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This is where a brave and beautiful bunch gather every week to find out what comes out when we all spend five minutes writing on the same topic and then sharing ’em over here.
How to Join:
Want to know how Five Minute Friday got started and how to participate? All the details are here.
Featured Five Minute Friday:
And every week I’ll pick a post that caught my eye and share it down there in my side bar – see where it says “Featured #FiveMinuteFriday”? Yea -that could be you! Hop on over and visit some folk who make fireworks in just five minutes. They inspire me.
Meet the #FMFParty Writers:
And did you know there’s a whole community of writers that connect online before the prompt goes live on Friday nights? They use the Twitter hashtag #FMFParty and are about the most encouraging group around.
Now, set your timer, clear your head, for five minutes of free writing without worrying about getting it right.
1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community..
Oh and Ahem, if you would take pity and turn off comment verification, it would make leaving some love on your post that much easier for folks!
OK, are you ready? Please give us your best five minutes on:::
Small…
GO
Your day can end with sorting the recycling from the regular trash and then trying to find that stray pair of flip flops so you can haul a Glad Trash bag down the three front door steps and out to the trash can. And then maybe you find that the trash can is actually inside the garage and the garage door is still broken since it got damaged in your move last month and you have to put the trash down and walk back through the house to haul the whole thing open by its hinges.
And it’s about then your own hinges can ache and sigh and groan because when the three empty pizza boxes you’re loading into a recycling garbage can are the end of your day they can feel like the end and full stop and split of you.
Don’t forget how one child accidentally peed on your brand new after fourteen years of marriage mattress and there’s that pile of laundry waiting down in the washer to get switched to the dryer and put back on the bed. But in the meantime you’re lying horizontal any chance you can get because the Doc tells you you’ve sprained your back and is surprised when you tell him it’s been hurting like this since Sunday. Because today’s Thursday and you’re only now carving time out to see him because moms don’t get sick and they sure don’t lie flat on their back with their knees elevated. Not with three kids and enough crazy to last an afternoon.
So you break your no-sugar vow and open up a fruit roll up and feel good when your tongue turns bright red because it’s proof of how much you love your kids’ candy and how you might still be twelve at heart. But your body says different and your back screams righteous frustrated at all those hours you log at a desk and you are humbled by what you can’t do.
Friends write about their wrestle with a Savior who feels like He isn’t quite up to saving them, at least not when it looks like moving them out of their small house when they have the means but can’t find a landlord who’s willing. And you feel all of life like this desperate wrestle with the God who isn’t afraid of our desperate hands and who is willing to bless right there in the thick of the weary, every day roller coaster of wrestling through one day into another.
This thing is not going to break you.
And none of this makes you small.
It makes you real good and human and someone who knows how to love their neighbor because their life looks relateable. All those things that try to break you, to tell you that you don’t measure up, those are the promises that you are connected to the stories of every person that is intended to matter just to you.
STOP
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That was so well put! the rhythm of that post echoes my week of being so busy and looking around and feeling as if I accomplish nothing that matters. As I slosh a mop bucket all over me that had just cleaned up a potty accident and I just stood there…because what else can you do? Prayers for your back! btw my middle name is Jo too.
hugs and bless you for this place ;)
Casey Jo
We had the same messes this week, Casey “Jo” :) glad to know we’re never alone in the ordinary and that really there’s nothing ordinary in this all.
nope and I keep telling myself I will miss “these days” when I’m old enough to be the great grandmother. To cherish them and then I realize that the moms I think have it so together…don’t. We just can’t give up! lol
Casey *Jo*
I don’t know how you do it day after day… you almost always manage to make me go all leaky eyed. And I know you’re flat out and flat out tired and flat out sore… but can I just whisper to you right here friend… that this community, your words, you mean so crazy much to me… and… there I go again… eyes wet. So I’ll stop gushing and geisering all over my computer and send you the softest virtual hug ever so I don’t hurt your already sore back {hug}
Just this for my week, just this: All those things that try to break you, to tell you that you don’t measure up, those are the promises that you are connected to the stories of every person that is intended to matter just to you.
Thank you for caring enough to write from flat on your back. I’ve been there. I’ll lift you up in prayer and advise lots of ibuprofen. And chocolate :)
Oh Lisa, what a great word this week. Certainly a word and feeling that has resonated through y soul this week. Blessings!
a stunning write, Lisa-Jo. You always find the words. Praying for your back. And if it makes you feel better, I’ve broken my no-sugar rule too. many times lately it seems. Better chance tomorrow. ;)
thank you so much!!
Praying you feel better soon!
Small.
5 minuets ago, she was small. So small that her teeny tiny pink feet could fit in my mouth (late at night while i was feeding her- lookung out our small apartment window to the jersey skyline.). Now there is nothing small about her, except maybe the way ishe makes mefeel when i look at her, watching the mirace of her growth rigth before my eyes.
Still, her hand is small enough to fit into mine as we cross the parjing lot. Her voice is small intge middle of the night when the terroes come. She wimpers small cries of pain when her sister hurts her feelings, but still insusts on kissing her at the end of everyday.
Done
Your words are always such a gift. Trusting with you that your back will grow strong, and your spirit stronger, unbending under the weight of daily life:)
I hope your back feels better soon. You have such a gift for encouragement…I’m so thankful you share it!
I was so pumped when I saw this Five Minute Friday, I have 5 minutes. I jumped all over it! I started looking through and though, “man everyone one is writing about small, is this a new trending hot topic?” And then I saw it. So my post isn’t on small :( I won’t be such an air head next time- promise.
A community that encourages mothers is a blessing. Reading through the blog and finding this, I want to say that we are all connected, on a journey that is not only personal and individual, but universal. Our burdens are not unique and the opportunities to unite are great.
Mothers need justice all over the world, as well as cheerleading and encouragement. Small acts of quiet courage go on all the time: the mother who doesn’t wince when the baby cries in the shopping cart, but who knows and remembers. My small acts, over time have encouraged mothers to understand and know that “together, mothers are powerful.” These ordinary moments of our lives are moral actions of caregiving, and they deserve recognition and justice. Think about support the State Paid Family Leave Fund today, with just one small act:
If you can, Just maybe, right now, our Senators would consider allocating seed-money funding for paid family leave in the States. (see http://www.abetterbalance.org/web/ourissues/familyleave and here to contact your Senator http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/general/one_item_and_teasers/contacting.htm
and/or, here: http://action.momsrising.org/sign/statepaidleavefund/)
The rigors of motherhood. No we are not allowed to get sick or injured are we? We are warriors!
Oh boy… I miss the days when my hours were filled with laundry, cooking, kissing boo-boos, building train tracks, and holding the house together. Going back to work has been hard… wondering how sitting at this desk, bringing this small paycheck home, scrambling to make ends meet so we can send our son to the Lutheran school in hopes that his days will be filled with the Lord from early on… I look around at the office, missing my kids, staring at the picture of my family that I’m trying desperately to support… and I wonder why? Why does God need me here and not at home? Why do I get so few hours in the day with these precious people He has blessed me with. And all the while I feel guilty and sinful because while sitting at my desk, staring at the office work needing to be done, my mind is elsewhere, thinking of the women I want to be lifting up, the words I want to be writing for God, the dinner I want to be preparing for my family’s nourishment… I’m not present. I’m not giving glory to Him in the tasks I find before me. No, I’m resenting my position as the bread winner, I’m mad that I’m here and not home, and it’s a daily struggle to simply be grateful for the opportunity to provide for my family. This thing will not break me. This discontent. The work before me is not small. I may not be making a difference in the way I want, but my job, this work before me at the office, it matters to someone… someone in need of healthcare, someone in need of a helping hand to pay for that doctor’s appointment. Thank you for reminding me to face these feelings head on, address them, pray on them, and let Him take control. Every week you bless, LJ – sorry for the lengthy comment, but it all just sorta poured out amongst tears (and luckily, no one in my office can see…)
“And none of this makes you small. It makes you real good and human and someone who knows how to love their neighbor because their life looks relateable. All those things that try to break you, to tell you that you don’t measure up, those are the promises that you are connected to the stories of every person that is intended to matter just to you.”
I. love. this. I have been struggling w/ feeling “small” & broken for the past few weeks, & I needed this very much today!
I hope you are feeling better soon!
And I found my blog, & I hope I’m doing this right (I don’t have a twitter account). Here’s a link to my blog w/ my “Five Minute Friday” for SMALL…
http://wendytate.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/24/
But, if the link doesn’t work (& it probably won’t because I’m so, so, so technically challenged), here’s my SMALL:
SMALL
He hugs me tight with his small little arms. I look down at his blond head, & he looks up at me with his shining blue eyes & smiles, grinning with his little white teeth.
Happy. Giggly. Cuddly.
This 4 year old little boy that makes my heart smile.
He’s small. But not as small as he was the day they placed me in his arms, & I laughed through happy, exhausted tears.
A surprise blessing in a perfect little package.
And I think, he’s small, yes, but so, so huge in my heart.
Often times, the smallest things take up the biggest places in the heart, you know.
Faith as the grain of a tiny mustard seed.
The first tiny bloom of spring. A dandelion clutched tightly in a tiny fist. A tiny ray of sunshine after a storm.
It doesn’t take a big thing to make a difference. We can be little.
Because, sometimes? Sometimes, all it takes is a small smile, a small gesture, a small random act…
A small flicker of hope in the darkness that whispers, “Hold on.”
Faith like a small child. Faith as small as that tiny mustard seed.
And, even when my trust is tiny & I have a hard time believing, God says, “My child, you don’t have to be big. It’s okay.”
There’s a beauty in the small.
This was really good and I do hope you are feeling better soon, take care of yourself, I know it is so hard to do as a mother, you want to take care of everyone else first. Oh and you made me almost want to eat a fruit roll up :)
The things that try to break us connect us to others and make us stronger. Yes?
Remembering that nothing is too small in God’s economy.
Feel better, friend.
Loved the word choice…perfect for the beginning of school.
First timer here, just learned about Five Minute Friday from a friend and am a new fan. I love this idea, especially since I tend to take way too long to compose my posts…I was shocked I was able to actually whip something together for “small” in 5 minutes (though I admit adding the image and the video was not part of the time limit…)
I’ve been wanting to link up for this series for a while now. This was an amazing week to do it! I love the prompt. Thanks for hosting such a great linky series. Happy Friday :)
Dear Lisa-Jo,
Just have to tell you that you are one amazing mom and person :) Hope your back is feeling better…so sorry about what happened to your bed… here is a tip I learned…get a waterproof mattress pad for your bed and your kids’ beds…it is so worth it :) Blessings to you and Thanks for hosting :)
I hope things settle into a nice calm soon, Lisa-Jo. I love your heartfelt honesty here.
LOVE the reminder that “none of these things makes you small”… We don’t set out believing that we are, but I do believe that we start internalizing the thought somewhere along the way and start to compare and feel insecure about our lives…the small stuff, when we focus on it also obscures the truth that we are abundantly blessed and have so much!
We are all connected and these things make us stronger and able to help others…even though it is hard to see it sometimes. Once we have perspective, we see God’s plan. Hope you are better. I wrote about a past trial. I like your honesty. It was a bit uncomfortable for me. Kim
http://www.pursuinggrace.com/small
Feeling very much like the neighbor you can relate to today. Thank you for sharing these words. And I have been listening to Christa Wells’ new album on repeat all week! So yes, you are speaking my language today. Thanks for sharing your messy life with us. It’s so nice to know I am not the only one.
Didn’t make the dead line this week. But, wanted to add my post link. http://hallfamilyinmaryland.blogspot.com/2013/08/small.html
Here’s mine, better late than never! http://bellesbazaar-heather.blogspot.com/2013/09/small-five-minute-post.html
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