It’s Friday!  Lots of good stress in my life right now.  And some of the regular kind as well.

I turned 51 this week.  Birthdays are a good time to reflect on blessings.  I am truly blessed.

Linking up with Kate Motaung and the Five Minute Friday community to write for five minutes on the word prompt adapt.

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When you adapt, you make adjustments to your environment.

I’ve read recently that the frog in the boiling pot of water is all wrong. That doesn’t really happen.

I don’t know.

I do know it’s easy to make adaptions to culture and eventually blend in when you should stand out.

“Don’t be conformed to the world.”

It has to be a conscious choice, because the path of least resistance is conformity.

It’s a continual choice. Which path are we taking? Whose voice are we listening to?

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After I finished writing for five minutes and was looking for an image, I remembered the modern translation of that verse, “Don’t let the world squeeze you into it’s mold,” and contrasted that with the potter’s hands skillfully creating beauty.

What a difference.

P.S. I had somewhat of an epiphany this week thinking about the image of pulling up stakes at a campsite.  It so parallels the transitions I’ve experienced personally.

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Lots of ups and downs this week.  Don’t even know how to talk about it.

The weather has been very slow to warm up, and I fear when it does, it will go straight to hot.

Linking up with Kate Motaung and the Five Minute Friday community to write for five minutes on the word of the week:  turn.

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Repent means to make a u turn.

To do a complete 180 and head the other direction.

I think we don’t realize sometimes how hard it is to change.

Even trying to add a few good habits or eliminate a few bad ones.

It’s really, really hard.

It usually takes a miracle.  A work of God in the heart.

The saying “turn over a new leaf” makes it sound so easy.  Like rolling over.

But, it’s only easy if you submit.  If you let the Power of Universe do the turning, while you give up your will.

Our job is to be willing.  To get to the point of surrender. To let the Master work.

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It’s Friday.

It’s good to focus on words and images today.  I need this.

Overwhelm is a real thing.

Linking up today with Kate Motaung and the Five Minute Friday Community to write five minutes on a one word prompt.  Today’s word is other.

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Two weddings this summer of four people we’re close to makes me philosophical about marriage.

I think we don’t tell enough stories to our young people: the true stories, the tough stuff.  Sometimes it’s the guilt, the awkwardness of the topic, regret, confidentiality.  There’s lots of reason.  But I don’t think we paint a true picture.

Not that there’s not room for naivete.  Idealism has it’s place.

There’s nothing like marriage to bring to light selfishness.  Marriage does involve a heap of sharing, after all.

But, what a perfect place to grow selfless, sacrificial love.

I’m inspired by a picture of it within the five minute friday community.

Andrew is dying of pancreatic cancer.  In the midst of that horror, he’s thinking of Barbara, his wife, and what her life will be life after he’s gone.  The relationships she will need.  The dreams she will pursue.

Without him.

That, friends, is selfless, sacrificial love.

Thinking of the other’s best instead of yourself.

These are the stories we need to tell.  This is what young people need to know.

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Happy Friday, everyone!

Our week has been relatively slow paced, with just enough time to start planning for our busy summer.

Snow on the ground reminds us that it isn’t truly Spring yet, but the promise is there.

Linking up again with Kate Motaung and the Five Minute Friday community.

This week’s word is release.

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I can’t think of the word release without thinking of fish.

You know the ones you throw back.

They’re too small.  They don’t measure up. You don’t want to keep them.

But, the truth is, the hardest things for me to release are ideas, hopes, dreams and expectations.  And the fears.  Those are hard, too.

I get a death grip on how I think the future should unfold.  Even if it’s just my morning.

It’s hard to let go.

It’s hard to have open hands.  It’s hard to move on to plan b and c and f and g.

Because, we’re programmed to hit numbers.

We want success.

We want plans to work out.

When the reality is, we’re not called to that.

We’re called to faithfulness.

We’re called to trust.

We’re called to deal with heart issues.

Irregardless of numbers.  Irregardless of success.  Irregardless of a plan coming together.

God, help me pry those fingers open.

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Happy Easter!

He is Risen!

How glorious to celebrate the greatest event in history.

Linking up with Kate Motaung and the Five Minute Friday community to write for five minutes on the word prompt settle.

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I have not read Megyn Kelly’s autobiography, Settle For More, but I resonate with the message.

Apparently, Megyn was inspired by a quote from Dr Phil when he said, “The only difference between you and someone you envy is that you settle for less.”

She took it to heart and started expecting more of herself and her career.

I resonate with that because I believe to my core that we were created for abundant life.

I also believe we experience it much, much less than God intended.

Why is that?

Maybe because we believe lies about ourself.  Or lies about life. Or even lies about God.

Maybe we carry too many worries instead of laying them down.

Maybe we strive and over plan and manipulate when we should be resting, being still and waiting.

Whatever causes it,  I know I want life abundant.

Maybe I won’t be doing it Megyn’s way, but I know I want to settle for more.

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It’s Friday!

I’m running my first 5K tomorrow.  I expect to finish.  I expect to be slow. Whatever happens, the training has been good and I’ve learned a lot.

Linking up again with Kate Motaung and the Five Minute Friday Community.

Today’s word is routine.

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I love routine.

I love my routine.

I love the tweaks I’ve made to my routine in the past couple of years.

I love discovering insights that make my life better and incorporating those insights into my routine.

For example, after I discovered I had Hashimoto’s, I started drinking hot lemon water sweetened with stevia first thing in the morning.  Turns out, people with Hashimoto’s have low stomach acid.  Who knew?

When our mail was stacking up on the kitchen counter and then transferred to the desk in the bedroom, I looked for a way to tame the paper tiger.

I finally realized that due to decision fatigue, I couldn’t handle dealing with the mail at the end of the day.  I started tackling it, three minutes at a time, in the morning.  What a huge difference!

When I noticed a tendency in myself to be critical of my husband and focus on the negative, I started a simple habit of sending a Facebook message to him every morning listing the things I wanted to thank him for.  Revolutionary!

These tweaks to my routine made such a big difference in my life, it made it hard to handle when something messed with my routine.

That’s when I discovered the biggest danger in having a great morning routine.

Like I said, I love discovering insights that make my life better.

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Have a great weekend!

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I don’t know how it could be Friday already and the middle of March.

Thankful for warmer temperatures, the promise of Spring and the hope of Easter.

Linking up with Kate Motaung and the Five Minute Friday community.

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God doesn’t always provide in the way we think He will.

We pray for healing sometimes and He doesn’t heal.

We pray for protection sometimes and we aren’t protected.

We pray for wisdom and direction and still feel lost.

It’s hard to pray for God’s provision when you don’t understand His ways.

And, yet, our beliefs are shaped by our experiences.

Somehow, we have to make sense of what we experience through the grid of what we believe.

Believing in a loving, all-powerful God becomes more difficult when He doesn’t provide in the way that we ask.  How can He be loving?  How can He be all-powerful?  How can He be those things and still deny my requests?  This is what we wrestle with.

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P.S.  I surprised myself when I counted up 55 book reviews that I wrote in 2017.  One book emerged as my favorite.  Read about it here.

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It’s Friday.

Even though there’s a little snow on the ground, there’s still a promise of Spring in the air.

The end of a difficult season is in sight.  We’re going to make it.

Linking up with Kate Motaung and the Five Minute Friday Community.

This week’s word is tired.

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“I just can’t take it anymore.”

“I can’t live like this.”

“I’m so tired.  I refuse to go on this way.”

These are statements of desperation.  They are statements of hopelessness.  Statements of reaching the end.

But, ironically, it’s a good place to be.

Because it means that things are about to change.

I wonder if any real life change happens without reaching this point.

Because you have to hate it.  You have to be desperate for change.  You have to be at the point where you’re ready to make the sacrifices and fight for change.

You have to be propelled and motivated.

It’s that desperation and deep longing for things to change that propels and motivates.  It’s that desire to have a different outcome that fuels the sacrifices.

Half-hearted won’t get you there.

Passive longing won’t make things change.

You have to hate the pit you’re in.

You have to identify your why.

You have to remember that point of desperation.

Be thankful for it.

Because that’s the first step.

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How did it get to be Friday already?

What a week.  Grateful that Pete’s home safely from South America.  Wrapping up basketball with a bang.  Never a dull moment.

Linking up again with Kate Motaung and the Five Minute Friday community.

This week’s word is regret.

Regret has got to be one of the saddest words in the English language, right up there with “if only”.

Who wants to wallow in regret?

How can we avoid it?

Can we live intentionally, by our principles and in obedience so that we can avoid the terrible feeling of regret?

Why not?

Why not choose ahead of time how we want to live so that we can rest our heads on our pillows every night without regret?

Why not create a life that we’re proud of?

Why not make the changes that we need to so that we can live with no regrets?

I didn’t say it was easy.  I didn’t say that we wouldn’t need supernatural help.

But, why not?

Who wants to live with regrets?

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