About Kelli Stuart

Kelli Stuart is a wife and mother, a writer, a dream chaser, and the driver of a smokin’ hot minivan. She’s been dancing her way through the blogosphere for seven years now, and it’s led her all around the world giving her the opportunity to tell stories and share this joyful ride called life from different vantage points. In 2014, Kelli transitioned from her humorous family-style blog to a more serious space, where she now spends her days encouraging other creative moms to pursue their gifts as a means to point to God’s goodness. Kelli recently finished her first novel, and is in the throes of researching her second book. Kelli shares her heart, her humor, and her quest for inspiration at Kelli Stuart. You can also connect with her on Twitter & Instagram.

Where Two or More are Gathered

October 16, 2015 By Kelli Stuart 5 Comments

“I hear you like to take tea.”

Her voice came through the phone, warm and sweet, and I couldn’t help but smile, instantly loving the woman on the other end of the line. A woman I’d never met. A woman who would become one of my dearest friends.

When I met Wendy I was a twenty-three year old dreamer, and she was the friend I didn’t know I was missing. We met several times a week for a year, both of us writers, performers, and dreamers. We were totally different, and strikingly similar. And the partnership grew despite the fact that time and distance separated us physically.

She now lives in California, and I live in Florida. We live 2,500 miles apart, and yet the Lord has lovingly and graciously knit together this friendship because God loves dreamers, and He loves to see His children in fellowship.

In those early days, when Wendy and I were both newly married and without children, we spent a lot of time dreaming about the future. We dreamt up companies and businesses, books, speaking engagements, and all the many ways that we would work together. Because even then we understood and saw that we were better as a pair.

And now, seven children and fourteen years later, we’re seeing the fruit of all those years of dreaming, the seeds of hope planted in each of our hearts, watered and grown through long talks on the phone, weekends together, and a lot of time spent in prayer together.

There is power in the midst of gathered dreamers. (<==== Click to tweet)

Ideas take shape, and ultimately take flight when two or more come together, and they dare to dream. Of course, every one of us is capable of dreaming on our own, and seeing those dreams come to fruition, but dream chasing is much less intimidating when done with a friend.

That’s why we gather here, in this simple online space. Because we see you, and we believe in your dreams, and we believe that dreaming with a group is powerful. But there’s an important component to this shared dreaming.

You must actually share your dream.

It’s scary to share a dream. I used to be terrified of the idea. I thought that it would be better for me to just quietly pursue it on my own, then on day step out of the shadows and yell TA-DA! Look at what I did.

But it’s lonely in the shadows, and when the dreaming gets tough, and the road is rocky, we’re bound to quit if there’s no one there to grab us by the hand and guide us through the rough parts.

Dream chasing is hard. I had a mentor who used to say that “Worthy goals are rarely ever easily achieved.” It’s true, isn’t it? Anything worth doing is going to be hard. But it sure doesn’t have to be lonely.

So my challenge to all you dreamers today is this: Step out of the shadows! Share your dream with someone, preferably someone who will commit to helping you accomplish it. Whether they help through prayer, encouragement, making coffee runs, or actually working alongside you, know that having a friend or loved one step on to the path with you makes the journey much more fun.

So dream on, friends, and do it together.

“For where two or more are gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” Matthew 18:20

Shared By: Kelli Stuart

The Journey of Waiting

August 7, 2015 By Kelli Stuart 4 Comments

Photo courtesy of Unsplash.com

Dreaming means waiting.

I didn’t understand that for a long time. I understood that dreaming meant hard work. I got that dreaming required dedication, and confidence, and perseverance.

But I didn’t see the beauty in the waiting.

I’ve had plenty of exposure to “dream come true” stories. I grew up in America, after all. Movies, books, media – all of culture told me that all my dreams would come true if I believed hard enough. Cinderella even sang a song about it – a song I had memorized when I was seven:

“A dream is a wish your heart makes,

When you’re fast asleep.

In dreams you will lose your heartache.

Whatever you wish for, you keep.

Have faith in your dreams and someday,

Your rainbow will come shining through.

No matter how your heart is grieving,

If you keep on believing,

The dreams that you wish will come true.”

I’m a dreamer by nature. I’m always on the lookout for the rainbow, because I can quite easily convince myself that my dreams are meant to be. When I was younger, and the world was my oyster, I assumed that any dream I had was God-breathed, and meant to be chased down. There is a fatal flaw in that thinking, because it puts God at my disposal.

I treated God like the Fairy Godmother, and the Bible like her magic wand. Bippity Boppity Boo! I found verses to support my dream, and called on God with my wishes. But dreams weren’t coming true, and with each disappointment, I felt a growing resentment building toward God.

I had to learn that waiting is the most active part of dreaming. <–Click to tweet

I dreamed of adopting a child. A noble dream, right? A righteous one, even. But so far it hasn’t happened for our family, and I’m not sure it ever will. I had to wrestle through that one with God until I finally came to the place of surrender. He is good because He is God. He doesn’t need to grant my wish, even the noble one, for me to call Him good.

The dream hasn’t subsided, but my attitude toward it has taken on a new shape. I continue to wait on God, watching for His answer to this dream in my heart. And in the waiting, I actively pursue ministering to the fatherless in other ways.

Because dreaming means waiting, and the journey of waiting is not a stagnant one.

Another life-long dream that pulsed through my heart was that of publishing a novel. For fifteen years, I studied and wrote, pursuing this dream until I had a finished manuscript in my hand. And I waited. And waited. For three long years, I pitched agents and publishers, and I heard the word “No” over and over.

And over.

But something beautiful happened in the waiting. I relinquished my own selfish longings for the book – those things I had convinced myself were dreams, were little more than selfish desires and ambitions. I let go of my desire to be a famous author, to make bestseller lists, or to see my name in lights. Instead, my prayers shifted.

“Lord, make Your Name known through my writing. Tell Your stories through me. Let it not be about me, and all about You.”

I needed to wait so that I could learn this lesson. Because waiting is active – it’s a verb. Waiting is as much of the journey toward the dream as the working and pursuing it is.

Even Cinderella had to wait. She didn’t know her prince would come for her. Her dream didn’t come true the day the Fairy Godmother arrived. She simply got a taste. Then it fell apart, and she had to wait to see if the vision would come to fruition.

Waiting is a part of your dream journey, friends. It’s the time when the Lord meets you and reminds you that He is God, and He is good, whether or not your dream comes true the way you envisioned it.

Waiting is where we learn to love Him for who He is, and nothing more. **Waiting is where we let go of control, and relinquish all desires for our own glory. Because it’s all about Him. (<====Click to Tweet)**Every dream pulses with potential, and it’s all to His glory.

So take heart in the journey, and hold loose to the dream. Let Him mold it into the shape that most glorifies Him – the Author and Perfector of every dream journey.

Shared By: Kelli Stuart

Image credit

The Melody of Community

May 18, 2015 By Kelli Stuart 5 Comments

“You have to see this,” he said, sliding into the bleacher seat next to mine. He handed me his phone and I stared at the picture on the screen. The music from our daughter’s gymnastics competition blared in the background as I tried to decipher what I was staring at.

“Who are those people?” I asked, handing the phone back to him. My husband’s eyes filled with tears.

“They’re from my parent’s Sunday School class. They’re standing outside mom and dad’s house right now in the freezing cold, praying.”

“How many people are there?” I asked, a lump forming in my throat.

“They think about 70 people.”

My father-in-law was six months into his battle with lung cancer, and it wasn’t going well. The side effects of chemo had ravaged his body, leaving him weak and frail, a shell of the larger than life man he’d once been.

That was when community stepped up. As the cancer progressed, my in-law’s class rose up and poured over and into their mentors. They brought meals, they gathered on the snow-covered lawn and bathed Herb and Barbara in prayer. They filled the gap, because that’s what community does.

That’s what the Church does.

___________________________________

For years, my father-in-law led a class for younger married couples in their church. He was such a popular teacher that the younger marrieds grew into older marrieds, and the class continued to expand, all of them coming to soak up the Word from Herb Stuart.

But their leader was fading.

Shortly before Christmas, several leaders from the class came to visit with Herb. His voice was weak as he spoke, and he shared his hopes for what would likely be his final holiday. He told them of his greatest joy through the years – the pleasure he found in blessing us, his children.

Every year, Herb started saving all his quarters on January 1. Throughout the year, he would constantly ask for change in quarters, until he had a heavy bag full of change at Christmas. This was when Barbara took over and put together a grand scavenger hunt for her grown boys and their spouses.

We’d tear through the house finding clues that eventually led us to the bag of coins, which we then counted out and split between us all.

But this past year it just hadn’t worked out. Herb’s focus was on fighting cancer. He couldn’t gather quarters, and he shared with the leaders of his class how he wished he could have seen his kids count out quarters one more time.

Leaving his house, one of the men sent a text to his wife telling her he wanted to help. “Let’s see if we can get enough quarters for the Stuarts to have one more scavenger hunt.”

Within a matter of a few hours, the class had donated over $700, which they took to the bank and exchanged for quarters.

It was the grandest scavenger hunt we’ve ever had, and the portions that Lee and I got to take home were the exact amount we would need to cover one of our plane tickets back to Arkansas 10 days after Christmas for Herb’s funeral.

Community is a beautiful extension of God’s goodness. When the body of Christ comes together, the Spirit led goodness of His Grace is poured out upon us all. <<<<< Tweet this!

Herb’s hope, his dream if you will, for his final Christmas was a seemingly simple one. He just wanted to enjoy the life, love, and laughter of his family. He wanted the comfort of the familiar.

Because of the love of a great community of believers, because of the Church, we made a Christmas memory that will carry us until the day we see Herb again.

There is Grace in community, and glorious beauty in the unification of God’s children. I’ve seen it in action, held it in my hands. The rattle of the quarters was a melody unlike any other.

It was the melody of love.

Shared By: Kelli Stuart