How to Figure Out the Next Best Step Toward a Dream

~ Are you a Christian woman trying to figure out the next right step for a dream? You feel like God has called you to something more in midlife, but what should you do about it? 

I've spent the last 10 years talking to women about their dreams. What I've learned is that most of us are not stuck because we lack talent or even faith. We're stuck because the dream feels bigger than us, and we don't know how to move forward or who to process it with.

A God-shaped dream is a specific calling that uses your gifts, your faith, and even the hard things you've walked through. It serves others. And it carries kingdom value in a broken world that desperately needs hope and healing.

Because of that, you are not meant to carry the dream alone. No, we were meant to do this together! You, marching forward, faithfully carrying your dream, walking alongside other women who are carrying theirs. 

This is important kingdom work, and this is why I'm hosting a workshop just for you on April 23rd, 2026. 

Join me for The Best Next Step for Pursuing a God-Shaped Dream. Whether you're just beginning, shifting gears, or somewhere in the messy middle, this is your space.

In this episode, I cover:

• What makes a dream "God-shaped" and why that distinction matters
• Why feeling overwhelmed or uncertain doesn't mean you're off track
• How to move forward without waiting for a perfect plan

Come to the workshop and determine the next best step for your dream. There's no homework, no pressure, and no perfect starting point required. Just you, your dream, and a room full of women who get it.

RSVP at merrittonsa.com/workshop and come ready to breathe, think, and take your next step.

God made you for a purpose, and He can be trusted with the dream He gave you.

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MORE ABOUT THE DEVOTED DREAMERS PODCAST:
Produced by Jonathan R. Clauson.
Theme music by Reaktor Productions.
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Transcript

Merritt Onsa:

Hey there, fellow dreamers. In case you are new to me, my name is Merritt Onsa. I'm host of the Devoted Dreamers podcast. I'm a dream coach and a mentor for Christian women who have big dreams, dreams that God has put on their heart. I call them a God-shaped dream.

Maybe for you, it's that you've always wanted to write a book, or maybe there's another creative endeavor, something with art or music or dance, or you have a ministry idea on your heart, a way that you want to pour God's love into your community. 

Or you have an idea for a business, something that might bring in a little extra income for your family. 

Or maybe there's something really difficult that you've worked through in your life, whether that's a divorce, an illness, infertility, loss of a spouse. And now you're on the other side of that hard thing where you know you've learned a few things that could help people who are where you were. 

And God's put it on your heart to do something that would serve others in a similar season, to use the comfort that He gave you to comfort others.

That's what it was like at the beginning for me.

And I know that this journey of having a big dream, whatever stage of life you're at, whatever stage of the dream you're at, this is a difficult thing to walk through alone. 

And so, I started my podcast 10 years ago in 2016; just started talking to women about their dreams because I wanted to know what they had learned along the way that I could apply to my own life and my own big dreams to serve Christian women in ways, at that point, I had no idea how.

But God has shown me different ways that I can support and mentor other women who have dreams, who feel maybe isolated in the dream that God's given them. They know that there's this big, bigger than them, ambition that he's put on their heart to use their gifts. And they're trying to figure out how to take the next step, how to be bold, how to do something they've never done before.

Maybe that sounds like you. Maybe that sounds like someone you know. If it sounds like someone you know, I hope that you will forward this episode to them just to encourage them that they are not alone, that you see the creative heart and the creative spirit in them, that you see God working in them, and that you believe, and God believes, that they can do something with the dream. 

So I specifically love to serve women who love to create – makers, dreamers, writers, artists. And the dream, I use the term God-shaped dream because I think this is a very specific ambition, not specific in nature, but specific in kind. 

So what I mean is that a God-shaped dream is something that's bigger than you, that yes, uses the gifts and talents and probably life experiences. Like maybe you've been through something really challenging, and you have found as you've come out on the other side of that, that you're able to encourage others who are going through a similar situation in their lives. 

And so you're not the expert. You're not, you know, 10 years down the road. Well, maybe you are. But you might just be two to five steps ahead of the people you want to serve with whatever dream God has given you. 

And so it feels bigger than you. It serves other people besides you. Like you might get excited and passionate about the idea of stepping into this dream and seeing something come to fruition from what God's put on your heart. But ultimately it serves other people. 

And then here's the kicker: It has kingdom redemptive value. 

So we know that we're exiles in a foreign land, right? We're intended to live with God in perfect harmony and – I won't go through the whole Bible story – but sin messed it up. And ever since then, God has had this plan in place to redeem creation and redeem God's people. And that's why Jesus came. That's why he died on the cross for our sins. That's why he rose again. 

And our dreams, if they were knit into us by God, they also serve his redemptive plan in the world. And so where you see brokenness, the dream addresses that, points people back to Christ, provides healing, support, encouragement. He provides the resurrection. But it's something that models after him and how his plan for the world is to redeem the broken. 

And so this is my heart, I'm starting to call this my life's work. I'm in my mid-50s, and I can't imagine doing anything other than this, to see women stepping into what God has called them to do, being open to the reality that you will make mistakes, that you don't perfectly know how to do this because you've never done this before. 

You've never written a book or started a business or built a ministry or started to create your art or your music for the world. There are so many types of dreams out there. And maybe you've done a version of this before, but you haven't done it exactly the way you're feeling called to in this moment. Those are God-shaped dreams. 

And the reason I wanted to create this episode today was to tell you about a workshop I'm hosting on April 23rd, 2026. I'm calling it The Best Next Step for Pursuing a God-Shaped Dream. 

So wherever you are on that process, if you are just beginning and you have an idea in your heart and you're wondering, is this something that God would have me step into? 

Or say you're further down the road, you've started taking some steps, you've done some research, you've looked at what other people are doing in a similar realm and thought about: how would God have me pursue this? 

Or you've taken a lot of steps and maybe you're shifting gears at this point. Wherever you are in that process of pursuing a God-shaped dream, this workshop is for you.

I envision this to be a safe space for Christian women, at whatever phase of dreaming, a safe space to land with the reality of what it takes to step into something you've never done before. The uncertainty or even self-doubt that you feel when you think of yourself doing this thing that God has envisioned on your behalf and planted in your heart.

I want to show you what it's like to not be so focused on tactics, but focused more on the heart of what God's given you and letting that fuel your next steps forward.

The reason I want to host this workshop, specifically right now, because we're going into the summer months. Some of you are thinking, summer's going to be bonkers. There's no possible way I could add more to my plate. 

But some of you might be thinking, what am I going to do with my time this summer? What am I going to do? Maybe your kids have grown up and moved away. Maybe they're preparing to go to college.

Maybe you are just in a season of life where you're sensing a shift. You're sensing an opportunity to refocus your heart, your mind, and your time on different things. 

I'm doing this now because my heart is for the dreamer to get unstuck, to not let another year or two years, or five years, or a decade go by where you feel burdened that you have this dream because you know you're meant to do it, but you have no idea how to begin. 

And so I want to provide you a safe space to land to start to have some of those conversations with other women who are in a similar boat or who have been there before and are now taking steps forward. 

This workshop is all about giving you that space to consider what your dream is, to acknowledge what some of the traps or pitfalls are that have kept you stuck or unable to move forward, and then to have space to process what the next right step is for you.

I want this to be a supportive environment for when you feel stuck, overwhelmed, or just caught up in overthinking. 

If you know somebody with a dream, would you bless her today by sending her this message? 

If you are the person that has the dream, if that's who comes to mind and you're like, yeah, that's me, as I talk about this, I want you to look for the link in the show description. It's merrittonsa.com/workshop. 

Click that and RSVP to the workshop on April 26th and then show up. There's no homework. There's nothing you have to do to prepare. I'm not gonna put you on the spot. 

I just want you to be there to find space to process and think about the dream God has given you and what's been standing in your way since then so that you can be free to determine the best next step for pursuing your God-shaped dream.

My sister in Christ, God made you for a purpose. You are His masterpiece. And that is my heart for all the work that I do, that it's not just figuring out how to tactically move forward, but it's resting in the firm trust and relationship that we have with Jesus, that He goes before you and He can be trusted, and he has given you something amazing to do with your one beautiful life. 

And I can't wait to meet you; I can't wait to hear what God does in this time that we spend together on April 23rd. 

So go RSVP, send this to a friend, don't come alone; you can come alone, but don't come alone if you don't have to. Bring someone who also has a big dream, and I'm going to give you space to process and figure out what is next for you and your God-shaped dream. 

Thanks for being here. 

I'll see you next time.