Kristin Hill Taylor

Seeking God as the Author of Every Story

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Nine Ways to Go for God

August 8, 2022 by Kristin Leave a Comment

We’ve taken our older kids on short-term mission trips and hope to go on more. They’ve served locally. We support missionaries. We want our kids to be open to wherever God calls them and incorporating missions into our small-town life is one way we, as parents, have hoped to teach that. 

I’m incredibly thankful our church – Hardin Baptist Church – comes alongside us with the same message. The middle and high school youth spent the summer looking at different aspects of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. Youth minister Chase Bright spent the last Sunday of the series looking at nine practical ways that students – yes, even middle and high schoolers – could participate in and pray about going for God. 

Chase shared these 9 Ways to Go with students’ parents, and I asked him for permission to share them with you because even as an adult I want to remember to live on mission – even right where I am. 

*****

In his final marching orders to his disciples, Jesus beckons all of his followers to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). Today, we refer to these last words as The Great Commission. 

In my experience with students, they want to be faithful to this Great Commission. Many of them are passionate about the gospel being spread to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8), and they want to play a role in this high calling and participate in what God is doing across the globe. Many times, however, they don’t have a very good idea as to where to start. They need something practical. To that end, it’s my aim to provide nine brief yet practical ways for students to “go,” if not now then in the very near future. 

It’s my hope and prayer that students and families would prayerfully consider what God may have them do both now and in the future in order to proclaim the gospel and make disciples among all the nations of the earth. 

1. Share the Gospel HERE & NOW 

You don’t have to be in another culture to make disciples. All followers of Christ are called to make disciples wherever God has us now by sharing the gospel with the people around us. A great way to do this is to “Find your One” and commit to praying and sharing with that person. Who’s Your One? 

2. Short-Term Mission Trips

Each summer our high school students get the opportunity to go on short-term mission trips through our church. Take advantage of these great opportunities. Be on the lookout for any information about short-term mission trips our student ministry will be taking. 

(Note from Kristin: These students went to Chicago this summer and my 15-year-old Cate had a great experience outside her comfort zone serving and sharing. Here’s my post about that.)

3. The Radical Gap Year

After graduating high school, you can take a “gap year” before you begin college or your career for the sake of disciple-making and figuring out what God may be calling you to do in the future to make his glory known among the nations. The Radical Gap Year is an amazing way to do this. 

4. Theological Education

How about going to a Christian college or theological seminary that will intentionally equip you to go on mission and equip others in the local church to do the same? There are so many great options that will prepare you to do this. Here are just a few: 

  • The College at Southeastern (Undergraduate)
  • Boyce College (Undergraduate)
  • Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Graduate/Seminary)
  • The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Graduate/Seminary) 

5. GenSend – Summer Missions 

Even as a youth student, you can already begin to think and pray about how you might spend your college summers and breaks. Why not spend them on mission? GenSend, through the North American Mission Board, is a great option for you to be able to do this. 

6. Go2 – Give 2 Years

After you graduate college, what if you spent the first two years in a big, strategic North American city while beginning your career, serving with a church plant, and working to further advance the gospel? Check out Go2, also through North American Mission Board, and begin praying through what this may look like for you. 

7. IMB Journeyman Program

Similar to Go2, the IMB Journeyman Program is for recent college graduates or young adults who desire to spend two years on missions. IMB Journeymen are sent internationally (as opposed to domestically) to strategic nations around the globe. On top of that, IMB Journeymen are fully-funded! 

8. Full-Time Missionary

May God be calling you to be a full-time missionary? What about a church planter? You don’t have to wait to start praying and seeking where or how God might send you in the future. You can start NOW! 

There are so many ways you can be a missionary or church planter. Here are just a few ways that you can begin to research and pray about: 

  • Be sent by your local church. 
  • Be sent through mission sending agencies such as the International Mission Board or the North American Mission Board. 

9. Careers for Missions 

Teacher. Nurse. Farmer. Businessman. These are but a few of the career occupations you might find yourself doing in the future. But what if you pursued these careers somewhere else, like in a place with little to no gospel presence? Start thinking about what career you might want to do in the future, and begin praying for where God might have you do this career so that you can further advance the gospel to the nations. 

By no means is this list exhaustive. However, I pray that it’s a helpful starting place for many youth students looking for some practical ways they can participate in the Great Commission by going. 

To God alone be the glory!

*****

Chase Bright serves on staff at Hardin Baptist Church in Hardin, Kentucky, and as a theology teacher at New Covenant Christian Academy. He also is an MDiv student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Kaitlyn, have two children.

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20 years of marriage!

August 3, 2022 by Kristin Leave a Comment

In the past year, I learned Greg doesn’t like packaged taco seasoning and bought my engagement ring on sale at a pawn shop. This after I’ve been wearing the ring for two decades and made taco meat more times than I could even begin to count. 

With that, happy 20th anniversary, husband. I’m glad we can still learn things about each other after knowing each other for more than 24 years and being married for two decades. 

After moving from Lexington on our first anniversary, we have lived in three houses in Murray during the past 19 years — and I hope we never move again. We’ve been parents for three-fourths of our marriage after a season of infertility that seemed so long at the time but led us to adoption. We changed jobs and completed so many projects. We’ve traveled and made a home that is nothing like I expected but I can’t imagine any other way at this point. We’ve grieved and laughed and celebrated and wondered and fought and cried and rejoiced and lived. 

Thankfully, we naturally land on the same page about many things: We choose sporting events over museums. We like to sleep with the AC turned down to 68 degrees. We love Mexican food. We enjoy hosting parties, having game nights, and making plans with our people. 

I’m truly thankful for the million small moments together than have made up our life. And I’m looking forward to whatever is to come. 

Being in our 40s celebrating 20 years of marriage together seems like such a grown-up accomplishment. But it also seems like exactly where we are supposed to be. Let’s keep adventuring and learning together. Let’s go celebrate, maybe with tacos! 

*****

Look back with us: Five years. Six years. Seven years. Nine years. Ten years. Eleven years. Twelve years. Thirteen years. Fourteen years. Fifteen years. Sixteen years. Seventeen years.

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God always finds them

August 1, 2022 by Kristin Leave a Comment

Bedtime is always full of shenanigans around here – and most of the time, I rush through the bedtime routine with my youngest two kids because I’m ready for my own bed. But I have a different story from a recent night. 

I was tucking in my 6-year-old Rachel. And by “tucking in,” I mean getting the blankets right, praying, singing, and answering 85 million questions. She asked if I’d read her story. That’s usually her daddy’s job, but he wasn’t home that evening, so I said okay. She had “The Jesus Storybook Bible” by Sally Lloyd-Jones sitting right here, so I told her to pick out one of those stories. 

“I want to read the pig sty one,” she said as she was already flipping the pages to find it. 

When I saw what she meant, peace washed over me. “Oh, I love this one.” I read “Running Away,” which is retold from Luke 15, better known as The Prodigal Son.

A boy starts thinking he will be happier if his dad wasn’t telling him what to do. He wanted to look after himself. His father was sad, but he didn’t want to force him to stay. So the son went and did whatever he wanted to do until he runs out of money and gets a job feeding pigs. Being in this low spot, showed the boy maybe his dad’s home wasn’t so bad after all.

Then Lloyd-Jones writes: “The dad leaps off the porch, races down the hill, through the gap in the hedge, up the road. Before his son can even begin his I’m-Sorry-Speech, his dad runs to him, throws his arms around him, and can’t stop kidding him.” The father proceeds to have a party to celebrate his son’s homecoming. 

“Jesus told people this story to show them what God is like. And to show people what they are like. So they could know, however far they ran, however well they hid, however lost they were – it wouldn’t matter,” Lloyd-Jones writes. “Because God’s children could never run too far, or be too lost, for God to find them.”

I was teary when I finished. While this Bible story was retold for children, the words brought to mind when I decided to follow Christ on Jan. 20, 1996, after hearing someone speak about The Prodigal Son during a Chrysalis weekend. I nailed some sins to a wooden cross in the sanctuary, representing surrender. I remember thinking of the beauty of the father welcoming his lost son home, understanding how the younger son thought he could hold together his own life, and relating to the older son who stayed and did what he was supposed to and found himself not quite willing to celebrate his brother’s homecoming. 

I told Rachel an abbreviated version of that story of being a 16-year-old girl hearing that story and making a decision that truly changed my life. Here more than 26 years later, I’m thankful God welcomes me home over and over again. I’ve surrendered and squandered and sulked, and God keeps opening his arms, which led me to salvation initially and continually prompts surrender.

*****

If you don’t know about “The Jesus Storybook Bible,” I definitely recommend it for the kids in your life. Let’s be honest, I love reading too and I’m thankful it’s back in the rotation around here. 

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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 ninth-grade girl who never forgets, our have-no-fear sixth-grade boy, and our joy-filled kindergarten 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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Before I settle into a school time routine, I want Before I settle into a school time routine, I want to recap summer — my favorite season of the year that, honestly, just didn’t look like I expected & hoped in many ways. Even so, goodness was all around us. 

This was the summer of …
 
Crunch-dipped ice cream Drumsticks 🌼 4/5 of us having strep throat at different times, and Ben having it 3 times 🌼 Six Flags and Kentucky Kingdom 🌼 Venture River season passes 🌼 Plans changing and changing again 🌼 Plan B vacation because Covid is still interrupting plans 🌼 Friends sharing big news — someone’s son was injured, friends moving toward divorce after two decades of marriage, a friend being diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer, and a friend’s house flooding in a negligent way. 🌼 Holding onto the good news 🌼 Counting gratefulness 🌼 Celebrating 20 years of marriage 🌼 Reading mostly romance novels because that’s what sounded good 🌼 Traditional summer weekends with some out-of-town friends 🌼 Quiddler, although I can’t seem to win this word game. 🌼 Conversations in our bedroom with our oldest who likes to stay up later than us 🌼 Binge-watching “Yellowstone” 🌼 The easiest, clearest water we’ve had in six summers with a pool despite the leaking liner 🌼 Feelings that reminded me of Social Distancing 2020 🌼 Noticeable growth in my kids, the weeds around my house, and within my own heart.

Most years, I mourn the end of Summer Break, but this year routine & rhythms are returning at the right time. I spent some time this summer grieving some changes in friendships and disappointments with details that were far out of my control. But I also enjoyed life, sunshine, and right where God has me. That reality is helping me be ready for whatever comes next. 

📷: Cate, 15

#livingfaithfully #88daysofsummer #backtoschool #choosingJOY #PorchStories #reallife #momlife #faithlife #summerisbest
At Back to School Night yesterday, I had been work At Back to School Night yesterday, I had been working as the school finance person when I decided to get Rachel from the gym to go meet her teacher. Turns out she had already gone with me to meet her teacher, the only teacher in the whole school I don’t know! I went to her classroom and there she was chatting with Mrs. Mason and playing with some friends. That girl radiates confidence. 

So, with or without me, they’re ready! Bring on first grade, seventh grade, and sophomore year! @ncca.lions 

#backtoschool #momlife #reallife #siblinglove #thirdchild #choosingJOY #livingfaithfully
Strep throat bookended his summer. Literally. He t Strep throat bookended his summer. Literally. He tested positive for strep the first Saturday of Summer Break and the last day of Summer Break. He also had it in June and COVID-19 in July. 

Here’s to being grateful he’s quick to recover, antibiotics work, our pediatrician is our friend, and he won’t miss the first day of school. 

#88daysofsummer #boymom #reallife #summerbreak #backtoschool #choosingJOY
What a perfect day for a back-to-school party for What a perfect day for a back-to-school party for some @ncca.lions 7th grade boys and their siblings! A new student wanted to meet some classmates, so we hosted some friends & made new friends. 

#backtoschool #momlife #middleschoolers #boymom #poolpeople #morethangroceries #bettertogether #siblinglove #88daysofsummer #countryliving
Introducing Backroads and Blooms Photography by Ca Introducing Backroads and Blooms Photography by Cate Taylor 🎉 

Cate has five different prints available as 5x7s or 8x10s and then matted and framed. She has in stock two of each print in each size, but she will order more. 

🖼 5x7s matted in 8x10 frame = $12
🖼 8x10s matted in 11x14 frame = $20

🌵 Cactus
🌸 Pink flower
💦 Daisy with water drops
🌼 Yellow & orange flower
✨ Starburst flower 

Let Cate know in the comments what you’d like to order or message me. Local pickup/dropoff only right now. 

You can send PayPal friends & family to kristinhilltaylor@gmail.com, send Venmo to @KristinHillTaylor, or pay cash at pickup.

#buddingphotographer #momlife #firstborn #entrepreneur #photography #outdoorphotography #naturephotography
I took a break from my work & chores to read yeste I took a break from my work & chores to read yesterday and I’m so glad I did. I had to stay up late to finish it last night. 

First of all, don’t judge this book by its cover, which I don’t like. (I’ve seen another cover for this same book, so I really don’t understand!) 

Anyway, I loved the story of first love and loss and reconnection told in the dual now-and-then timeline. I thought the end was a little abrupt, but maybe that’s just because I wanted a little more about Macy and Elliot. 

#KHTreads #bookstagram #booklover #librarybooks #88daysofsummer
Today I’m thankful for a productive stretch of t Today I’m thankful for a productive stretch of time making my way through a to-do list, this view from my kitchen window, a little more Summer Break with my kids, a book that has me distracted from other things I “should” be doing, and lots of wide-open space in our day. 

#mondaymotivation #choosingJOY #livingfaithfully #countryliving #momlife #reallife #88daysofsummer
We’ve taken our older kids on short-term mission We’ve taken our older kids on short-term mission trips and hope to go on more. They’ve served locally. We support missionaries. We want our kids to be open to wherever God calls them and incorporating missions into our small-town life is one way we, as parents, have hoped to teach that. 

I’m incredibly thankful @hardinbaptistchurch comes alongside us with the same message. The middle and high school @hardinstudents spent the summer looking at different aspects of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. Youth minister @cbright2 spent the last Sunday of the series looking at nine practical ways that students – yes, even middle and high schoolers – could participate in and pray about going for God. 

Chase shared these 9 Ways to Go with students' parents, and I asked him for permission to share them with you because even as an adult I want to remember to live on mission – even right where I am. 

9 WAYS TO GO FOR GOD: https://bit.ly/9WaysToGo

#linkinbio #ontheblog #bloggerlife #momlife #churchlife #faithlife #livingfaithfully #missions #missionminded #youth #teenagers #parenting #parenthood
“Writing is what makes me happy. Writing, even, “Writing is what makes me happy. Writing, even, is how I feel I contribute to the world. Reminding people of what’s important. Letting them escape the harsh parts of life, even if it’s just for a few hours. Helping them feel happiness through watching happily-ever-afters unfold. Remembering truths. Recalling their self-worth. Loving others. Living well. Learning. I want to do that.” 

And, let’s be honest, love stories about writers make me happy too. “Meet Me in the Margins” was cute, predictable, and a good way to escape for a little while. 

#KHTreads #bookstagram #booklover #authorlife #librarybooks #poolpeople #weekending
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