Friday, March 8, 2013

You're Made for a God-Sized Dream: Opening the Door to All God Has for You by Holley Gerth, ©2013

God-Sized Dreams by Holley Gerth (cover) This key grabbed me! The feel of a "skeleton key" in your hand! It can open so many doors past the locks. Reach out and try it! You will be taken where you always dreamed you could be!
Holley Gerth comes to where you are. She invites you to have a cup of coffee or tea and ~ a cookie! Yes! My kind of girl. In fact, I have a terrific recipe with grains and nuts and oh, yum, that I could bring along. So bring your open heart and your dreams and wishes ~ for you. (Did I forget the chocolate! There is chocolate in my cookie recipe too.) Holley sits as a trusted friend to probe what you may not have considered putting into words, questions that will explore your heart to hope and to step out into those God-sized dreams ~ just for you. Here is a "letter" to you from Holley:
A God-sized dream isn’t about what you do as much as how you do it. It’s about pursuing life with passion, purpose, and going with God wherever he leads.
It’s about not settling. It’s about tenaciously believing you’re made for more.
Not as in “bigger house, fancier car, more luxurious lifestyle.”
No, my friend, I mean “more of Jesus, more of what he’s created you to be, more of what he’s called you to do.”
Less of you, actually, and more of all he is and all he has for you—which is beyond what you can even imagine.
******
Rather than describing, I would like to take you with me to an excerpt of two pages within:

God-Sized Dreamers Are Faithful Where They Are
In the Old Testament, God sent the prophet Samuel to anoint a new king (see 1 Sam. 16:1-13). Samuel arrived at a household with lots of sons. Good-looking ones. Tall ones. Impressive ones. But as each passed by, Samuel sensed that he had not yet found the one God sent him for. "Don't you have any more sons?" he asked. The father was dismissive. "Oh yeah, there's one more. But he's the youngest. Not even worth meeting. He's out in the fields with the sheep." Samuel demanded that the final son be brought, and it turned out he was God's choice all along. The shepherd boy David became the king. And God showed us this truth: "People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Sam. 16:7).
   David, the overlooked one, captured the gaze of God. Under seas of stars, out in the desert with no one around but a few sheep, he learned to pray, be brave, and dream with God. I wonder if he had any sense on those starry nights of what was coming, what God was preparing him for in the vastness of that quiet place. He learned to be faithful right where God had him, and that enabled God to place him exactly where he was supposed to be.
   Where are you today?
   Maybe you're in a place where it seems no one sees you and it feels like what you do doesn't matter. Maybe you feel like your potential isn't being used. What are you doing taking care of a few sheep when you sense inside that you're made for so much more? But you're being faithful anyway. You're serving, learning, loving, growing.
   You aren't settling for the status quo, and yet you are choosing to thrive where you are today as well. Dreams can be seductive. They can make us trade our today for an unknown future. They can turn our thoughts away from what's right in front of us.
   But not you. You're a God-sized dreamer, and that means you can make a difference anywhere. When Jesus said, "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much" (Luke 16:10), he meant folks like you. Listen, my friend, you are seen. You are watched by the One who spoke the world into being, who numbers every hair on your head and knows each care in your heart. If all those details matter to him, don't you think what you're doing right here, right now does too?
   What you're doing isn't small if it's what God has for you. It's big. And it just may lead to something even bigger.
   Make the most of where you are right now. Give everything you have. God has so much in store for you. And he has so much for you right here too.
   You are a God-sized dreamer, and you are faithful right where you are. In case you haven't heard it lately, thank you. Thank you for what you do. Especially when it seems no one sees. Especially when you wonder if it matters at all. It does. And you do too.
   --You're Made for a God-Sized Dream, 50-51

And Holley's background?  This is a beautiful story from Holley's blog:

A God-sized Dreams Story

Nana & Poppi DatingThey met one hot Arkansas summer. She wore a dress. He wore a uniform. She invited the soldier home after church for dinner. And pie.
Oh, that lemon icebox pie.
They settled down in a small town. Had two girls. She got polio at 29 and made her way through life in a wheelchair. I still remember the tracks in the carpet and how following them meant going into the arms of a woman that smelled like Mary Kay and kindness.
He started a business. It prospered. And then one day, God tapped him on the shoulder with a God-sized dream.
“Start a Christian bookstore,” came the whisper.
So they stepped away from safe, comfortable, middle-class “success” and took a leap of faith not knowing what would happen.
It began with a kiosk in the middle of a mall.
Then a small storefront.
And it grew.
That seed of a dream–watered with sweat, perseverance, tears and prayer became a life-giving thing in their community.
Through the years I watched the ups and downs of business. I learned about dealing with people. I saw how written words could change hearts and lives.
Nana & Poppi HuggingMostly, I curled up in the back room with stacks of books.
And one day God tapped me on the shoulder with a God-sized dream too, “Become a writer.”
The whisper wouldn’t go away all through Junior High when I wrote poetry in notebooks instead of paying attention in science class. It didn’t go away through the strict youth group years of high school or the rebellious season of college. It didn’t go away through moving, marriage, over seven years of infertility, career transitions and my share of rejection letters. From seed to sprouting my God-sized dream spanned over two decades.
My Grandpa, the one in the story, decided to retire at age 85. Now he calls me on Sundays and asks, “How’s that book going?” And I get to tell him how God has answered prayers uttered before I even came into this world. I get to tell him about all of you, your God-sized dreams, how you’re taking the little words God places in my heart and using them to change the world.
grandparentI can hear the smile in his voice when I’m through sharing. “Hang in there,” he says (which is his version of “Keep doing what you’re doing, girl. It matters.”)
Encouragement from the first God-sized dreamer in my life.
A dreamer who’s now 91 years young.
I take his words in and they taste good to my soul.
Like lemon icebox pie.
******
  Holley Gerth
is a bestselling writer, certified life coach, and speaker. She loves connecting with the hearts of women through her popular blog and books like You're Already Amazing. She's also cofounder of (in)courage and a partner with DaySpring.  Holley lives with her husband, Mark, in the South. Come by and join in her blog at her website www.holleygerth.com.


***Thank you to Revell Blog Tour for inviting me to join the tour for Holley Gerth's You're Made for a God-Sized Dream. I received this book in exchange for a review in my own words. No other compensation was received.***

Available March 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.
~*~*~ Ready for more? This book is the perfect companion to Holley's ebook The "Do What You Can" Plan. ~*~ *~

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