Cheer: Five Minute Friday

I have reason to CHEER this week and it's why I missed posting on "EXPECT" last week.
Here's the linkup at Kate's place!




My two older daughters chose to be baptized last weekend. Their faith is something I couldn't EXPECT from them, but dearly hoped and prayed for! You see, my life can only be an example-flawed at best-of what I want for my girls.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1sLkXTuFdUA

*Five minutes starts here*
I wrote a poem this week by hand and finished right at five minutes.

Cheer quenches fear
When you're overwhelmed
Just give God the helm
Of your storm-tossed ship
Let His righteousness strip
off your filthy covering
His Spirit hovering over us like He always has before Earth was formed
His plan was born.
He forgave us
and planned to save us
When life's end crossed Him
they thought they'd lost Him.
Such great disaster
Until the Master-
He spoke her name
A Holy flame-
A hope-filled spark
Inside her heart!
He rose from the dead
Just as He had said!
She ran off to tell
the group "It is well!"
"Jesus is here!
It's the reason I cheer!"

When I pass from the Earth,
His gaze gives me worth.
The love and the grace
I'll see on His face
will quench every fear-
He'll dry every tear;
and Heaven will Cheer!

~Tammy

Grow: Five Minute Friday

Kate's Twitter Party was a lot of fun this week. (Or so I heard) My daughters had their spring concert, so I was taking snapshots instead of typing. Here's the linkup to Five Minute Friday.
This week's prompt?

"Grow"

2011, my firstborn and her first year of pre-school just ahead of us. (And her sister)

Wow. That's not a hard prompt considering where I was tonight. My oldest daughter is finishing the third grade in a few weeks. My second born had her first grade contribution to the spring concert tonight. In two years, all three of my girls will be in the Elementary group. And then they'll start springing like butterflies into the whirlwind of middle and high school and flutter away from home.

I'm not the nostalgic, cling-to-each moment kind of mom. I admire and sometimes envy those moms. The ones whose children seem to have a special bond. They hold hands in the parking lot, the hallways, they're always hugging! I'm so practical and logical and, well, I'm a math teacher. I do have my fun, creative, artsy side. And I love to be hugged by my girls, but sometimes I don't remember to initiate.

My oldest and I joke about her height. She's finally taller than my armpit. (Hope that's not too visual for you, but she's not to my shoulders yet, so that's the next logical milemarker.)
I see them growing physically, but where I'm so ecstatic is in their spiritual growth!
Our older two girls have made the decision to get baptized at our church in two weeks. They are seven and almost nine! And they know what it means and their reasoning is that "they want other people to know they have Jesus in their hearts."

My parents decided that investing in their grandchildren was more praiseworthy than in the stock market. So, 4 1/2 years ago, they committed to helping us put our girls into private pre-school, which happened to be a K-12 school.
Between the school we're at and the church we're at, our girls have been discipled so well by so many who have a personal relationship with Jesus themselves! They believe what they teach and they model it in their own life.

This year I've had the privilege of coming on staff alongside these dear sisters and brothers in the faith. Truly, it's been the job of my dreams. The friendships I've formed have been eternal.

And grow? Wow. Put yourself in middle school again. You will grow. Hallelujah. God is continuing to work out my salvation! :)
I love my students. I love math. I love teaching math. And I especially love when I can come alongside them when they're hurting and pray over their situations and reassure them that they're not alone.

I hope to continue to see them grow into their calling. I feel like I'm home already. Heaven will be just that much better. Although, my students don't foresee Algebra as Heaven.

This was a recent trip to an old-fashioned malt shop. My youngest was just months old when the upper picture was taken.

-Tammy

Miss: Five Minute Friday

Kate's linkup is live. I again missed the Twitter party, but there were so many other things I didn't want to miss, that I couldn't do it all.

Which leads me to our prompt:

Miss.

Since I wrote about pass and fail last week, missing the mark would have been a natural follow-up. I'm not going there. Truly, my friend Andrew from the FMF community came to mind immediately with the post, because I know someday he will be missing from the linkup. And I will miss him.

And you know, miss is a negative. It represents an absence, or even something that once was, but is no more. (Can you hear my math teaching coming through?)
When we were made, we had a hole. And we spend our entire lives trying to fill it.
We know we're missing something.
Some of us are better at filling that void than others.

The example of daily manna in the desert, though, is where I'm taking us.

" Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
(Exodus 16:4-5)


If we miss gathering our strength for the day, it's evident by the end of the day. This is not a legalistic mandate to "do devotions", but an invitation from God. We're invited to spend time with Him daily. He wants to bless us. He doesn't want us to face the day without Him.
He doesn't want us to miss out on what He's got for us.

Instead of looking at time with God as an obligation, look at it as an invitation. Something you don't want to miss.
Miss could represent a yearning or a desire for something you don't have.

I know God misses me when He doesn't get time with me. He loves me, and desires good things for me. (Parable about rocks and bread and fish and snakes, anybody?)

**So, I was in and out of my typing because I was not at home and had people needing my attention. Please forgive me if I actually took more than five minutes.**


~Tammy
P.S.
I don't have comment luv or bloglovin or wordpress, so if you tell me your linkup number, I can then read your delightful post and leave you the same gratification of commenting that you have given me. :)