Among the Chippewa and other American Indian tribes there is a legend that goes something like this: A spider was quietly spinning his web in his own space. It was beside the sleeping space of Nokomis, the grandmother. Each day, Nokomis watched the spider at work, quietly spinning away. One day as she was watching him, her grandson came in, saw the spider, picked up the shoe and attacked the spider with the intent of killing it.

”No, my son”, whispered Nokomis, "don’t hurt him.""But grandmother, why do you protect the spider?" asked the little boy. The older lady smiled, but did not answer. When the boy left, the spider went to the old woman and thanked her for saving his life. He said to her, "For many days you have watched me spin and weave my web. You have admired my work. In return for saving my life, I will give you a gift." He smiled and moved away, spinning as he went.

Soon the moon glistened on a magical silvery web moving gently in the window. "See how I spin?" he said. "See and learn, for each web will snare bad dreams. Only good dreams will go through the small hole. This is my gift to you. Use it so that only good dreams will be remembered. The bad dreams will become hopelessly entangled in the web and forgotten, never to come to pass."

This is just one of the legends that fostered the use of the “Dream Catcher” among all of the Indians tribes. Each nation, or tribe, has it’s own version of the legend, but the purpose is always the same, to guard against bad dreams and let the good dreams come through.

I’m sure that most of you have seen them, at least in pictures. This is just one more example of superstition that people will so easily accept. I’m not here to promote the myth of the Indian Dream Catcher. We don’t believe in such superstitions. But I am here to tell you that God loves a “Dream Catcher” who will catch the vision and believe in the dream that He births within us. He loves for us to catch hold of a dream and run with it, allowing it to enter into our spirit and our heart and set us on fire to work for him.


There are four qualities "Dream Catchers" have:

DESIRE IT
No person who attains the state of a happy marriage, financial security or spiritual fulfillment does so by accident. I have never heard a principal of a school or a business executive say, "I can't understand how it all happened! I just woke up one morning and I find myself here as principal or CEO…"

BE A DREAMER
All significant reality begins with a dream. The great achievers throughout time started their life's journey with a dream. The definition of a dream is a vision that sounds and looks impossible when you measure it against your current stage in life and your past life's experiences. The example of Joseph, dreaming as a seventeen-year-old Hebrew shepherd that one day he would be a king, illustrates the powerful possibilities that could be unleashed by a dream.When you were a baby, you did not decide that judging by your past experiences, there was no way you would ever be able to walk. If you were to have adopted this approach, you would not be on your feet today. What did you do? You decided simply that you would go ahead and try. True, in the process you fell a number of times, but nevertheless you continued trying until the impossible happened, and your dream became a reality. The same method that worked then can be applied to anything else you are prepared to dream about.

BE CAREFUL WHO YOU SHARE YOUR DREAMS WITH.
In life, there are always some people around you (and you'd better find out who they are quickly if you don't yet know) who feel that the pie called "life" is not big enough for everyone, and that if you are going to have a part of it, they will be losing out. Don't share your dreams, goals and aspirations with them. They will try to undermine you.

PICTURE YOUR DREAM ACHIEVED
Visualize that you have already achieved your goal. You must believe in advance that you will reach your goal no matter what, because as long as you believe that success is assured, you will be sure to make the maximum effort towards achieving your goal .