One Is Just A Number

Five Minute Friday is a writing event that has hundreds of writers spending five minutes writing on the same topic and then sharing them at http://lisajobaker.com/ . This week's word is Encouragement.   What if everything we spoke was words of encouragement to each other? When talking about people, what if we only sang their praises instead of pointing out their faults and misfortunes. I've thought about this a lot lately because recently I've been the victim of the opposite. Something said in confidence to a friend turned into information used as currency to gain favor or "cool points" with others. This was hurtful but it also served as a mirror, a reflection on how I speak about others. It was a reminder that I should watch my tongue and only speak encouraging words about people. Or better yet, quit talking about people. I don't know why we relish the thought of tearing each other down. Why do we choose to gossip about people instead of foc...

We read this prayer in church today and it both convicted and inspired me. I may make it my daily mantra, saying it every morning before my feet hit my bedroom floor. I think it would be the perfect way to start my day. We are incredibly stubborn, O Lord. We have entered the season in which Your Light has been given to the world, your blessings have been poured out on the word,  and yet all we can think about is our own problems, our own needs, our own desires. Help us to desire you, Lord. Held us to yearn for your presence. Pour your baptismal waters over us again, cleansing us from our self-pity and arrogance. Nourish and heal us so that we may joyfully serve you. Wash away our jealousy, greed and all negative thoughts and behaviours that stand in the way of our truly being the people you have called us to be. Again let us receive the blessings offered in creation, in the birth and baptism of Jesus, and in the ministry of the saints ...

Five Minute Friday is a writing event that has hundreds of writers spending five minutes all writing on the same topic and then sharing them at http://lisajobaker.com/ . This week's word is See. I wish I was better at seeing with my eyes of faith than the eyes in the middle of my head. My heart tells me the things I know are true, that God has a good plan for me, that I am a child of the most high God. But where I fall short is living that. My brain wants to see proof. My brain wants to see those plans, rolled out on a table like a blueprint for a new house. My brain wants other people to see me the way God sees me, to treasure me and believe I am filled with the gifts He has given me. I often wonder why I don't trust more. Why do I take the hard path of needing to see things, instead of trusting everything I've read in His word. Why do I spend time worrying about things that I have no control over? Why can't I see that turning everything over to God woul...

I have had an ad for this shade from Schoolhouse Electric taped to my kitchen wall for five years. Last May, I finally pulled the trigger and ordered it along with five other shades for my kitchen and hallway. I am so glad that I did because when I went on the website a week ago to order the surface mounts for the shades, they had discontinued it. Today, the fixtures came via UPS and it was like Christmas morning all over again. Unwrapping them was so exciting and inspired me to get busy fixing up my house. If for no other reason, to get rid of the three fixtures like this that hang in my house. I'm sorry, but this light looks like a certain body part and I can't wait to replace them with this. The wallpaper is down in my hallway and the walls need the cracks filled before I can put on a single coat of paint, but I REALLY want to go ahead and hang these new fixtures anyway. To make some progress. To make my vision for my house visible and tangible. To do.

A co-worker's children spent their snow day at work today. Every time I saw her 7-year-old girl, she was skipping down the hall. It was like watching pure joy. She was so anxious to get to where she was going and to do something fun that walking wasn't fast enough to get her to her destination. Wouldn't that be awesome to be so happy that you could see it in your whole body? And to be so excited about what you were going to do next that you couldn't wait to get there? That's what I want in my life. That 7-year-old, uninhibited excitement about what the day holds. I want to skip my way through life, not wanting to take the time it would take to walk to the next great thing that is in store for me. What a great way to live that would be!

Five Minute Friday is a writing event that has hundreds of writers spending five minutes all writing on the same topic and then sharing them at http://lisajobaker.com/ . This week's word is Fight. Here it is January 3 and I already feel myself fighting against my old habits of 2013. My word for 2014 is Do and I know it's going to be an exercise in retraining my thinking to keep up the challenge of this word. What I need to remember though is Doing feels so much better than Not Doing. Moving forward, accepting new challenges, ignoring the negative voices in my head - those things are so much better than staying where I am in my comfortable, do-nothing life. I want to Fight to be better. Fight against my old ways of thinking. Fight to look for the good. Fight to be everything God made me to be. As I type this, there are men working outside on my house. Finally hiring people to fix the rotting wood and the curling shingles is a huge step in the fight towards making my...

 In 2014, I plan to take action and DO. DO go out and get the life I want. The life I want isn't going to come to me while I sit on the couch. DO be honest. Think about what I want, really want. Not what other people have. DO be the person God wants me to be. Pray better, not just two minutes before I go to sleep. Pray and continue to pray when I say I will on a friend's Facebook post. Read the Bible, not just have it read to me on Sunday. DO write on my blog. I won't help anyone, or not as many people, with just a Five Minute Friday post. If I want to be writer, WRITE. DO forgive. Everyone. Including myself. I will get so much farther if I quit carrying all that past baggage with me. Leave it in 2013.  DO fix my house. No more gathering paint samples and tearing photos out of magazines. DO it myself or hire it done. DO something for others. Don't just write checks, give of me and my time. DO better at work. Prove that I deserve what I've fought ...