I Double Dare You to Dream

By Lashunda Smith.

I Double Dare You to Dream, challenges you to think beyond your current circumstances and embrace the life you have always wanted. Its about taking a leap of faith to explore and improve in multiple areas of your life while not being afraid to be wrong, to fail, or to be disappointed. I challenge you to take action and believe your dreams will come true.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496905796

Lashunda Smith.

Lashunda Smith received a bachelor’s degree from Winston-Salem State University in management information systems, and a master’s from Troy State University in human resource management. She is pursuing a master of fine arts at the New York Film Academy in acting. She served in the US Army. Lashunda is the CEO of D4Greatness, LLC (Destined4Greatness). Her company has launched the D4G clothing line and is producing her firstminiseries , Bristol Place.. She believes everyone has greatness inside and is destined for great things. Her company, D4Greatness, is about instilling hope and desire in people so they can utilize their gifts and talents to impact the nation. She believes that being Destined4Greatness is being a part of something that is bigger than any one person. Her mission is to inspire, encourage, and motivate people willing to take a chance to become great!

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© 2014 Lashunda Smith. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 05/07/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-0580-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-0578-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-0579-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014907245

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Dare to Dream

Dare to Ask for God’s Will for Your Life

Dare to Have a Relationship with God

Discover Your Passion and Follow Your Dreams

Dare to Visualize

Dare to Try

Dare to Have Faith

Dare to Have Peace

Dare to Wait

Dare to Listen

Dare to Start a Business

Dare to Execute Your Plan

Dare to Dream

to Be a Kingdom King

Dare to Turn Setbacks into Comebacks

Ask God before You Quit

Dare to Have a Voice

Dare to Write a Book

Dare to Write a Song

Dare to Live beyond the Walls

Dare to Be Healed

Dare to Lose Weight

Dare to Find Your Inner Beauty

Dare to Volunteer

Resource Page

Scriptures on Each Topic

Endnotes

Acknowledgments

I thank God for giving me the confidence, wisdom, and strength to complete this book. I pray I have honored and followed his instructions in a way that will positively impact generations.

I thank my beloved mother, Barbara Jean Roberts, for telling me I can do anything I put my mind to; her sentiments will remain with me until I depart this earth.

I want to thank my family and friends for being supportive as I shared my vision with you. I love you!

Thank you, interviewees, for being open and honest and allowing me into your personal and professional lives. It was an honor to communicate with you.

I pray that each reader will be positively impacted by my experiences, and I hope they follow their dreams until they become reality.

Thank you, AuthorHouse, and my coach for helping me bring my vision to life.

God bless you!

Lashunda M. Smith

I Double Dare You to Dream, challenges you to think beyond your current circumstances and embrace the life you have always wanted. It’s about taking a leap of faith to explore and improve in multiple areas of your life while not being afraid to be wrong, to fail, or to be disappointed. I challenge you to take action and believe your dreams will come true.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Dare to Dream

In this section, I encourage you to follow your dreams and not be afraid to fail or be disappointed. This section is about doing what you love and believing money will follow. It deals with standing on biblical principles as to why you can follow your dreams. I encourage you to write out your vision, make it plain, and expect to receive positive outcomes. Each section entails my personal experiences and is followed by a poem meant to encourage you and to help you keep your dream alive.

Dare to dream because it promotes hope and gives you courage to pursue your goals and dreams. Dare to dream because it makes the days go by and puts a smile on your face despite what’s going on in your life. Follow your dreams because they will never lead you the wrong way, and dreams are all we have. Most of us choose our paths with an overall objective of attaining financial stability but forfeit the opportunity to experience passion in our journeys. Many of us wish we had pursued our passions in life and often look back with regrets.

If you are starting a new career or transitioning because of the economy, revise your mentality that you have to work for money; pursue your dream now, and the money will follow.

It’s Your Time

We often blame others when we fail to become everything we want to be in life because we didn’t pursue our goals or obtain success because of poor choices we made, because of fear, or because of sacrifices we made for loved ones. We must, however, take responsibility for our circumstances and know that God still has plans for our lives and will redirect us.

God sees the sacrifices that many of us make, whether it is in raising children or taking care of ill parents or siblings. Other sacrifices many of us make are working while taking night classes, working two jobs to make ends meet, and putting dreams on hold.

I respect those who selflessly provide for someone else’s welfare over their own because this is one of the many characteristics of our heavenly Father. This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son (John 3:16 The Message).

God also speaks about training children: Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6 KJV). After you have finished being a guardian for your children, spouse, or parents, there comes a time when you must let go and allow them to blossom to become the people they are meant to be. When a child goes off to college, when your parent is receiving full-time care, or when your spouse graduates from school, it may be a good time to reflect on your own aspirations.

Daring to dream is about challenging yourself to think beyond your current circumstances and embrace the life you have always wanted to live. It’s about taking a leap of faith and not being afraid to be wrong, to fail, or to be disappointed. Dare to take that pottery or art class if it has been a lifelong dream of yours to create; dare to go back to school at age forty to become a teacher after being in corporate America for the past fifteen years.

When I was a child, my friends used to double dare me to race the fastest runner, climb the highest tree, or step into double-dutch when the ropes were going so fast they could swipe skin off your knees. They would say, I double dare you. This meant that if you succeeded, you were tough and weren’t afraid of challenges. Today, I double dare you to dream, and I challenge you to take action in your life and believe your dreams will come true.

Throughout the Bible, God revealed his messages through dreams. When God gives you a dream, please do not take it lightly. In Habakkuk 2:2, God said, Write this. Write what you see. Write it out in block letters so it can be read on the run. If you have your dreams written out and you have a plan to execute them, when life throws you stumbling blocks, you will always be able to refer to your plan, a blueprint for where you want to be and the goals you want to accomplish.

In Matthew 5:13, we read, Let me tell you why you are here. You are here to be salt—seasoning that brings out the God flavors of this earth. When God gives you a dream, use it to salt the earth and add a bit of your anointed flavor so people can benefit from your goodness. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? If you lose your desire to dream, how will people know that dreams come true? Matthew 5:14-16 says, Now that I’ve put you here on a hill top, on a light stand—Shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up to God. Now that God has put a dream in your heart, shine and share your experiences so people will know God makes dreams come true.

It’s Time to Move!

When God gives you a dream, please, don’t let people choke it out of you. Make sure your seed is like that which the farmers cast on good ground. Matthew 13:23 tells us, The seed cast on good ground is the person who hears and takes in the new, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams. If he told you to start a business, open up a salon, for instance, you don’t have to tell everybody. Hold it in your spirit for a while and really grasp what he is telling you because you may tell someone who just can’t see your vision, and he or she will try to talk you out of doing what God has told you to do. Genesis 37:5-7 says, Joseph had a dream. When he told his brothers, they hated him even more. When you receive your vision, write down everything you saw and immediately start planning for it to come to pass; don’t put it off or you’ll get scared and start doubting yourself.

In Matthew 1:19-20, we read, Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced. While trying to figure out a way, an angel of God sent him a dream. Notice that Joseph took care of things quietly; you do not have to use a bullhorn or call all your friends immediately about what the Lord has told you. I know that when two or three agree it is done, make sure you agree with it first.

Matthew 1:24-25 says, Then Joseph woke up. He did exactly what God’s angel commanded in the dream. After you’ve received a dream and you’re sure it’s from God, get started on the plan; don’t procrastinate a bit. In 1 Corinthians 2:9, we read, No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this, Never so much as imagined anything quite like it, What God has arranged for those who love him. You will never know exactly what God is doing—that’s why it’s imperative you get moving and find out along the way.

I Dared to Dream

I remember when I used to dream about being a singer, dancer, and actor. My mother would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I would always say several professions that entailed helping people, such as teaching, medicine, or the law. But I always ended the list with singer, dancer, and actress. Okay, I was determined.

I took a drama class in high school and became quite fond of the experience. I was always the class clown seeking attention, the youngest sibling seeking attention, and the only girl seeking attention—let’s just say I liked the spotlight. I would dance with