Is this month absolutely FLYING by for anyone else, or is it just me? Sheesh!
For those doing Write 31 Days, how’s it going? The finish line is in sight! You can do it!
Need to get caught up on 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes? No problem, just click here.
And if you’re new to the Five Minute Friday scene, welcome! We LOVE us some newcomers!
The gist of this fabulous community is this: We write. For five minutes flat. No backtracking, no editing, just write.
Then strap on your brave, post your words on your blog, link them up over here — then click around to visit the others! Have fun reading the posts linked up before yours, and be sure to leave some encouragement in the comments section.
That’s it!
I dare you to try it. If you don’t love it, I’ll give you your money back. Guaranteed.
We even have some limited edition Five Minute Friday tote bags!
Time is running out to snag yours! Orders will be accepted through October 31st. Bags will ship by November 30th.
Click the “Buy Now” button below to place your order!
[Tweet “Time is running out to order your Five Minute Friday tote bag!”]
Also, don’t forget to enter to win a $500 shopping spree from Dayspring.com — thanks to Crystal Stine of the Write 31 Days community!
DaySpring.com is celebrating all of the amazing Write 31 Days readers who are supporting nearly 2,000 writers this October! To enter to win a $500 DaySpring shopping spree, just click on this link & follow the giveaway widget instructions.
For the month of October, the Five Minute Friday prompts are the top five words chosen in our 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes Readers’ Choice Awards.
The prompt this week is:
[Tweet “We’re #writing about JOY for Five Minute Friday this week … Join us? “]
Ready? GO.
In my freshman year of college, I shared a dorm room with my best friend from high school. In the afternoons, I worked for my roommate’s dad in a local church office.
At some point, my best friend and her dad decided I needed a nickname.
They brainstormed for a while, and after several failed attempts, my friend’s dad announced:
“I’ve got it. I’m going to call you Joy.”
He was a spiritual father figure to me, and wrote me this sweet note about how he prayed that I would grow into my new nickname, and truly experience the joy of the Lord as my strength.
Looking back, I see now that he didn’t choose to call me Joy because I was overflowing with that particular fruit of the Spirit.
On the contrary, it was an area in which I desperately needed to grow.
It had been a heavy year, and I was feeling the weight of many pending decisions about my future.
He didn’t call me Joy because I had arrived; he called me Joy in hopes that I would grow into it.
The thing is, we can’t go wrong with joy.
[Tweet “We can’t go wrong with joy.”]
I used to think joy was a bubbly, giddy emotion. Over the years, I’ve come to realize it’s much deeper than that.
It’s a deep-seated satisfaction. A contentment. A confidence that because of Christ and not my circumstances, it is well with my soul.
[Tweet “It is well with my soul because of Christ, not my circumstances.”]
May you, too, experience the joy of the Lord as your strength.
[Tweet “”The joy of the Lord is your strength.” ~ Nehemiah 8:10″]
[Tweet “Have you taken @AnnVoskamp’s Joy Dare? http://www.aholyexperience.com/joy-dares/”]
Thanks for joining the fun this week! Hope you have a blessed weekend, filled with much joy!
[Tweet “Come link up your own five minutes of free writing on the prompt, JOY! “]
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Beautiful post and encouragement, Kate! We were on the same path tonight! 🙂
Kate,
I was so happy with your prompt. This is my oneword365 this year. And, I think you DO bring joy. So thankful you have found that it is well with your soul. Joy really IS an internal strength! (And she’s a cute pixar character too…see my picture!)
Love,
Tammy
I just love this part:
“It’s a deep-seated satisfaction. A contentment. A confidence that because of Christ and not my circumstances, it is well with my soul.”
I just find myself smiling as I read that…because I know exactly how that feels. Simple joy… 🙂
Loved your post on joy. I even tweeted a couple of your thoughts.
Thanks, Cathy!
This is a beautiful picture of life. Joy is something we are trying to teach our foster son and certainly one of the hardest lessons to learn, I think. Joy for me is about contentment. It is about finding more peace and wanting less. Great post.
It is a hard lesson to learn, isn’t it? And maybe not so much a lesson, but a growing and a maturing. I suppose it’s also somewhat contagious, hey? When we see it modeled well, we admire and desire it. Thanks for your comment!
I love the concept of growing into a name–may I always think of others with positive names so that they cangrow into them!
Great challenge, Anita! You never know what impact it may have! 🙂
Kate, I love my FMF bag – Holly brought them to me!!! Can’t wait to give Marni hers!!! October is zooming by and #write31days has kicked my behind! I went to the #fmfparty last night but no one was there. 🙁 Looking forward to participating November 6th – again!!! xo
So glad you got your bag! Yay! Hope you had an amazing time at Allume — and I agree … October is FLYING! So sorry I missed the Twitter party last night .. I’ve been at a conference. Next week! 🙂
Kate, what a precious post. I love that this dear & wise man called you what he knew you could become. And is that not just like our Lord who calls us …. beloved, beautiful, blessed, accepted, redeemed, restored, & yes … joyous too. I am so glad I took the time, a day late, to come & read this post. It is beautiful. Blessings!
Amen! I just heard a wonderful talk by Cindy Bultema on the names we often give ourselves after believing the lies of the enemy — names like rejected, unwanted, not loved, not chosen. Instead, we need to be wearing name tags that are true by the grace of God, like loved, accepted, chosen, adopted. So humbling to realise how God sees us as His children!