Dare to Dream?

I've come to realize that there's a big part of me, part of me that's bigger than I'd like to admit, that is scared to dream anymore.

I guess that after so many prayers that have gone unanswered (or not answered in the way I hoped for), after failed relationships and friendships and other disappointments that life throws my way, my dreams have become cautious. I hate feeling letdown by anyone, but feeling like I've been letdown by God is the harshest blow.

I know that everything happens for a reason, that God can take my failures and disappointments and turn them into good, etc., etc. etc. My head knows that. My heart, on the other hand, has difficulty remembering that sometimes. And so I find myself lately resisting the urge to dream out of fear that I'm wasting time dreaming and desiring things that aren't going to happen. At times I even feel a little selfish to pray for certain dreams or desires. I concentrate on praying for the "right" things, and I begin to lose my heart.

But this morning I discovered a passage that I'd never noticed before, one that struck me as very odd. It's Psalm 20: 4-5: "May he [the LORD] give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the LORD grant all your requests."

What's odd about it, to me anyway, is that it doesn't say, "May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed as long as they are lined up with what God has planned for you." Now, maybe that's implied. And I'm not saying that these verses have nothing to do with God's will for us. But these verses give me some reassurance that it's okay to have dreams and desires--after all, these verses are in the Bible for a reason. It's not like they slipped in, unnoticed by God. And they were written by David, the one called "a man after God's own heart."

Any thoughts/wisdom/insight?