Kristin Hill Taylor

Seeking God as the Author of Every Story

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The Beauty of Grace

February 10, 2015 by Kristin Leave a Comment

 I sat at a table with my two closest friends one evening in December. We ate chips and queso, caught up with each other after Christmas, laughed, offered advice and opinions on each other’s situations. We spend much time together in everyday life, but our conversations are interrupted by parenting.

So we multi-task while doing life – which works fine because it’s where we are in this season of parenting little ones. But it’s still nice to be able to sit there with friendship as our focus.

We say there for three hours that night between Christmas and New Years and between different family’s kids being sick. And we could have stayed longer.

{I should probably insert here my husband and I had a miscommunication about what “going out to dinner” looked like for this group of three. I told him I would “be gone a long time,” but apparently we have different definitions of what that meant. We worked it out and now next time he knows.}

I like to linger at the table with my people. And that’s what reading “The Beauty of Grace” by Dawn Camp was like.

Camp put together this treasury of real-life testimonies. She writes a few essays herself, but she’s more like a host. She does include some of her own lovely photographs.

And it’s a beautiful table at which to linger.

The essays are divided into themed sections – purpose, the big picture, surrender, trust, lessons learned, hope and encouragement, and worship. The list of authors includes some of my favorites – Mary Carver, Jessica Turner, Kristen Strong, Holley Gerth, Emily Freeman, Melanie Shankle, and Jennifer Dukes Lee.

I underlined and starred passages. I tweeted one author whose essay on peace resonated so much with me, especially on the heels of my own published testimony in my ebook, “Peace in the Process: How Adoption Built My Faith & My Family.”

Kelley J. Leigh writes in her essay “Peace in the Pieces” ::

“We can plan sacred weddings, not the breaks that come with marriage. We can attempt to arrange for the end of life, never the date of a last breath. We can strive to be the self-sufficient savior, but in the end of that strategy will never work. Certain mysteries dangle out of our reach by design. There is only one true Peace.”

These authors tell real-life stories of brokenness, imperfection, and finding Jesus that offer hope and encouragement. Camp weaves their stories together beautifully with her own, binding up individual stories that are actually intertwined because they all come back to One Author. That’s the beauty of grace that comes with lingering around the table with friends.

_______________

ABOUT THE BOOK :: Published by Revell in January 2015. 208 pages. Hardcover. Official website.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR :: Dawn Camp is a camera-toting, homeschooling mother of eight children. She writes for DaySpring’s (in)courage website, where her beautiful photography previously graced their monthly calendar and currently decorates the desktops of women around the world. Dawn blogs at MyHomeSweetHomeOnline.net and is a featured photographer on Adobe’s website for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom software. She lives with her family in metro Atlanta.

________________


I received a free copy of “The Beauty of Grace” from Revell in exchange for a review. These opinions are my own. 


Want more insights? “Peace in the Process: How Adoption Built My Faith & My Family” is available on Amazon. Like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, peek into my life on Instagram, follow 152 Insights at Bloglovin’, or subscribe to receive “Insights in Your Inbox.”

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About Me

Telling stories is my therapy and I love sharing them with friends on my porch.

The main characters in my stories are my entrepreneur husband, our high school girl who never forgets, our middle school boy who has no fear, and our joy-filled first-grade girl. As we live out our stories, we seek God as the author of them all.

Learn more about my story here.

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I sat on my porch beneath a blanket and finished t I sat on my porch beneath a blanket and finished this book today. Yes, I’m fully invested in this Cuba saga involving the Perez family. “The Last Train to Key West” by @chanelcleeton is the third in the series. I have the fourth on hold at the library for pickup on Monday. 

I wasn’t sure I was going to love this one as much as I did Cleeton’s first two, but it was a slow-building story that turned stormy. I loved how the three women were in Key West for their own reasons, developed meaningful relationships as they navigated their lives, and managed to survive the storms of their lives and an actual hurricane. 

The historical fiction story offers hope:

“It’s strange how your life can change so quickly, how one moment you can barely eke by, desperation filling your days, and suddenly, out of the unimaginably horrific, a glimmer of something beautiful can appear like a bud pushing through the hard-formed earth. There’s so much broken around us; maybe all we can do is try to fix each other, do what we can to preserve these precious moments in a world where there is so much sadness and loss. … Maybe some would say my dreams are too small. Perhaps they would dream of railroads that go over the sea, great, wonderful things. Maybe others want riches and jewels, a chance to travel the globe. For me, this is enough: A corner of paradise in this wretched world that I am able to call my own.” — Helen in “The Last Train to Key West” by Chanel Cleeton

#KHTreads #bookstagram #booklover #librarybooks #historicalfiction #weekending #favoritethings #choosingJOY #bookquotes #bookreview
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Wright Road needs a permanent solution for when Wildcat Creek rises. A bridge seems to be the best idea, so the creek can rise and flow beneath the road rather than flowing across it and washing out the gravel on top of the culverts. 

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#callowaycounty #kyweather #kentuckyweather #countyroads #countryliving #reallife #murrayky
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#KHTreads #basketballseason #weekending #bookstagram #reallife #booklover #librarybooks #KindleOasis #Kindlebooks #favoritethings
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#MarchMadness #weekending #basketballseason #bettertogether #choosingJOY #BigBlueNation
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#reallife #basketballseason #wifelife #choosingJOY
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For quite a while now, I feel like I’ve been living a day at a time. I used to be able to see my life in larger chunks of time and anticipate and prepare accordingly. Now, I slap things on the calendar and then deal with them as they come. Navigating life with two teenagers and a first-grader is the best and hardest thing I’ve ever done.

Honestly, this moment-to-moment living has been good for me and helped me rely on the God who created the stars and rivers that still exist in our world. Focusing on where I am helps me take slower steps, trust God to provide, and remember I’m not in control. I’ve felt an internal shift with my relationships — with my husband, kids, and friends. I’ve felt behind on laundry and dishes and piles of papers. But I’ve also felt a refreshed nearness to God. 

I’m going to rest here while believing God created life and light when there was only darkness and continues to order my days. 

#livingfaithfully #choosingJOY #momlife #faithlife #preceptstudy #genesisstudy #genesis #beginnings #reallife #PorchStories
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