Kristin Hill Taylor

Seeking God as the Author of Every Story

Knowing God deep enough to dream

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“Deep enough to dream in brilliant colors I have never seen.
Deep enough to join a billion people for a wedding feast.
Deep enough to reach out and touch the face of the one who made me.
And oh the love I feel and oh the peace, do I ever have to wake up?”
– Chris Rice in “Deep Enough to Dream”

I don’t like naps, but sometimes I feel like I’m missing out on the escaping real life with some daytime dreams. And even if I weren’t actually sleeping, my mind tends to focus on what’s happening or planning what’s to come next, letting the potential daydreams escape me.

Sitting in the pickup line at school a couple months ago, I heard this older Chris Rice song. It’s one of those that I haven’t heard in years, but I managed to sing along with like I heard it yesterday.

The words struck me, and I was thankful for the moment to remember what trusting in the Dream Giver Himself is about.

I said no to a friend this spring even though I believed her invitation was important. I knew no was right, but it was still hard.

Saying no is hard. (And, yes, sometimes saying yes is difficult, depending on the circumstances and your personality.) Slowing down and not glorifying busy is a challenge in today’s fast-moving world. Focusing on small, faithful steps is necessary in God’s Kingdom but nearly impossible in our culture.

Join me at God-sized Dreams …

where I’m sharing some ways to realize the dreams God has given you.

One God-sized dream showed me others

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I remember longing to become a mom. And then God built our family through adoption, demonstrating His faithfulness to hear the desires of my heart, even if the whole story looked completely different than unexpected.

Now I’m a mom to three kids who are 10, 7 and 1, and God took that dream and expanded it after He made it possible.

God is a god of many dreams, and I’ve seen
Him build them upon what He’s already done.

{Tweet that.}

My husband and I have had our eyes opened to needs right here in our community. That started with a couple local birth moms who chose us as parents and showed us how others in our small town live.

Then we started serving with our kids and other families. As we did, we met more people, networked with more groups, and started a small group dedicated to community service and living out our faith.

After making me a mom, God prompted me to encourage and support other adoptive and foster families. Then He used that to inspire me to volunteer at our local crisis pregnancy center. Without having journeyed with God to my dream of becoming a mom, I wouldn’t have been in a place to see the other needs around me.

Join me at God-sized Dreams …

where I’m sharing more about what happened after God fulfilled my dream.

*****

Kristin Hill Taylor - Porch Stories
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On becoming whole, together

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gsd-prayers-healing-10-31-16

Rachel was just a couple weeks old and our speaker in church talked about prayer and how it heals. While Rachel slept in my arms, I looked up “healed” during the sermon and read “to cure, to make whole …”

In that moment, as I was holding my baby – the third one that came after much waiting – I was keenly aware of what God has done through prayers to make our family whole.

I’ve told pieces of our family’s adoption story here. But the short version is God used a hard season of infertility to lead us to adoption. We adopted Cate (2007) and Ben (2009) through smooth, domestic, private processes. We spent years trying to adopt a third time and then let go of our desire after doors kept closing.

God surprised us in 2015 with Rachel.

We think our family is complete. I say “think” because I’ve learned never say never when it comes to God. But here we are, a party of five that God orchestrated.

There’s evidence of God’s faithfulness in my kids’ eyes – the girls have matching brown and Ben’s are blue like Greg’s and mine. There’s proof that God hears the desires of our hearts when I remember how we got here.

Read the rest of this part of our story at God-sized Dreams, where I’m happy to share about prayer and healing.