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Another week has flown by.  It’s Friday again.  I’m even getting this written on Friday.  I’m ahead of myself this week!  I’ll review the rules for Five Minute Friday once again.

• Write for 5 minutes and don’t look back.
• Link to Gypsy Mama’s Five Minute Friday page.
• Leave an encouraging note for the person ahead of you on the page.  This is the most important part**  Feel free to stop by as many others as you want.  It’s a great place to make new friends.

BARE

GO

Bare…Vulnerable…Open…

These are some of the words I feel when I write.

Putting the words out in the atmosphere for others to read and dissect?

It can be scary.  It feels very naked.

But over my lifetime I’ve felt that way at other times too!

In real life relationships.

At those times when I know a person doesn’t like me, or what I stand for.

Even when they may not even know me…

They assume and decide that if I believe x, then I must also think y.

Often they are wrong…

I rarely follow a script.

But because they don’t say anything…

Because I don’t know what is going on in their head…

I have no idea.

I may think they don’t like me.

But I have no idea why.

It is in those times that I have had to learn to get naked…in a way.

I have to move toward them in relationship.

Yes, I want to run.

Yes, I want to hide.

I don’t have that “luxury.”

I am “in Christ”

I am to live as He did…vulnerably and bare before others.

Stepping away from the protective walls I want to hide behind.

Instead of curled up in isolation and safety.

I admit my failures, my flaws.

I hear their attacks and criticism.

I listen to their pain…with love and grace.                STOP

Not always, but sometimes I live bare and vulnerably…

and GOD uses it to encourage.

Other times, I fail.

GOD is gracious still.