Welcome back to another round of Five Minute Friday!
A huge thank you to all who stopped by last week to celebrate my two-years-hosting-FMF anniversary! It was so much fun!
And congratulations to Catherine T., Amber T., and Diana R. on winning the giveaway prizes!
(Psst … if you didn’t win the giveaway, you can still snag The Happiness Dare and the KraftyKash writer keychain here and here! Don’t forget to use code katemotaung at KraftyKash for a 10% discount off your order!)
Last week on Twitter, when the prompt, HAPPY was announced, one FMF member admitted that she didn’t have much to be happy about lately.
Jennifer Dukes Lee, author of The Happiness Dare, immediately jumped in and confessed that she wrote a lot about being unhappy in her book about happiness.
Then she added this:
[Tweet “”Happiness isn’t really happiness if it doesn’t make space for our tears.” ~@dukeslee”]
Last week, we were celebrating. This week, we’re making space for tears.
I’m very sad to share that we have reason to grieve with a dear FMF friend. This past Tuesday, our sister Jen Daugherty lost her mom unexpectedly.
Jen was one of the four planning committee members for the Five Minute Friday retreat last August.
Jen is second from left in this photo. Photo Credit: Mollie Hardman, faithinplainsight.com
Since Five Minute Friday is all about community, I want to extend an invitation to rally around Jen during this time of acute grief.
Here are three ways you can help:
- PRAY! Pray, pray, pray for the God of all comfort to be near and dear to Jen and her family.
- If you’d like to be part of a card drive for Jen, please contact me using the form below. I will collect cards for Jen at my address through Friday, August 19th, and send a bundle to Jen at her home address. Let’s be a blessing and show our support through the ministry of words.
- I’ve never done this before, but I thought it would be a nice gesture to send a gift to Jen as a token of our sympathy as a Five Minute Friday community. Depending on the amount of money raised, I will select a nice plant or maybe even a tree for Jen to plan in memory of her mom. If you know Jen, you know she loves gardening! Please click on the Go Fund Me campaign to contribute toward a gift.
To send a card to Jen, contact me using this form and I’ll send you my address:
To contribute toward a group gift, visit this GoFundMe campaign.
Thank you in advance, friends! This is a large part of what FMF is all about — linking arms and lifting each other up.
On that note …
This week’s Five Minute Friday prompt is:
[Tweet “Join us as we write for five minutes on the prompt, LIFT.”]
And … GO.
The second half of Exodus 17 gets me every time I read it:
“So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword” (Exodus 17:10-13).
I see this blessed Five Minute Friday community as a precious group of Moseses, Aarons and Hurs. When one of us is growing weary in battle, two more come — one on each side — to lift up hands and sustain tired arms.
We need each other.
I need you. Jen needs our prayers. We each have our own burdens, and many of us are oh, so tired. We long to let our arms fall to our sides in defeat — but God provides help. He sends us Aarons and Hurs and by His grace, we are held up.
My encouragement to you this week — whose arms need lifting up? Who can you stand beside to strengthen as they grow weary in battle? How can you be a blessing, and a welcomed right hand?
Aaron and Hur may have thought their role was small or insignificant — but I doubt Joshua thought so.
STOP.
Related post: When You Have a Burden that Needs to be Lifted
Finally, in case you missed it last week …
[Tweet “It’s Five Minute Friday time! Come link up your posts on the word, LIFT!”]
Loading InLinkz ...
All I can say is thank you. The FMF community is one of a kind and fills in the cracks of our lives with friendship and love. It is a beautiful thing to witness every Thursday night at the Twitter party. I really meant it when I tweeted “this is where love meets every Thursday night”.
Praying for Jen and her family and for the gift of this FMF community.
Thank YOU, Mary, for being part of it!
We were of the same mind, Kate. Aaron and Hur came to mind immediately as I read your prompt for the week.I love your exhortation to look for those around me whose arms need lifting up. Thanks for the reminder to take my eyes off my life and look around me more than I do.
Jeanne, it’s crazy how often we write in a similar vein. 🙂 You are a blessing!
Amen and Amen! I know where to come when I need some Aarons and some Hurs! That’s what we do–sometimes we’re Moses, and sometimes we do the lifting. I love this place and these people!
And we love you, Anita! Always a blessing to have you here.
Prayers up for Jen. I am so very, very sorry.
The FMF community has been the major part of what’s keeping me alive; I have long since lost the will to keep my head above the waves, but the prayers of these lovely people is doing that for me. I can rest safely in these many arms, and keep warm through these wonderful, gracious hearts.
I fell, and you caught me.
I always read the word prompt on twitter so that nothing influences my thoughts 🙂 Loved that we went to the same verses on this one. This is such a beautiful and caring community. I was so glad to see that you have given us all an opportunity to lift Jen at this time. Praying for her and her family.
Kate, this was the perfect word and the perfect post for this week. Thank you for doing the GoFundMe and the card collection. My card went straight to Jen yesterday in the mail. God bless her, the family, all of them in this very sad time. One day, our precious Savior will wipe all these tears away. O! What a day!
What a great post kate! Shane and I were just talking about this passage earlier this week. We’re facing a struggle outside of our selves that will be tough and needs those that will lift us.
Not so great that Jen is dealing with such a terrible tragedy. Prayers for her definitely!
Oh no! I am definitely praying for Jen. This is heart breaking. I write my posts before trading yours and this heaviness of life was on my heart, probably not coincidentally. We so need each other. Thanks for posting.
Kate, thank you so much for your compassion and for giving us an opportunity to lift Jen up. Such heartbreaking news.
Loved your post too. I’ve been discovering recently just how amazing it is that where we lift others up in our own struggles in obedience to God’s quiet nudges to serve, how greatly the blessing is multiplied. God is amazing!
Oh, man, yes! I love how God shows us throughout Scripture that He hasn’t given anyone, ever, the ability to go it alone. Kinda makes us and our independent streaks look pretty silly sometimes.
The Happiness Dare helped me to understand something I didn’t realize I didn’t understand…
to be okay with not being okay – to be okay with grieving or being sad etc… to not feel pressured to rush into “feeling better.”
I love your heart here, Kate. We do all need one another, it is how God created us. Thanks for hosting this each week. I hope one day I can be consistent in it, but we just moved and I am praying for guidance in everything I do.
Lifting up Jen too. Blessings!