Break: Five Minute Friday

Every Friday, we receive a prompt, we sit, we reflect, and then we type without stopping for five minutes. We don't re-write, we simply reveal what is within us, and then we link up with others who have taken those five minutes to share.
We then take five minutes to visit those other posts and leave feedback, and that is the #fmfparty community I've joined this year. What a blessing and encouragement!
Here is this week's link-up.

Break.

It's spring break.

I needed a break, and I took one. I just returned from visiting family 400 miles away. I took our minivan and three girls across the state line to Grandpa and Grandma's house. It had been four months. That was too long, and yet there wasn't any way to go sooner.

Still, I've been restless. I had lots of breaks and the restlessness never completely left. Do you know what really needed to break? Me.

I needed to break down and realize that I am never enough to fill up my emptiness and yet to take the time to stop, get off the dizzy cycle and take the time it needs to press in and be filled-that was the break I needed.

Face-break, not checking Instagram, not seeking affirmation in the virtual world, but stopping and turning the rustling pages of ancient words that are still alive and life-breathing.

To stop, inhale, and appreciate the very breath I've been given-that is the break I needed.
Today I did it. I took a break and fervently asked for that sweet Holy Spirit to come in and fill and overwhelm and overflow that empty heart of mine. And? He did.
My day was the same as it would have been, but within my heart was a peace and contentment that I needed to revisit and revive me.

Are your songs lacking substance? The words hollow and empty? Perhaps you, too, need a break. Stop the rush, stop the busy, stop the texts and notifications and sneak off quietly and take a break and let the water rush over you and flow into you and through you and then you can pour life out to those other thirsting souls you are connected to!

God longs to fill us-to give us a "break". Come to me, all you who are weary and I will give you rest.

~Tammy

Real: Five Minute Friday

I have not been able to participate the last two Fridays, and I have really missed it. One week I was busy with my girls at home for a four day weekend and they were more important than sitting at the computer writing. The next week I just had a lot going on at their school. I really had to let go of my guilt at not writing...there is no pressure to participate!

If you haven't tried out Five Minute Friday yet, visit katemotaung.com and find out what it is and what we do! :)

What does real mean? It means genuine, sincere, and has a lot to do with why I began "blogging" in 2011. Romans 12:9 was my inspiration. "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil. Cling to what is good." I've striven to be transparent as I write, no pretense of perfection, but willing to share my experiences in order to bring hope to others.

As I've met other brave women at the BraveGirl Community and at Unveiled Wife, I've realized that being real is being authentic. Jesus was and is God. He never apologized for who He was. He was Holy. Neither should we be anything less than real as we gather together in community. I love Jennifer Smith over at Unveiled Wife, who recently released her book. BraveGirl is giving away three copies through March 31st, so here's a link for that. Giveaway!!
But, her entire ministry, the message of Unveiled Wife, is based on 2 Corinthians 3:16-18, “Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (NIV)

I'm a regular blood donor...one way of giving back for all that I've been given.

Real means I see you through the eyes of the One who has forgiven me everything and who has extended that same redemption to you. I see His masterpiece, a human working to accept fully the love and forgiveness of a Mighty Savior. When we have truly received His Holy Spirit in every place in our lives, I believe He can then say "it is finished" and welcome us home.

Our struggles are real, our disappointments are real, and so are our triumphs and joys. Let us therefore strive to be completely real with each other and throw aside the outer shell that only Hollywood and marketers see and focus on. For the man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

Thank you for visiting today. I hope to extend love and grace to you through these short words.

Visit: Five Minute Friday

Today's five minute prompt is the word "Visit". Here's the link-up over at Kate Motaung's website.

My husband and I met in the summer of 2003. I came out to visit my best friend from grade school and the job she'd set me up with promised to pay for my last year of college.
I never got to go on a call, but I met my best friend for life and we did a short-distance summer dating before I drove the 1,000 miles back to my college.
During our long-distance separation and many phone calls and letters, he gained my trust and won my heart, asked my dad's blessing, and proposed over the phone.
He came out then, for a visit, at Christmas. I did not know he'd secured my engagement ring, as he'd told me a tall tale about not having the resources until Spring Break.

So, the word visit, to me, has always been bittersweet. It's always temporary, and though wonderful, the parting is awful.

My parents live in another state, about 400 miles away, and we love to visit, but the times between visits are long.

I hope that my relationship with Christ is not at visitor status. I don't want Him to simply pop in for a "visit" from time to time when I need a friend or encouragement, but that He would be a permanent member of my family. That He would be a fixture in my house.
I don't ever want to be saying goodbye to my One and Only Savior.

If He lives here all the time, I am not putting on a show of a clean house to impress Him, but rather, letting Him experience the clean and the messy, the great and the awful, and knowing that He loves me through all of it. I am raw, real, and sincere. There is no pretense of anything, but the deep, undying love of my Jesus.

~Tammy