{Five Minute Friday} Beloved

Today I am linking up with Lisa-Jo Baker for Five Minute Friday. So I'm writing for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking. The topic this week is Beloved...

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The pictures started popping up at the beginning of the week...Facebook photos of flowers...red roses on her desk at work, a beautiful mixed bouquet on her dinning room table. Each time a picture showed up in my news feed I would wonder...will I get a bouquet this year from my beloved?

I resolved that no, I would not, since my beloved is such a practical man. Cut flowers are a waste it's better to buy a live potted plant that we can put in the yard. And I agree and it is true, bouquets are simply not practical. And I've loved the beautiful flowering hydrangias and graceful maiden hair ferns I've received (he knows my favorites.) But a boquet of flowers. There's something about the waste, the frivolity, the impracticality of them that says, "I love you."

And then he comes home from work, the day before the day. And my beloved, he presents me with roses. Not potted up in dirt but cut, with beautiful long stems, a bouquet of cream colored roses. I tear up. Silly, that these dozen blooms do that. But my beloved knows me. He knows I love these sweet smelling stems and he puts aside his practical side to bless his beloved.

In Him,
Kim

{Five Minute Friday} Focus

Today I am linking up with Lisa-Jo Baker for Five Minute Friday. So I'm writing for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking. The topic this week is Focus...

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 “You’ve got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative and don’t mess with Mister In-Between.”

Bing Crosby’s catchy lyrics are all about keeping our focus optimistic and upbeat.  It’s about setting our thoughts on the blessings in our day. How do you prepare your heart to focus on the positive? How do you ready your heart to sing praise for what that the Lord gives each day?

I know my day’s outlook is brighter after a shower and a cup of something warm, before the first cry for milk rings through the house. But the optimism fades quickly, and I find that often, once my hair has air dried into a wavy, cow licked mess and once my forgotten half full mug of tea is really half empty and cold, my sunny outlook gets all clouded over and I get just plain old grouchy.

But, to fill my day with a truly thankful heart that will endure the trials of the day, I must spend those quiet early moments showering  in God’s uplifting presence and drinking in a warm cup of His Word.

As I read through Proverbs 14 today I was struck with the first verse, “The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.” Ever a convicting verse, it is a great reminder today of the power we hold as wife and mother.  The focus of our hearts can build up the countenance of those around us with sweet words or tear them down with negativity and complaining. We direct the focus of our day based on the focus of our hearts.  And today I choose, with God help, accentuate the positive and build my home.

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Do you need help accentuating the positive today? Have a listen here…I’ve been singing it to my girls all morning long.

In Him,

Kim

{Five Minute Friday} Join

Today I am linking up with Lisa-Jo Baker for Five Minute Friday. So I'm writing for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking. The topic this week is Join...

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In our modern age we are so very connected. We join Facebook, join blog hops and link ups. We join Twitter and Pintrests and on and on. We are social in so many corners of the web and join in each day through computer screens and cell phones. But I can't help but wonder if all of our connecting and joining has left us feeling disconnected and alone.

Let's try joining in on dinner with friends, eye-to-eye contact, hugs and belly laughs (not lol, but real laughter heard out loud.) Let's power down and join our family for a game on the living room rug, join the neighbors and chat on the grass while the children meet up for a game of hide-and-seek. Let's really be present and join in on the real life, the good life, this God given life of flesh and breath and smiles and warm sun on your face.

Will you join me?

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In Him,

Kim

{Five Minute Friday} Stretch

Today I am linking up with Lisa-Jo Baker for Five Minute Friday. So I'm writing for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking. The topic this week is Stretch...

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S-T-R-E-T-C-H-E-D.

It's mid August (I think) and the hardest working man I know (who also happens to be my husband) is working, a lot. Like 10 hour days plus Saturdays a lot. He comes home fatigued and discouraged. All of him stretched thin and exhausted by the endless hours and just wanting to be home with his girls.

What does this do to me? I'm stretched thin too. Six days on my own. I need back up. And what does this stretching do? Like the stretching of a shirt to small on a body too big we can see right through to what's underneath. And, oh me, it isn't pretty.

We get stretched and pulled and what's in the heart is revealed. And my heart hides ugly things. The exhaustion can't hold back the inpatients, the anger and unkind words. I snap, I whine, I grumble. And I convince myself, my blessed-beyond-measure self, that my lot in life is the worst.

But this stretching can be good if I let it. The sins are too obvious not to confess. When they surface they can be dealt with. The Lord can help me wash them away.

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In Him,
Kim