Real Life

It is 5:41 am.  I have been awake since four am and out of bed since 4:30 am.  So forgive if this post is less than polished.

Funny, that for so long, I've been desiring to rise early and write.  And yet the plan was to be up before the kids to write in silence.  I just never seem to be able to get up before them.  And even this morning, I am up because they are up.  Why they were wide awake at four is beyond me, but after hushing them for a half hour to no avail, I stated that we might as well just get up.

I decided to take advantage of the sunless morning sky and write and yet, not without the chaos of the children,who are already loud as they are at any given hour of the day.  Please, Lord, don't let this hour become a habit.


Envisioned life, is me writing in quiet with coffee to a sunrise, greeting the kids with a smile as they wake hours after me.

Writing anyway at this hour, with four kids in four different directions appears to be real life.

for Five Minute Friday

Relevant

It's evolved to the point that I shudder when I hear the word, 'relevant'.  Which may not be fair.

Sadly, it's a word which has been somewhat abused in certain church circles.  I'm not even sure what the term means in relation to Christianity.  But I know what I've come to associate it with: the idea that the Bible is not relevant anymore on its own so God must rely on people of today to spice it up or water it down or (most of all) make it 'cool'.

That bugs me.  The Bible is as relevant today as it ever was.  I don't feel the need for youth pastors in today's fashions and Christian rock bands to convince me of this.  Furthermore, I don't believe the next generation needs to be convinced of its relevance by means of leaders who conform to the world's standards.

  I think we've been sold a lie and I think our intelligence has been underestimated.

I could probably go on for more than five minutes but it's Five Minute Friday so it's stop time.

What are your thoughts on this word?

Disclaimer: I understand that the term is used in many positive cases and in alliance with many positive causes and groups(like the Relevant conference which I so hope to go to someday); it's just that my immediate reaction always comes to how I've most often heard it.

Ordinary

Ordinary:

"I'm an ordinary woman with feelings"....That's the first thing that popped into my mind with this prompt. We just watched the movie Annie the other night.  Yup, still love that movie.  The quote is from Miss Hannigan's song, Little Girls.

Anyway, that was a bit random I guess.  Ordinarily, I would have more time to blog today but it has been a running day.  Oh, how I despise running days.  And now I'm rushed because I'm home for just a bit before I get to go out with friends I haven't seen in twenty years.  Wow.  I am getting old.  So, it will not be an ordinary Friday night for me.  Yay!  I'm excited.

Ordinarily, I become super stressed when rushed for time.  But I'm working on changing that.

The thing is, I'm a child of an extraordinary God who sees all these weaknesses, sees me running with like a chicken with my head chopped off and says, "I can work with that.  I can even work through that.  I can help you work through that so it's no longer the case."

Through the seasons and the changes, in the ordinary and the unusual, God remains constant.

Submitting at: skywatch Friday and

On Friends

On friends:

I've learned a lot about friendship in my life.  Nothing I could easily sum up, necessarily.  I've been surprised by friends in good ways and bad ways.  I've been without a lot of friends for a period which lasted far too long.

 Coming home to Arizona and reuniting with my friends after years of loneliness in Iowa was a gift from God.  While away I learned that Jesus is the friend who sticks closer than a brother.  He truly is.  But I also learned that females, especially, need relationship.  We need relationship with other women.  I can't tell you how much lighter I feel, encircled by a few close friends.  I have coffee friends and card friends. I have deep intellectual friendships and friends that crack me up.  And I need all of that.  At thirty-two, I am able to see the value in each of these women I give this title to.  I can see that they are God-ordained friendships, women to learn from and to share joys and burdens with.  Friendship is no small thing.  I am so grateful for the people God has chosen to place in my life.

Submitting at Lemon Rhodes, Beholding Glory and

Joy

I don't naturally trend toward joy.  Which is not to say that I'm melancholic all the time.  I'm just a person who may need to be reminded now and again that the glass is half full rather than half empty.  This is not easy to admit.

Source: d.yimg.com via Nicole on Pinterest

On,Wednesday, I had my day alone.  Before I blogged, I came across Sara's blog.  And then I couldn't write.  What could I say?  The new perspective silenced me.  I spent hours that day reading her thoughts, and the thoughts of others who spoke with love of how she'd impacted their lives.  I was moved and convicted.  Here was a girl who lived in incredible pain and yet with incredible joy.  And she never ceased to praise God.  She reminded us to praise.  Her testimony so beautiful, so enlightening and I know without a shadow of a doubt that God brought me to her story that day and again today so that I might be reminded that joy is a choice.  That God can give us supernaturally what we don't naturally possess.

Source: etsy.com via Nicole on Pinterest

Linking up at: skywatch Friday and

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Real Life and Escape

We've been here for three months now and real life is catching up to us.  I was just talking to a (real life) friend yesterday who also has recently moved cross country, though more recently.  She said she is in the surreal state of being which I remember from a few months back.  In a way, that state was a bit nicer.  Alas, we must come back to reality or we end up in the funny farm.

School has started for all, boxes are all finally unpacked, the house no longer has its vast, clean unlived in look, yes, wherever you go, there you are.  We fall of the cloud eventually after any big and welcome transition.  But real life is not so bad.  Real life means coffee dates in person with friends you can reach out and touch.  It means that though there is pain, there is real healing.  It is the only way we can really appreciate anything in this life.

Source: itsthesmallthingsblog.blogspot.com via Nicole on Pinterest

And I am also finding that it is so much easier to deal with when for a few moments each day, we take a break from it.  When we nourish the creative.  When we pray and allow God to handle our problems while we just bask in His presence.   Real life will be unmanageable unless we allow ourselves bits of time to escape.

Source: art.com via Nicole on Pinterest

Wow, how was that for rambling, unedited?  Linking up at creative every day, 5 minutes just for me, and