Hometown…doesn’t that have a nice ring to it? Hometown conjures up memories of the place where we grew up, playgrounds and schools where we spent many years with our childhood friends and classmates, neighborhoods where most of our relatives lived within a few blocks of us, and home is where our old house probably still stands. Going “back home” sounds good, doesn’t it? It just feels right. Home has a special place in my heart and it always will.

To this day, visits to my home town are loaded with memories. Driving around my small hometown in Ohio my mind is instantly transported back in time to when I first rode my Schwinn bike down that long hill to the grocery for my mom. I vividly remember the time I fell and knocked out my front tooth during 2nd grade recess. Friday nights were my favorite when my girlfriends and I would all pile in one car to go bowling. (It was not that we liked bowling so much as there would be boys there, and we liked boys.)

Hometown is where my brother and I braved the freezing cold of the north in order to build snow tunnels. We refused to come inside until our [Read more…]

Years ago, I posted a sign in my mind that read: “Thank you, God, for the final straw.”

Without the final straw, we would not be able to:
*write those books we have within us
*leave that unhealthy relationship that was over a long time ago
*draw much needed boundaries with that abusive family member
*take that last drink
*smoke that final cigarette
*go to rehab
*move to that new city
*paint that picture
*take that photo
*ask him out
*be grateful for what we have left
*breathe in the beauty of the trees
*be thankful for the simple things
*appreciate that hug
*hold that hand a little longer
*stand on top of that mountain
*join that gym
*walk into that church
*answer that voice mail
*kiss those sweet baby feet
*bury the hatchet
*forgive that grudge
*linger in the stillness of life for one more moment

No, I have learned to thank God for the final straw…no matter who hands it to me.

Do you invite pain and view it as your friend?

Do you avoid pain and view it as your enemy?

Or would you say that pain is neither your friend nor your foe, but you choose to remain neutral about pain; and view it as just a part of life?

Pain as your friend… Perpetual pain that does or doesn’t show gradual signs of improvement is sometimes perceived as a form of temporary and beneficial training. This understanding of pain can lead to increased physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual strength.

Pain as your enemy… [Read more…]

He was an exceptional father. The kind of dad that most of us wished we would have had growing up. He adored his girls the way every father should. The love he had for them was powerful. You could see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice, and tangibly feel it when you were around him.

From the moment he laid his eyes on them, they had him wrapped around their little fingers. He was spell bound. When they were young, Mike used to tell me he needed to “practice” saying NO to them so that he would not spoil them. I didn’t think that love could spoil a child, but if it could… they were definitely spoiled.

On this fourth Father’s Day since my husband went to heaven [Read more…]

Dear brave DREAMers,

What’s NEW with YOU? I hope you are continuing to DARE to DREAM!!! DREAMing is contagious, so I pray that you are not only seeing the effects in your own life, but also in the lives of those around you. There have been amazing changes happening on this side of the page. Some changes are fancy and some are just strategic, but they are all exciting to me! Here are some highlights of what God is doing with DREAM.

Dreamsmith Communications, LLC: We have officially graduated from being just “Kristi Smith”, the lone widow writer, to “Dreamsmith Communications, LLC”! This redesign helps to separate out my personal life from the business and allows us to DREAM even bigger!

DREAM Book Promotion Video: We are proud to introduce this professionally made video that briefly, (less than 3 minutes) yet powerfully, describes the DREAM book [Read more…]

They were our Great American Soldiers and they came from all across this vast land.
They died so that we can bow our heads; now over our hearts we place a hand.
For we know that HE died for a reason, and that SHE died for a cause;
And it is because of their brave sacrifice that today America pushes pause.

We celebrate Memorial Day out of respect for our Soldiers and their memories;
But we dare not be amiss and overlook our Great American Soldiers’ legacies.
For we know it is one thing for someone to die at home encircled by loving friends and families;
It’s an entirely other thing to be killed far, far away surrounded by fear and your enemies.

You may agree with me or not, but I believe the soldier’s families suffer so much more.
There is a dramatic difference between dying here and being killed while away at war.
Both kinds of death are hard to take and both are filled with grief;
But it is for our Soldiers’ families and friends that we stop now to pray for relief.

Their moms, dads, uncles and aunts, cousins, little sisters and big brothers,
Grandmas, grandpas, husbands and wives, so many sons, daughters, and others.
We cannot honor our soldiers if we do not honor their families and friends,
So on this Memorial Day we must be careful the kind of message our country sends.

Do we LIVE for what they DIED for? Do I truly value my blood-bought FREEDOM?
Will you STAND UP for who they LAID DOWN for? Are we the America they hoped we’d BECOME?
These questions haunt us every day and hopefully make us look at ourselves clearer.
Are we LIVING UP to what they died for? Time for America to take a good look in the mirror.

Dear God,

As You hold the hearts of our dearly departed soldiers in Your hand,
Those of us left here on earth promise to do all that we possibly can
To help her child, his mother, her brothers, and their wives…
As Americans we pledge this to You, because they gave their lives.

Hold their hearts gently, Lord, in the palm of Your great hand
As we keep their memories rightly and struggle to somehow understand.
We treasure their lives and their sacrifice by remembering them today
And hope that we can honor them by how we live and what we say.

Until we see them face to face on that distant, bright and sunny shore
Tell them how much we love them and we honor what they gave their lives for.
We would not be who we are today without their sacrifice;
Our Great American Soldiers who paid the ultimate price.

We ask this in the name of Jesus, who bravely died for the whole earth,
So that we could win the war over death and live forever through His new birth.

Amen.

Your soul’s thumbprint
Wishing you a most amazing year this year as you wake up to new possibilities. It is my hope that you do what you have been afraid to do. Let’s pray audacious prayers of bold and impossible things to be done for us and through us. May this remind us who we really are. Not what others expect us to be, not who we pressure ourselves to become, but to simply remember who we were made to be, and who we were designed to be before life’s struggles warped our view. Promise me that every day when you first wake up, before you even open your eyes, that you will ask God to remind you who you truly are and for Him to give you the strength to walk like, talk like, and love like you.
There was a spirit deposit deep into your DNA when God knit you together in your mother’s womb. It is your true identity. It’s like your soul’s thumb print. It is an inscription into your heart, an impression into your psyche, a permanent tattoo into your being. It is the inscription of who you will be for all time. This is your spiritual marking, the blue print, the recipe, the design. And nothing can change it. No one can touch it. No power can destroy it. No person can scramble it. No loss can diminish it. No sin can void it. No mistake can minimize it. No enemy can foil it. No choice can change it.
God has placed within you all that you need to be this person. It is who you are and you know it in those moments of clarity and consciousness that come before you open your eyes in the morning. Before you think about what has been said to you and about you and the lies that you believed.

Remember
In your heart of hearts you know who you are, what your true purpose is, why you are here, and what you were made to do. Maybe you forgot, maybe you were asleep, maybe you started not to believe it anymore, maybe you compromised, maybe you gave up, maybe you decided not to try anymore. We all have times like those, but then we hear a distant calling, a whisper really. Maybe it’s something we hear riding on the wind, in the rustle of the leaves, or the deep cry of our own heart, but suddenly we remember. We remember who we are and we vow to never forget who we are again.
We determine to crawl, scratch, beg, gravel, and drag ourselves – if need be – but we will not spend one more second being someone other than the full force of who we really are. No excuses. No delays. No defeat. Just one singular, solitary, silent resolve to never look back, never let up, never give in, and never say never. At this time, in this moment, on this day you determine to be 100% all in, holding nothing back, and settling for nothing less than all of you.