Five Minute Friday: On Forgetting

Yeah! It is Friday and a four day weekend for my household!

Join me in writing for five minutes flat, unedited and then link your post up at Gypsy Mama, the host of Five Minute Friday.

GO

“To forgive and forget”.

The Bible says we need to forgive. What about forgetting? I always thought I could forgive, but should never forget. If I forgot it would be like leaving the door open to allow the same pain and hurt to enter my heart again or I would allow someone to disappoint me again. Of course, it will happen again. We are flesh and we all have a deceitful heart!

To forget enables us to move on from whatever hurt us. We can never truly erase it completely from our minds, but we can move forward and not let the very thing we forgave hold us back.

STOP

Do You See It?

My brain is on overdrive and not from stress or worry. Something is happening. My heart, soul and brain are connecting and the wheels and the gears are spinning, sparking and spinning ever so quickly. My whole being has been consumed with overwhelming thankfulness, thankfulness for what I have and not on my lack of.

When we put our focus on what we already have it opens our eyes and our hearts and we can’t help but to be thankful.

It is all around me. It’s surrounding you.

It’s God’s grace. It’s His love.  

Do you see it?

It’s God’s beauty. His awesome hand at work; the clouds, blue skies, blooming flowers, birds chirping, cats yawning, children laughing.

Do you see it?

It’s an afternoon thunderstorm, a baby cry, a closed door that opens a new opportunity, a broken heart that is restored.

Do you see it?

It’s a forgiving spirit, a lost love, a stranger’s smile, sibling rivalry, friendships.  It’s even the stink bugs that have infested my house.

I see it and I am thankful.

Have a blessed day!

Precious Moments

This afternoon my two year old reached for me to pick him up. He laid his head on my shoulder and I stopped to savor this moment because it felt too good not to. I rocked him and gently squeezed him. I told him how much I love him and how wonderful it felt for his head to be nestled on my shoulder snuggled into my neck. I could stay like that forever! He looked at us in the mirror and I could see him smiling. He made those little noises confirming he was enjoying this moment just as much as I was. It made me wonder how often do I miss these moments?  These wonderful gifts! Gifts of time and love and joy.  As I held my son, I thanked God. How could I not? He is the one who gave me this gift I was holding. He is the one who made this day. He already knew this moment was going to happen before it did.

These precious moments come and go and more times than not we don’t even realize the true gift of them until they have vanished. Gone. A moment of time we can never get back. Never to undo. We are too busy. Too busy to slow down and smell the roses, per say.  We let the busyness of life control us; our schedules, text messages, emails, and appointments. We conform to this world, we get caught up in the twister of life, swept away and moving so fast it is sometimes hard to land on our feet. We are too busy to see the beauty of precious moments and it is so very sad.

Did God create us to be so busy? To run around with not one single minute to spare during the week and only rest on Sunday? Even then, we don’t truly rest on Sunday. In this fast paced world stores are still open, people need to work. Or we are doing the things on Sunday we couldn’t get to during the week. Some of us even use Sunday’s to get ahead for the upcoming week. When do we rest?

I know I have a very hard time resting. I rest my best right before I go to bed. I can’t even say I truly rest when I’m sleeping. I wake up numerous times during the night either on my own or when, one by one my children make their way to my room. Even then, I acknowledge these precious moments. Many might not agree how special they are, but I believe so. I pull them close and fall back to sleep. These middle of the night visits are precious to me because children are only small for a short period of time. These snuggling moments will pass too soon. Gone. A moment we can never get back.

Have a blessed day!

Their Hearts Desire

Every time we go to the fish market, my five year old always wants to buy a whole fish. He says I want a fish with eyes. I don’t really know how to fillet a fish so needless to say, we have never come home with a fish with eyes, well…not until yesterday.

The guy behind the counter waited patiently while my son looked at all the whole fish. Meanwhile, in my head I was thinking I don’t think so and tried to concentrate on which fish we would have for dinner that night. I chose Tilapia, nicely cleaned and cut up in fillets. On the other hand, my son was so determined on picking out a whole fish he even told the guy behind the counter, “I want a fish with eyes!” The guy just smiled. My son finally made his decision. He wanted to take home the red snapper. I looked at the guy and said, “Okay, we will take one snapper too. Hopefully, this will end his fascination with buying a whole fish with eyes!” As the guy was wrapping our fish my son spoke of which whole fish we were going to bring home next time. The guy handed me our fish and said, “I don’t think this will be the end of his fascination!” My son carried that fish around the entire time we were in the store.

As we drove home I thought how am I going to cook this fish? I don’t even have a fillet knife and now I have two kinds of fresh fish. We are going to be eating fish all week!  When we got home, he had to see and touch the fish. I told him to wash his hands and he could hold the fish. His excitement was so genuine and so innocent! As a parent I often have to remind myself that these things are new to my children. Whatever they may be, I need to let them experience these new things. To satisfy the desire of their hearts and to experience something new makes my heart smile. He carried that fish throughout the house until the cat got a whiff of it! LOL! We just laughed.

As I looked at the fish now on the table with knife in hand deciding on how I was going to fillet this thing, I looked over at my son and the look of horror on his face stopped me. At that moment, I decided we were going to cook it whole. So that is what we did and the boys loved it. Success! I think the next time we go to the fish market; we just might come home with another fish with eyes!

 Have a blessed day!

Five Minute Friday: When Seasons Change

Yeah! It's Friday!

Join me in writing for five minutes flat, unedited and then link your post up at Gypsy Mama, the host of Five Minute Friday.



When Seasons Change…

GO

New growth peeking through the soil somewhat looks grotesque until the stems grow longer and the flowers burst forth beautiful color.

I love that I live on the east coast where we experience the four seasons.  But, when I think of seasons I don’t necessarily always think of nature evolving and the weather changing.

We as humans go through personal seasons of change as well.  As Christians we are to die to ourselves daily. We are reborn, changed and made new in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah! As we continually trust God and walk in His will for our lives we allow Him to mold us and transform us into who He made us to be.

As a single mom, I am in a season. My two year old who doesn’t want to wear anything, but his “soft pants” or pajamas is in a season, at least I hope so!

Seasons of change are good and necessary and sometimes inevitable.

STOP

Ok, now it's your turn. I would love to see what you write!

Have a blessed day!

From My Heart

I haven’t blogged in the last couple weeks and it’s not because I don’t want to. When I write it comes from my heart and honestly I have had so much on my mind, sorting through my own thoughts I feel as if I’m not mentally organized to write about anything.

I started my blog because I really wanted to share my thoughts, my faith-walk, and my experiences as a single mom to encourage others. Perhaps, it is also a tool to psychologically help me. I truly surprised myself that I would even start a blog. I always had a hard time writing in school and always wanted to be able to write so easily, to just write what I’m thinking. I tried keeping a journal many times because it mentally helped me through tough times. There is something about putting things on paper even if I don’t share them with anyone. It makes me feel better. I have even penned my feelings about a recent situation then while praying to God ripped it up giving it all to Him. If anybody has never tried that before I recommend it! It truly works!

If anybody is reading this I’m sure at this point you are asking yourself, “Where is she going with this?” Truthfully, I’m not quite sure, but I feel the need to write and it seems quite apparent my thoughts are all over the place, exactly what I said earlier about not being mentally organized!

I think there comes a time in our lives when we reflect on our life journey. How did we get here? Or maybe not even the how, but WOW! Look at who I once was compared to who I am today! Well, that is exactly what I have been doing lately.

I know God sees the whole picture. He created us and He knows our past, present and future and that is why we should completely trust Him. For me to try to figure out where is He taking me and what does it all mean seems somewhat absurd, but lately I just can’t help myself. I have been so overwhelmed with gratitude for what God has done in my life. How He took my sin and turned it around for good. How He continually transforms me and molds me to be the person He made me to be. I am so happy I have been made new and I’m not that person I used to be.  I am so happy I gave my life to God. I am so ever thankful for His love!

Have a blessed day!

No Trial Too Small

We all have our trials, some much bigger than others, but we all have them. I used to think what I read in the Bible didn't apply to me. Not that I didn't have trials, I surely do. I just felt my trials were too insignificant, too small to bother God with. It's not that I didn't know God loves me. I know he does. I was just one of those people who didn't want to burden anyone else. As I single mom I would try to figure out a way to do things on my own and so I wouldn't ask for help.


I have since learned that no trial is too small. God loves me and he is here for me and I am His beloved. His Word is for all His children, not written or spoken for a select few, but all! As I continue to read the Bible and learn to trust Him more and more with my life and my children's lives He is confirming this all the time.


This verse recently jumped out and grabbed a hold of me like a big bear hug!

"He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding  them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young."

Isaiah 40:11

Thank you Jesus!

Have a blessed day,