Today is Five Minute Friday.
What is it? It is a chance to stretch our writing muscles and do something fun. We write for 5 minutes on the given word. Then I reread to be sure there are no spelling errors…and that it makes sense! I add some links and photos and there it is!
BEYOND
photo:
Beyond myself and reaching out to others.
One takes perseverance to reach beyond the strength I have.
Beyond my ability and endurance.
The other takes the grace of God working in me.
I don’t naturally WANT to reach out to others.
I want them to reach out to ME!
But in order to do Kingdom work,
God calls me to reach out to others more often.
I love my husband and encourage him.
I love my children from a distance now.
I care for sick patients, many of whom are demanding, or have demanding families.
I love my friends and new acquaintances by listening…and occasionally speaking truth.
There are many days I feel I don’t move beyond myself. I fail.
I let people down. I don’t surprise God.
His grace abounds. It moves beyond my failures.
Hallelujah!
“I want others to reach out to ME!”
How true are those words, Martha! And, the truth hurts!!!
It’s so easy to crawl inside of ourselves and wait for others. . .
Thanks for the reminder of where our focus should be.
It seems I have to remind myself way too often! Philippians 2 convicts me, but it also comforts me as well. Christ loved me so much that He was willing to leave the comfort of heaven and all the privileges to which He was entitled, to come to earth in human form in order to pay the price for my sin! He carried the cost, the guilt…all of it including God’s wrath…for me! Amazing Grace? I’d say it might even be an understatement.
There are many days I feel I don’t move beyond myself. I fail.
I let people down. I don’t surprise God.
His grace abounds. It moves beyond my failures.
Hallelujah!
SO loved this . . . SO can relate . . . and SO something God is whispering in my life too.
Thanks for sharing . . . writing “beyond” with you!
thanks for stopping by Loni:) i enjoyed visiting your site as well. I was at a recent conference with the theme: Amazing Grace 360, it opened with a combination reading from Ephesians 3 which was a helpful reference point for the weekend!
I think our failures are often something we are all too aware of. all satan has to do is convince us of how “unworthy” we are of His blessing. Actually, we can all agree on that point! We just can’t allow that information to stall us or paralyze us. Yes, we don’t deserve any favor God has given to us. But He blesses His people in His righteousness. That is the one place we are safe from His justice against sin…which He already paid.
Thanks for the visit:)
Hello,
Stopping in from Gypsy Mama’s site and overwhelmed by the simple loveliness of your prose! I completely caught my breath the same way the reader above did- and for the same reasons- something to think about today- thank you.
thanks “wild”. i enjoyed a glance at your blog. will look more later. have to work later today so will have to get a lot more things done in less time:( glad you found the post helpful:)
“I don’t naturally WANT to reach out to others. I want them to reach out to ME!”
And crowd goes: “Ouch!”
True words!
Thank you for putting your wise wowrds in this post for us to read!
eva, i enjoyed your comment as well as reading a bit of your blog. sorry i got your name wrong on the blog comment. now, what is your language?
Martha!
My language is Swedish 🙂 Thank you for visiting!
I just read your post “HOW IS YOUR CHURCH LIKE A QUILT?…”. How very true. To the point of being uncomfortable 😉
I have a lot to discover on your blog it seems.
Have a lovely weekend!
glad you enjoyed that one as well:) my grandmother’s side of the family was swedish! i was named after her. her parents came to the US in the 1800’s on a ship. they were teen-agers. can’t remember if they knew each other b/f that or not. her mother lived to be 90. i married a man whose mothers family was norwegian so we have a lot of scandinavian root in our blood line:) (his mom lived to be 94!) i don’t know if i’ll ever live to see those beautiful countries:) my oldest daughter and family are in kyiv, ukraine. often, if they have a serious medical issue, they go to finland b/c it is so close (relatively speaking.).