Tag Archives: God Sized Dreams

Come As You Are – A GSD Welcome Invitation

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Allume 2014 Smilebooth

As you may have seen from our posts and pictures, several of our core writing team traveled from across the country and met at Allume this past October. It was fun to spend time together as a team, and an amazing opportunity to meet with so many new friends and dreamers as well.

We decided to host a little “meet-up” so we could visit with some of these new friends in person. While the majority of us who gathered ended up being part of the original God-sized Dream team, it was a wonderful time to come together and share about where we have been and how we see God leading and moving in our lives and dreams going forward.

Prior to the meet-up, I was up in my hotel room with one of my roommates and fellow GSD writer, Delonna. We were gathering up everything we needed to bring downstairs. Before we walked out the door, Delonna asked me if I thought she should change her shirt.

Now Delonna is a die-hard Ohio Buckeyes fan. DIE-HARD. Whooo, watching a game with this woman was an experience, especially when the game went into overtime. Yikes! 😉

She had been wearing her Ohio State T-shirt all day and wondered if she should change it. I probably looked at her with my crazy eyes and asked her why she would do that?

She said she wanted to make sure that she was making the right impression at the meet-up.

I told her she looked beautiful and to keep the T-shirt on! 🙂

This got me to thinking the next morning in the shower (that IS where I do my best thinking…I really need a recorder in my shower so I can get all these thoughts and prayers down during that time!!)

We always want this space to be a place where you can come as you are.

I am sharing the rest of this post over at God-sized Dreams, will you join me there?!

31 Days of Finding God – A GSD Post On Being Deeply Rooted

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Waterfall 1

I love how nature can teach me so many lessons about my life and my faith walk.

When my family and I were vacationing this summer we took a drive through Spearfish Canyon, in Spearfish, South Dakota. It is a beautiful drive with several places to stop and explore. The canyon walls in places were very steep, and trees littered the landscape.

I started to notice that there were several places where very large trees stood standing with the majority of their roots fully exposed. Rain and washout of the canyon foundations left the roots open to the elements.

And yet the trees stood strong, seemingly unfazed.

Waterfall 2

At one point in our drive we pulled off to hike to a small waterfall. Here too I found several places where the trees foundations had been washed away, yet the roots seemed firmly planted deep in the ground.

Ephesians 3:14-19 “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family[c] in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

I am sharing the rest of this story over at God-sized Dreams today, will you join me there?!

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In Him, Kristin

Finding Beauty in the Abandoned Dream

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Abandoned Home

In late July my family and I took a road trip out to the Black Hills of South Dakota. As we were driving I noticed several abandoned homes scattered throughout the landscape.

High on a hill the house stood, windows broken, door weathered. The once straight roof was wavy with time and wear. Gaps between the boards in the walls were visible. Clearly this place had been long since abandoned.

And I couldn’t help but wonder who had graced the spaces of that home?

A newly married husband and wife, seeking to start a new adventure on the plains? Did children run in the adjacent fields? Young men eager to farm the land and provide for their families?

Dreams start that way don’t they?

We feel the trill of a new start, we anticipate all of the positives and try not to focus on any of the negatives. We push forward in faith, maybe with a little fear, but filled with hope and the promise of what’s to come.

And if we are lucky all those hopes, those dreams and ideas are fulfilled. But it doesn’t always end that way does it?

I am sharing more over at the God-sized Dreams website – will you come and join me there?!

Shared by: Kristin Smith

Photo Credit: sub35089  (If using sunset pic it is Kadek Susanto)Ka

The Layers and In Between

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Layers

The take-off began in the haze that had settled over Houston. The higher we climbed the cloudier it got.

It was bumpy at the onset, so my eyes were closed for a few minutes, and as I opened them we were just rising above the cloud line. Land was visible below in small spaces between the fluffy white clouds. I had a strong sense of the emerging that had just occurred. The layer that just minutes before been hazy and difficult to see through, was now clear and beautiful.

I started taking pictures with my phone, it may or may not have been “legal” at that point, but I couldn’t stop taking in Gods beauty.

The tops of the clouds looked like cotton balls that had been stretched apart for the beard of a Kindergarten Santa project. Soft and inviting, comfortable even!

As the plane rose, the skyline changed once again. I am not a meteorologist (BIG shocker I know!!) so I don’t know the technical term, but the next layer of clouds was flat, like fog almost. But off in the distance were spots where clouds were shooting up into the sky above in billowy formations.

Layers 2

I wondered if storms were brewing below them.

Have you ever been in a place that right where you are is flat and calm but you were able to see the storms on the horizon? You are sure something is happening just below the surface but you aren’t positive what it is. Will it bring a difficulty? A time of testing? Maybe an opportunity to trust in God?

Would you join me over at God-sized Dreams to read the rest of the post?!

Dream Because of Your Children!

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Dream BIG!

Hey friends, lean in close, and let me tell you a secret. I can be a wonderful encourager of others to follow their dreams, but when it comes to my own? Well let’s just say that I often find myself making excuses and shaking in my boots!

I had the rare opportunity to spend a little bit of time at the park with my sister and our kids one weekend recently, and as we talked I realized once again that this dreaming business is hard for so many of us!

Beth, who is younger and has the beautiful straight hair I always wished for, :) is doing a little dream chasing herself very soon. But it wasn’t easy for her to come to that jumping off point and go for it. Beth has a beautiful voice. She was part of concert choir and show choir in high school, and even took voices lessons at one point along the way, but somewhere I believe that her faith in her abilities faded and she stopped singing for and in front of others.

I completely understand the feeling.

I sing on the worship team at church and want to throw up every Sunday that I stand on the altar at the front – all those eyes looking at me. :)

I once had a 3 line “solo”, if you can call it that when the congregation is singing along with you, and my voice started to shake so bad…it simultaneously terrifies and exhilarates me. I love to sing, I have always loved it but somewhere along the way my confidence in any talent I may have, went down the drain.

Beth shared with me that since American Idol first came on the air she thought about auditioning. When she turned 27 and officially was “too old” to try she felt a sadness about it. Then she heard about the show The Voice. Twice she signed up to go and audition, but life and maybe a little fear got in the way, and she didn’t follow through with it.

She said that every time she thought about the fact that she hadn’t done it, she felt a pit in her stomach. (Sounds like a dream trying to bust out to me!!)

I am so excited to share the rest of this story with you over at God-sized Dreams – please join me and leave a little encouragement for my amazing sister! 🙂