5-Minute Fridays
Five Minute Friday: Stretch
1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no overthinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join.
3. Go a little overboard in encouraging the writer who linked up before you
Are you ready? What are you waiting for?
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It’s my first Five Minute Friday in a loooong time and I am so happy to be a part of this again. Love the community behind this and the freedom to just write {even if what I write doesn’t make any sense, ha!}.
STRETCH
Motherhood is stretching. Not only have I learned to stretch, okay perhaps contort is the right word, my body in all sorts of ways; like as I try to change a dirty diaper {and by dirty I mean blow-out} in the dressing room of a clothing store without getting “it” on baby, me or anything else {somehow I think I grew an extra arm in that feat}, or while feeding baby and the television remote or my iPad are just out of reach with my free hand {feet can come in handy at times}; but it is stretching me in mental and spiritual ways that I did not see coming.
Motherhood never ends. Even if you leave the home to work. It never stops. And for a mom like me who has begun her own business from home while raising her first child, stretching is the theme of life.
Must send an email.
Must feed the baby.
Must write a communications plan.
Must bathe the baby.
Must make dinner.
Must play with baby.
Must do the laundry.
Must hold and cuddle baby.
Must follow-up with that person and that person.
Must love on baby.
MUST SPEND TIME WITH MY GOD.
Stretching is par for the course now. It will never stop. Maybe when baby Will is out of the house? Maybe not.
But I tell you, when I think of the most flexible people on earth my thoughts gravitate to ballerinas. So while now the stretching is hard, and I’m not quite as nimble as I’d like to be, if one day the stretching will lead to a fluid and flexible beauty, I’ll embrace the stretching now.
Read MoreFive Minute Friday: Gift
1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no overthinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join.
3. Go a little overboard in encouraging the writer who linked up before you
Are you ready? What are you waiting for?
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GIFT
From time to time I’ve heard women say that motherhood is a gift, especially since I have been pregnant. And indeed it is. It is a gift to become a mother. But I think it is just as much a gift to have a mother.
It has been five weeks now that my mom has been with me virtually everyday while I am on bed rest. She was at the hospital everyday for the three weeks I was there and has been with me everyday since I have been home {for the past two weeks}. She takes me to my doctor’s appointments, cleans my house, does my laundry, cooks for me and essentially helps keep me sane.
She is such a gift. A HUGE gift. An irreplaceable gift.
As I watch her I see what I hope to be. Selfless, sacrificial, giving, loving, funny and simply beautiful.
Motherhood is a gift to the woman who becomes a mom, and just as much a gift to the one who is born to the mother.
Read MoreFive Minute Friday: Loud
1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no overthinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join.
3. Go a little overboard in encouraging the writer who linked up before you
Are you ready? What are you waiting for?
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LOUD
One day I hope our home will be loud. Much like the one I grew up in. Friends would come over and we’d sit at the kitchen counter and my sisters would run in and out. We’d talk with them, my mom and whoever was over.
To this day when I go back to my parents house, the same home I grew up in, we spend more time in the kitchen being loud than anywhere else. My husband always wonders why we don’t spend such lengths of time in the very next room on the big and roomy leather couches next to the fire. {You can often find all out male counterparts in that room while the ladies are in the kitchen being loud.}
My friends from childhood still talk about our loud and active kitchen. They love to come over still now and just hang out in the kitchen with Deb {my mom} and the girls {my sisters and I}.
Indoor voices hasn’t really been our thing.
One day I hope I have a loud kitchen. With loud little bodies running around and loud little friends too.
Read MoreFive Minute Friday: Grit
1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no overthinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join.
3. Go a little overboard in encouraging the writer who linked up before you
Are you ready? What are you waiting for?
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Grit.
Grit. I find it ironic that today’s 5 minute Friday word would be grit. I think this word might take on new meaning as I we face this new season of life. It’s been 48 hours since I was admitted to the hospital and while baby and I are stable, I will be off the meds that are preventing contractions soon and in my gut I know these next 24-48 hours are going to be crucial.
Grit. It’s what the Lord has graciously given me. A tenacity to fight for this life to stay inside me. A peace to trust in my Maker and His divine and perfect plan for this little one that we love so dearly. An ability to see with eyes of faith that He will certainly work out all these things for our little family.
Grit. I think I’m seeing even now that this is an innate trait of motherhood. He made us this way. He designed us to face these unknowns with perseverance and He has given my husband and I the grace to see Him in the midst of the uncertainty.
Grit. I’ve never considered it before, but like everything else that is good, He has given us grit to hold tight, stand firm in Him and trust Him no matter what we may see around us.
Read MoreFive Minute Friday: Trust
1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no overthinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join.
3. Go a little overboard in encouraging the writer who linked up before you
Are you ready? What are you waiting for?
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Trust
It takes trust to love.
We sat in my living room, four grown women. Each with our own story. All desiring to glorify God with this life. Each longing to love well.
She asked, “What do you think the world’s definition of love is?”
We had varying answers from infatuation to romance to receiving.
We read from 1 John. And there, in black and white we are told what love is.
God is Love.
If God is Love, then Love is sacrificial, it doesn’t require reciprocation, it gives and gives and gives, it does not assume it will receive it back. Love dies for others.
In our humanity this is impossible. How can we possibly Love this way?
TRUST.
If we trust in Him, He who IS Love, we can know that when our love is given in the way that God designed it to be given, nothing will be lost. No matter if it is returned or not.
Read MoreFive Minute Friday: Real
1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no overthinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join.
3. Go a little overboard in encouraging the writer who linked up before you
Are you ready? What are you waiting for?
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Real
What is the face we {Christ followers} show the world? Do we want to paint the “perfect” picture of a life of faith? In our quest to seek God in our daily life, live life like Jesus and help others come to know Him, are we painting the real picture.
I think one of the unfortunate things that happens too often in our efforts to help others come to know Him is we cater to what we think as humans is better than life without Him. Meaning, we forget the real side of faith. We want Jesus to be appealing, to be the guy that’s gonna give you a hug and love on you no matter. We want to follow a God that loves everyone and everything. We want the hippie Jesus.
But that’s not totally real.
Real following Christ will mean you pick-up your cross. You choose to follow Him no matter what He allows your way. And if He takes you on the road of suffering, which will happen at some point if you are really seeking Him, will you keep on following Him and trusting Him and going after Him?
We want to tell people all too often that Christ’s way, God’s way, is the better, best, ONLY way. And it is. BUT, have we even reconciled ourselves to the fact that it isn’t the easy way, the simpler way, or the smoother way?
The real side of following Christ is a life of peace amidst the storm, finding joy despite the suffering, feeling loved and comforted in times when love and comfort seem like far off dreams.
Christ following is not easy, in fact it can be harder than not following Him. Real following will mean encountering suffering, storms, great difficulties, but it also means experiencing REAL love, joy and peace despite all those things.
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