Oh my goodness, there are so many exciting things packed into this post, I can hardly contain myself.
First of all, WELCOME! Have I told you lately that I love you? (Did you just hear Rod Stewart singing that to you?)
Seriously. I do. Some of you were not impressed by my choice of prompt last week, but you bit the bullet, took on the challenge, and you wrote.
And I was so impressed.
(I knew you could do it, by the way. Even if you didn’t think you could. I never doubted. You guys are amazing.)
If you’re new here, then an extra special welcome to you!
Click here for more info on what Five Minute Friday is all about — but be careful — most fall in love at first sight. We hope this is the first of many visits to this fabulous community.
Click [Tweet “Click here to learn more about Five Minute Friday!”]
While you’re at it, go ahead and follow along on Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest — and don’t miss the Twitter party every Thursday evening at #fmfparty!
And you’re DEFINITELY not going to want to miss #fmfparty next Thursday, because …
The FMF Retreat Planning committee will be coming at you LIVE from the retreat venue!
Follow Holly Barrett, Mary Geisen, Jen Daugherty and me if you want to catch us live on August 6th from 8:45-9:30pm EST!
[Tweet “LIVE VIDEO CHAT, Aug. 6th, 8:45-9:30pm EST from the #FMFRetreat! #fmfparty”]
Speaking of the retreat, did you catch the guest posts from our retreat sponsors this week?
I loved reading the heartfelt words from Dan King at Fistbump Media and Amy Breitmann from ViBella Jewelry.
Dan shared the heart behind Fistbump Media, and how his passion is helping people like you and me get our voices out there, to be a blessing to others.
Amy shared about her recent trip to Haiti with ViBella Jewelry, and how she loves telling beautiful stories.
AND (!!!) ViBella is hosting a GIVEAWAY!! Click here to enter to win the beautiful ViBella necklace below!
[Tweet “Enter to win a necklace from @ViBellaJewelry!”]
WIN ME!
And psst … one more thing — as your friend, I feel it’s my duty to tell you that Dayspring is having a crazy good SECRET SALE!
Sshhh .. don’t tell anyone — just click over and snag all the goodies before they’re gone!
Okay … I don’t know if I can write after all that excitement, but I’ll give it a shot.
This week’s Five Minute Friday prompt is:
Setting my timer for five minutes, and …
GO.
My kids had their second belt test in karate this week.
In this particular karate school, in order to advance to the next belt, students have to break a board.
One of the visiting instructors took a moment to explain to the parents why they include this element in the test:
“It’s a confidence builder,” he said.
“You’re going to face many obstacles in life that need to be overcome.
Nobody thinks they can break a board the first try.
And you know what? That’s fine. It doesn’t have to break on the first try.
But you have to keep trying.
You’re in a fight with a board, and you can’t let it defeat you. It doesn’t matter how many attempts you make — you just have to keep going.”
I don’t know about the kids, but I was motivated by his speech.
How true his words were for all of life. [Tweet “It doesn’t matter how many times you try; it matters that you keep trying.”]
It’s like the old adage, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get tired of trying.
Tired of trying to check all the things off my To Do List. Tired of trying to defeat the same sin in my life. Tired of breaking up the same arguments between siblings.
Like I’m pounding the same fist on the same board and the wood just won’t break.
The difference for us, as Christians, is that we have a secret weapon.
We aren’t laboring in our own strength.
[Tweet “”I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).”]
If Christ is in us, we have His strength, His energy at work in us.
He is the reason we can do what we do.
“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13b-14).
He is the reason we overcome.
STOP.
Don’t forget to enter the ViBella Jewelry giveaway before you link up your own blog post below!
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I’m so excited for you retreat girls. I can already hear the squeals of excitement when you finally get to wrap arms around each other. And … that DaySpring $5 sale is so fantastic. Snatched up some fun stuff. Of course, the most important, your words – so grateful that we don’t move forward in our own strength, that God gives us the courage and the desire to keep trying for Him, with Him. Thanks for all you do!
I totally heard Rod Stewart in my head!! 😉 So delighted to be back to writing and hopefully blogging long term! Thankful for these little prompts to keep me going!! (I just have too keep trying)