spent my life trying to win this property back. I love this place and I will stop at nothing to see it restored to it’s former beauty.  While it doesn’t look like much now, I’ve seen this place at it’s best. I know it’s purpose, it’s history, it’s past, present and it’s future. It belongs to me now, and I will restore it.”

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Every woman and every girl is worth the wait.

No matter your past.

No matter your present.

God knows your future.

He is in a relentless pursuit for your heart, for your life, for your purity.

God created you for a specific purpose and while others may abuse that purpose, He never will.

There is no one on this earth that can restore you the way God can.

No one can keep you like God can.

No one can love, respect and cherish you like God.

Being pure is more than just abstaining from having sex outside of marriage. It is about creating an environment where you can heal, grow and learn to truly love and respect yourself.

UNPLUGGED is  dedicated to just that; to you.

Join us for our I’m Worth The Wait campaign as we strive to let every woman and every girl know that they are worth the wait.

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous-how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born, every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” Psalm 139:13-17