Thursday, October 13, 2016

Mail: Five Minute Friday

It's been a month since I've been able to write a post for Five Minute Friday. No coincidence that the first day of school was that Wednesday and I wrote that Thursday.
Here's the link to Kate's page for the FMF fun. I hope you'll read other posts. Each person's take on the prompt is so unique and wonderful!

Go!

After a month of silence in the writing of posts, I have too many thoughts in my head to settle down tonight. The prompt is MAIL. Well, last week I received the Five Minute Friday compilation that was gathered by Susan Shipe in the MAIL on my 35th birthday!!
Happy 35th Birthday to me!!!!
 To tell you that I was a little excited is an understatement. My love language, words of affirmation, and my inability to retain much in my long term memory due to so much being task managed in my short term memory leads to me being a "keeper".

I keep papers. Birthday cards, love letters from the long-distance year of my husband and I in our dating/engagement period are all tucked into shoe boxes.
I have notes from my sisters, my mom, students, all encouraging me.
I love to encourage others. I love to send surprises in the MAIL. It's hard to surprise a person without their address, however, so I have to spoil it a bit for some of my online friends.

The anticipation can make the delivery that much greater.
This weekend I attended our women's retreat and served as the musician for our worship leader. It was challenging with a malfunctioning keyboard and a backup guitar which I had to rely on. (I've played piano since 1990 but only began guitar in 2000 to play worship songs.)
I'm pretty comfortable either way, but it's God who was in control.
The Fabulous Five. Worship team is incomplete without sound and video, and our team had both!

These dear sisters were my cabin mates. We are aspiring to restore our souls monthly in a group for worship time!

And? You know the "you've got MAIL" icon from our early internet days?
That's what God has for us daily!
He has an invitation for us. To come and worship at His feet.
That is what has been missing from my daily life. I'm praying, reading my Bible, teaching in a Christian school, but I was missing worship time.
And now that I've seen it, and He's shown me where I can carve out just ten minutes before my other tasks (after my first class), I am so delighted to be with Him!

*timer has gone off*

If you comment and it takes me almost a week to get back to you, please know I am not trying to ignore you. I have so little time with my family now that the weekends are pretty precious family time. I will try to respond on Mondays!!
Also, if you don't tell me your linkup number or your url, I may not be able to find your post on the prompt. Could you pretty please tell me one of those as well?

Love,
Tammy

18 comments:

  1. Just delighted to see you here again, Tammy! Your words are always a lift to the heart.

    I keep papers, too. Some stuff I can't bring myself to throw away.

    Love the pictures - such a cheerful posse!

    #1 at FMF this week.

    http://blessed-are-the-pure-of-heart.blogspot.com/2016/10/your-dying-spouse-219-rooster-fmf.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Andrew,
      I've wanted to post. Every week I'm there, catching up on the Twitter chatter and seeing the prompt and reading a few, but I'm barely able to comment on the ones I read.
      My reading time is nil compared to this summer. Full-time teaching and my other tasks leave no time for reading.
      So grateful for your acknowledgement tonight!
      Love,
      Tammy

      Delete
  2. Hey, Tammy! Your retreat sounds fabulous. It's hard to not spoil it for online friends. (I'm always asking for addresses too!) Love how you have kept your love story in a shoebox. That will be both remembrance and legacy. Happy happy birthday!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Christina!
      :) So thankful for kindred spirits in the FMF Community!
      Can't wait to read your post.
      Love,
      Tammy

      Delete
  3. "God has an invitation. For us to come and worship at his feet." Love this! It's an invitation that never runs out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bonnie,
      thank you!I can't help but share the joy I'm finding. :)
      Love,
      Tammy

      Delete
  4. We must be soul sisters! "I love to encourage others. I love to send surprises in the MAIL" Me too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :) We are DEFINITELY soul sisters. That's why you give me that warm fuzzy feeling all the way across the United States!
      Guess I need to get your address from somebody else so I can surprise you. ;)
      Love,
      Tammy

      Delete
  5. Tammy, what a great post! I've missed your words, my sister-friend. I hadn't thought about worship being "mail" before. Love that!My spirit has been missing that too. I am challenged to become more intentional about carving out time for worship in my days.

    Oh, and like you, I find it very hard to throw letters, cards, papers away. I'm great at purging other things. But these? I can only rarely do it. :) Love that we have that in common. ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jeanne,
      I'm hugging you! :) So glad your spirit can be lifted too. I'm going to have to get your address and send some love to Colorado soon.
      Love,
      Tammy

      Delete
  6. Yay!! Welcome back!! How special that you were able to receive your mail and make those adjustments to spend time in worship as prompted!

    Stopping by from FMF #11 ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :) Thank you Kadie! I'll be sure to check out your post. It was a blessed time indeed.
      Love,
      Tammy

      Delete
  7. Tammy, so glad you were able to write for #fmf again. How timely to receive the book on your birthday! :) I used to keep all the letters and cards I received, and maybe I'll start doing it again. It is a blessing to have them available to go back to over and over again.

    May God bless you as you continue to bless others with your words. You have a gift of encouragement! I'm #8 at the #FiveMinuteFriday linkup.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :) Thank you Gayl!
      So good to be encouraged by you as well.
      I'm looking forward to reading your post.
      Love,
      Tammy

      Delete
  8. Welcome back- I've missed you! Hope you had a lovely birthday. Good timing for the book arriving- I was excited to receive my copy too!
    I also keep cards and letters etc. They're lovely to look back on.
    I'm not posting for FMF this week though I'm posting every day for Write 31 Days but I saw your post and thought I'd come and say hello!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lesley,
      oh you treasure, you. Thanks for stopping by! I miss you. Bravo on write 31 Days. Now that I'm teaching full-time, it's going to be a summer dream. Perhaps a July write would work for me-or August. :D
      Love,
      Tammy

      Delete
  9. Hi Tammy. I'm new at ftf and I love your description of mail from God. An open invitation that is new every morning. Amen! I'm #35 on the fmf party list.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gina,
      welcome! This is such a warm, friendly place. I have made so many eternal friends here. And it seems we're always in a lineup with people around us who benefit from our writing and we theirs. Looking forward to coming over and visiting you as well!
      Love,
      Tammy

      Delete