5-Minute Fridays
Five minute Friday: Vivid
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?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Vivid
I had silly little girl dreams growing up. I hoped Prince Charming would come and sweep me off my feet. I loved Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. But I also had an affinity towards She-Rah and the female Thundercats. I wanted to be beautiful and strong. Swept into the arms of my one true love and yet strong enough to defend myself and take names if need be {I know, it’s a little strange}.
As I have grown in my faith this tension has been challenged. Love like a fairytale just isn’t real and strength has gained new meaning, it’s not just physical or emotional.
Jesus told His disciples to be as wise as serpents but as gentle as a dove. Proverbs 31 tells us charm is deceitful and beauty is passing but a woman who fears the Lord shall be praised.
I’ve found it to only be the vivid undeniably love of my God that can take a little girl, surrounded by the fairytales and action heroes and move into these truths in the greatest love affair and action story of all time. A life with Him. How can love be vivid?
When I choose to see all He has, all He is doing and look for it in the day-to-day of the not-so-action-packed life that He is vividly displayed for me to see.
Read MoreFive Minute Friday: Awake
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?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Awake
I’ve been awakened to a mystery of God that I can no longer let lie dormant in the depths of my soul. I’ve been forced to open my eyes to one of the greatest struggles for a human being in light of an omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent Divine Creator. He decided His best for her was to take her home to Him. To bring her into glory, to eternity with the One who loves more than any of us ever could. My human brain is trying to comprehend how the Almighty, the Good, Great, Perfect Creator works. He tells us He will not leave us nor forsake us. He tells us the righteous will never be forsaken. Do i trust Him at His word?
My soul has been awakened to the struggle between human flesh, desires and understanding in light of my God. Can I accept His divinity over my humanity? Will I genuinely, truly, wholly and completely trust His ways and accept His mysteries?
By His grace and mercy, yes.
Read MoreFive Minute Friday: Grow
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?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
GROW
We sat in a little restaurant and I ate while she drank coffee. We shared our fears of marriage and the wondering if we could really be effective in ministry with someone by our side. Did we really need a man to do what God called us to do? Couldn’t we do it without one and be just fine? Digging deeper we saw a fear that was deep in our souls. A fear that marriage could never be for us what it is for others.
Now, happily married I sit here in awe of what God has done and see the understandable but unreasonable fears that had plagued me. And I share with a sweet friend that in the end when two people desire to grow in God all the days of their lives, their marriage will be blessed. They will both have a more effective ministry in the Lord. Whether their ministry is at their office or in a church or meeting with young people or counseling others, whether it is serving the poor, feeding the homeless, or cleaning up the city, when two people, joined in the covenant God has blessed them with desire to grow and be more like Him, their marriage will grow and so will their ministry.
Our marriages will bless our ministry, not hinder.
Read MoreFive Minute Friday: Unexpected
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?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Unexpected
When I walk into the darkness of the morning before the sun rises, pour my coffee and he comes from behind, gently places his hands on the little bump that is slowly but surely coming as our little one grows. When we sit side-by-side for our devotions in the morning and he says, “I wish it were Saturday and we could sit here all morning and read, pray and talk about what He’s telling us.” When he kisses me goodbye for the day and says I love you. Each. And. Every. Day.
Unexpected is the beauty and simplicity of daily life. Unexpected is the appreciation I have now for time before baby arrives. Unexpected is the rest in preparing to be a godly mother while continuing to be the godly wife he deserves. Unexpected is the love that grows each passing day for the One who is knitting the little one in my womb. He has known this little one before time just has He has known He would pair us as man and wife. Unexpected, although perhaps it shouldn’t be, is the beauty of His plan for this life.
Read MoreFive-Minute Friday: Remember
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?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Remember
Since becoming pregnant it’s like my brain has decided it is time to jog down memory lane over and over and over again. Even my appetite has joined the ride with cravings of childhood foods.
I often think of when my youngest sister was born—I was 11—and everything surrounding my mom’s pregnancy with her and her birth. I don’t remember all the details, but I do remember the baby shower my mom’s friends had for her, coming home from school and mom napping {I couldn’t for the life of me understand why she was so tired: now I get it!}, and our trips to the mall where our number one complaint was how many times we had hit the restroom, I kind of understand that now as well. I feel this intense and even greater connection with my momma now and with each memory that pops back in my head the the greater that connection grows. It’s amazing to me what God has purposed for our lives and how we have no idea how He will orchestrate things, but when we look back and remember where we’ve come from we can see how He’s been preparing us our whole lives for where we found ourselves yesterday, find ourselves today and will find ourselves in the future. I hope I always remember.
PS. I even remember being belly height when I was four and my mom was pregnant with #3 {there are four of us} and looking up at her and then straight ahead at her belly and asking, “do you still have a belly button?” Ha!
Read MoreFive Minute Friday: JOY
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?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Immediately I think of James writing, consider it pure joy when you face many trials because through persevering through these trials our faith is tested is grown {I paraphrased that of course and may have butchered it a bit but you get it :-)}.
And for a season of life I thought I really understood this. After everything I went through and experienced leading up to my wedding day, when I look back, I think that verse really came to life in those times. When I hear of the struggles of others I wonder if I could make it through what they have gone through with my joy still intact? But He promises to only give us what we can handle. I’ve found when I’m wandering and fighting in the hard times, the desserts; it is much more difficult to consider the joy. But, when the season is over and I reflect back, oh the joy abounds! Truly, truly, it abounds.
To this day I would not take back a single moment of the agony of ending an engagement and all the wrestling to heal that followed. It was those moments I was forced to stand in faith and choose to believe that at the end of the trial I would be more like my Jesus. That is JOY.
Read More