Hey there!

Happy end of the week to you!

So glad to have you here for another round of Five Minute Friday.

If you’re new to the scene, find out what we’re all about over here!

Before we get started, two things:

First, have you seen the awesome posts and conversation going on in the comments section of our On Being a Writer discussion group?

So far we’ve covered chapters 1 and 2, but it’s not too late to join in! The more, the merrier!

Find more details here.

In the first post, we chatted about how we identify ourselves in our writing lives. In chapter two, we discuss how we arrange our lives (time and space) to accommodate for our writing.

It’s been so much fun to see like-minded individuals from across the blogosphere linking arms and encouraging one another!

 

Secondly, I can’t believe it, but it’s almost time for another round of 31 Days!

Every October, a TON of bloggers accept the challenge and commit to posting on their blogs every day for 31 days. It’s super scary and super overwhelming and super fun. Lots of supers.

Last year, for the first time, I hosted a special twist to the 31 Days shenanigans — a bunch of us did 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes and wrote all of our 31 Days posts in just five minutes or less.

It was like a month-long FMF party!

I provided prompts in advance for anyone who wanted to use them.

For a glimpse into last year’s fun, click here.

A few of you have already asked if I’m planning to do it again this year, and the answer is YES!

This year, I’ll be doing Reader’s Choice prompts, which means YOU will have a chance to VOTE for the prompts you want to write on!

More details will be coming in the next few weeks. Voting will start on September 1st, and I’ll announce the prompts on September 15th for those who like to plan and write ahead.

Go ahead and subscribe to this blog in the sidebar if you don’t already, to make sure you don’t miss out!

 

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This week I want you to give me five minutes on the prompt:

 

 

[Tweet “We’re #writing on the prompt, FIND. Come join us?”]

Setting my timer, and … GO.

 

I thought I lost it.

My mom didn’t like to have her picture taken. She was usually the one behind the camera, not in front of it.

But this was one of my favorite photos of her — captured when she came to Cape Town for the birth of my son, her second grandchild.

She’s holding him and the sparkle of happiness just radiates from her eyes.

Less than a handful of weeks after the photo was snapped, we learned that her cancer was back.

She died four years later.

I kept this treasured photograph tucked in the back cover of my Bible. It was my only copy, and I kept telling myself to scan it into my computer.

I would, someday. It was safe in my Bible.

Until one day, I opened the back cover, and it wasn’t there.

I was devastated.

I knew the picture had no material value, but to me, it was precious.

I almost cried. Over a photograph.

That was several months ago.

This past week, I was cleaning off a bookshelf, and opened a recent journal.

Out fell the lost treasure.

 

 

I couldn’t believe it.

I thought of those parables in the Bible about the lost coin and the lost sheep, and how the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. I thought about the raw, unadulterated joy described when those treasures were found.

I thought about how Jesus came to seek and to save what was lost, and how even now, He’s on a mission to find us and turn our hearts toward Him. I thought about the angels rejoicing in glory every time a sinner repents.

I thought about how valuable this one photo is to me, though it has no earthly, material worth — and how much more valuable we are in the sight of God.

My favorite photo was once lost, but now is found.

And so was I.

STOP.

[Tweet “I once was lost, but now am found. “]

 

Give us your own five minutes of unedited free writing on the prompt, FIND, by sharing your post below; then visit your link-up neighbor to read and leave some comment love!