Because - A Five Minute Friday Post

It's been a while hasn't it?
I've not met you here since the beginning of August and honestly, I was beginning to wonder if I would ever find my voice again.
But I'm back and I'm staying and it has made my heart infinitely happy today to write again.

Today I used the word prompt from the Five Minute Friday Blog.
It was perfect for what was tumbling around in my heart and my head this morning.

I was chatting with a friend today about extending grace. 

Giving grace to someone when we don’t want to. 

And not just the ordinary don’t want to, but the digging in our heels, gritting our teeth, fighting with everything in us to not have to be the grace-giver. 

It’s hard isn’t it? 
So very hard to be graceful to someone who has hurt you deeply. 
Someone who continues to hurt you deeply even when they’ve beaten you up and left your heart in a broken, bloody mess on the ground. 

We may never know what drives someone to lash out in anger. 

To deliberately cause pain to another, especially those they claim to love. 
To enjoy the power and control that their words and actions have over our hurting hearts. 

But as much as it hurts us, as much as it grieves our soul, Jesus says we are to extend grace. 

To forgive and continue forgiving. 

Why? 
Why Lord would you want me to show grace to someone who has hurt me so deeply? 

Because, He says, you know what grace extended can do to change a life. 

It changed yours. 

With a Courageous Heart,
~~Robin

Fill - A Five Minute Friday Post

It's a challenge to sit down and write. To create pictures in the mind from words on a page, from the heart. It's even more of a challenge to explain it all in just Five minutes.
Once again I've stepped out of my comfort zone and written based on the word prompt from the Five Minute Friday Challenge. I invite you to walk with me today and see if you can envision what I'm seeing in my mind's eye.
Soli Deo Gloria


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I fill the hours of my days with tasks that carry me from place to place.
In and out of doors.
Up and down stairs and roads and emotions.

Each day starts with my mind filling up with ideas and plans and dreams, almost all to be left behind in the aftermath of my place to place.
My in and out.
My up and down.

I want to be filled with You, Lord.
Filled to the brim with your grace.
Your peace.
Your purpose.

Too often I am filled with everything but....

Fill me up today Lord.
Fill me with vision to see what you see.
Fill me with heart to love what you love.
Fill me with more of you Lord.

Empty me of......

With a Courageous Heart,
~~Robin

 "For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things." 

 - Psalm 107:9 (ESV)

Begin - A Five Minute Friday Post

As a writer, it's always good to challenge yourself, to step out of your comfort zone and explore the new, so today I've taken the challenge - to write a blog post based on a journaling prompt in just 5 minutes. I've set my timer and we're gonna see what happens.
Ready? (Click HERE to visit Five Minute Friday)
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So, I BEGIN.
That's the prompt, BEGIN.

2014 has been full of new beginnings for me and for my family. I've been making a real effort, most of the time, to stop and be still and to listen to God's whisper as He guides us through these beginnings.

I'm not always successful at the listening part, definitely not the be still part, but it's a process, right?
I begin.

I start, I plan, I get ready, set, GO!
And I get sidetracked, derailed, off pace - distracted by those "squirrel" moments.
It's human nature I suppose, to allow yourself to be sidetracked from your beginnings. From your set goals.

Human nature and fear.
And that's the truth of it.
Somewhere along the line, I allow the doubts and 'I can't' moments to creep in on the truth of God's voice and his word in my life and my beginnings become stalled.

Today, I begin again.
Once more.....

“But forget all that—
    it is nothing compared to what I am going to do.

For I am about to do something new.
    See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
    I will create rivers in the dry wasteland."

- Isaiah 43:18-19 (NLT) 

With a Courageous Heart, 

~~Robin

(#fmfparty)