Those who claim to love you most may criticize your dream.
After Joseph tattled on his brothers and his father gave him a coat fit for a prince, he had the nerve to share his dreams with his brothers. It’s as if he was completely unaware of how jealous his brothers were that he was the favored son. He told them how in one dream, they were all in the field bundling wheat when his bundle stood straight up and his brothers’ bundles bowed down to his, indicating that he would one day rule over them. He continued by telling them how in another dream, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars (which represented his father, his mother, and his eleven brothers) bowed down to him.
I’m not sure what reaction Joseph expected from his brothers by telling them his dreams, but I imagine he wanted a pat on the back and an Attaboy. Instead, they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words (37:8, NASB).
Then, when he told his dreams to his father, Jacob rebuked him. There was no encouragement, no I’m proud of you, Son, no Dream big!
The only indication we have that anyone in his family might have even considered the possibility that his dreams could come true is that Jacob brooded over the whole business (37:11, MSG). Then again, maybe Jacob’s brooding was due to his own pride being injured. Either way, he wasn’t too pleased with his son’s dreams.
It’s often those who are supposed to love us most who criticize our dreams. They tell us we’re too young or too old or too ambitious. Or they might say we’re not good enough or not strong enough or not smart enough or not talented enough. They might tell us we need to be more realistic or that our priorities are in the wrong place or that we need more financial security. While I doubt any of these things are said with cruel intentions, they sting when coming from family or friends.
It’s easy to let the voices of criticism (and even the voices of practicality and reason) play on repeat until we give up on our dreams. It’s easy to convince ourselves that our dreams mean nothing. It’s easy to abandon the dream that kept our hope alive.
But as we will later learn from Joseph’s story, our dreams demand attention, and the price is high for those who try to destroy them.
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