You guys! This is the final Five Minute Friday link-up of 2014! The grand finale! Can you believe it?
We’ll be taking a two week break during the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s, but we’ll be back and ready to write the week of January 8th.
I just want to take this opportunity to thank all of you again for so graciously and warmly welcoming me as your new Five Minute Friday host in August this year. Believe me, I was just as disappointed as you were when I heard that Lisa-Jo was passing the baton … yet I’m so grateful that the transition went as smoothly as possible, and that we still have a place to link up, read each other’s words and encourage one another in this crazy flash writing fun!
I really do adore this community and the way you all care for each other so well! You’re my favorite part of the internet, and I so look forward to Thursday nights and Fridays. Thank YOU for making it so great!
If you’re newish here, you’ll definitely want to check out our Facebook page, and also the Twitter party, which happens on Thursday evenings around 8:30pm EST, at the hashtag #fmfparty. And for those of you on Pinterest, you can follow along here.
I’d also love to invite you to a special edition link up right here on this blog starting Monday, December 22nd. It’s a Letters to Grief Link Up, in conjunction with the recent release of my e-book, Letters to Grief.
The topic is:
If you were to write a letter to grief, what would you say?
What you have to do:
[Tweet “Special link up! Write a letter to grief and share it on December 22nd!”]
Write a letter to grief on your own blog by December 22nd, then come and link-up your post. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to leave your letter to grief in the comments section on December 22nd.
Letters can be as long or as short as you’d like. Most of the letters I included in my e-book are between 250-450 words long.
One entrant will be featured on my blog on Monday, January 5th.
Please spread the word! If you know someone who is struggling with grief, especially around the holidays, writing a letter to grief can be a very therapeutic exercise, even if they choose not to share what they write.
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For the final Five Minute Friday prompt of 2014, the word is:
Ready? GO.
Sometimes we come to You as if You’re a jolly old grandpa in the sky, with a long, white beard and rosy cheeks, and a twinkle in Your eye. We come to You as if you have a round belly that jiggles like a bowl full of jelly, and we get on our knees and rattle off all the items on our wish lists, fully expecting that You’ll drop our requests down the chimney the next time You pass by.
We kneel there with our eyes closed, waiting, and reciting as politely as possible, “Please give me this, and this, and this.”
And if You don’t grant our every desire, we think maybe we were too naughty this year, or just not nice enough. Or maybe You’re not as kind as the pictures of You in Your sleigh make You out to be …
But we keep up the same routine anyway, and try a little harder next time, and act a little nicer, hoping to rack up enough bonus points to get Your attention and get in Your good books.
And we don’t realize, or maybe we just forget, that You’re not looking for our deeds or our lists.
[Tweet “It’s our hearts that You want. Pure and simple.”]
Then in Your mercy, You open our eyes and help us to say, “Come, let us adore Him.”
STOP.
In light of the prompt, this is what’s playing at my house this Christmas:
Thank you all for joining Five Minute Friday this year! Praying that each and every one of you has a blessed Christmas as we seek to adore the one, true King.
See you back here in 2015, Lord willing!
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So true…We treat our Creator as a wish-granter, and not the God who knows all and created all. Who gives all we need, and far more. And we ask for so many things, but God knows exactly how to give us what we need, exactly when we need it. Regardless of what we deserve.
We need to learn how to adore Him and His glorious power, not to expect Him to grant our wishes.
You are hitting home with this post, Kate! It’s so easy to fall into that view of our Father. But I’m prayerful that I will remain in the state of adoration that this season often brings. Thanks for hosting and have a very Merry Christmas!
Oh, I love Toby Mac! We were rocking out to his music tonight with some students (my husband mentors a couple of young men and they come over for supper and rowdy Christian music once a week). Have a joyous Christmas and a happy New Year! Thank you for all you do to keep FMF alive and well!
I’ll echo what Anita said – your work in keeping FMF going is very, very valuable. Thank you.
I never thought of God as the kindly old man, just itching to grant wishes. Life experiences left no doubt of His existence, but He seems closer in personality to a rather ruthless Brigadier who will not hesitate to expend the lives of His men to take a vital hill.
And when the enemy has been routed, goes into the HQ tent, alone, to weep.
I hope I have not sounded disrespectful, but this was, after all, a reflection of what happened to 11 of the Apostles; and the fate of John may have been the more cruel.
As you say, He’s not looking at our deeds.
He is looking for our presence, and our obedience to orders.
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, Kate, and that the birth of the New Year finds your life coloured by Joy, with the chiaroscuro of Grace.
And I may be just a touch jealous. Christmas in summer. That is how it’s supposed to be.
Happy Christmas Kate, and thanks for all your hard work this year. I’ve enjoyed your Five Minute Fridays and reading some of the posts in your Life in South Africa series. Still hoping to visit Cape Town one day.
The last one of the year?? sigh…I am so behind and failing at this. (and it’s still friday as I type this. Just never sure where to post. ) memo to self-perhaps during ‘break’ i can set up a blog? 🙂 Adoration…He bids us ‘come’…and yet we are reluctant. Letting life just happen and life just pass with no time to simply spend at His feet Adoring. sigh…No answers, no remedies…but i hunger for that. To adore. to just be Mary at His feet…
People try to make it hard. To Adore the One that gave you Life ever lasting. So easy….just ‘come’ to Him, as you are, battered, bruised, weary and worn…and adore. and be still. Too often other things take His place. Maybe not that we adore those things, but enough to take the time away. and yet he still bids us…to come to Him. Oh how I adore this season, usually, How i want to teach my children to also adore Him. Speaking life into them. Letting Him speak life into them as well. Still wanting this season to NOT pass without doing some serious adoration time. Still not too late right? Always time.
Thank you Kate for taking this on. So blessed to have met you. Maybe I can sit at your feet and see how it’s all done. 🙂 Blessings on you these next two weeks my dear. Looking forward to many more #Five Minute Friday’s. 🙂
What a great thought! I wonder why we tend to think of God in that way. I am reminded often of the God in the Bible, who led His people into battle and war. You’re right: He desires our hearts. What a fantastic reminder just before Christmas! Thank you!