Don’t Quit Your Daydream

I was ministered to by a bathroom cup a while back.

One day I was getting ready for work and grabbed a cup for my mouthwash. The little saying on the cup caught my eye.

“Don’t quit your daydream.”

There it was, my life story on a mini-cup.

Fourteen years ago, God gave me a dream to write for Him. I didn’t quite know what to do with that dream, but over the years I have tried to fulfill it. I have attended writers conferences, made lots of writer friends, paid for critiques, and pitched enough projects to fill a library.

Were there times I wanted to quit? ABSOLUTELY IN ALL CAPS. But God wouldn’t let me.

I had one of those “I need to quit writing” pity parties right before a writers conference earlier this year. I just wasn’t feeling it, but I prayed and prayed. God has His own sense of timing . . . and humor.

On the way home from that conference, I got a message from my agent. A legit publishing company was ready to offer me and my co-author a contract. A real contract. For an actual book. With my name on the cover.

A couple of weeks later, we signed and began writing our book . . . with a deadline of less than two months (Remember that thing about timing and humor).

It has been fourteen years, and that dream, God’s dream planted deep in my heart, is coming true. I want to pinch myself sometimes. Then I remember that deadline, so I start typing again.

It’s been a long journey, but, if there’s one thing I have learned, God is faithful. If the dream came from Him, He’ll see it through. The path will not be clear at times and you will want to quit, but just trust Him.

Don’t quit your daydream. Bathroom cups are pretty deep.

Carlton Hughes wears many hats. By day, he’s a professor of communication at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College. On Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings, he does object lessons and songs with motions as Children’s Pastor of Lynch Church of God. In his “spare time,” he is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including Chicken Soup for the Soul and several devotional books from Worthy Publishing—Let the Earth Rejoice, Just Breathe, So God Made a Dog, and Everyday Grace for Men. Carlton and his wife Kathy have two sons, Noah and Ethan, both of whom recently flew out of the nest. He is on the planning committee for Kentucky Christian Writers Conference and is a year-round volunteer for Operation Christmas child. He is represented by Cyle Young of Hartline Literary Agency. His book Adventures in Fatherhood, a 60-day devotional co-authored with Holland Webb, will release in April 2020 from Worthy/Ellie Claire.