Bringing Your Whole Self - A Five Minute Friday post

I didn't mean to sneak out early on the #fmfparty Twitter Party but I didn't want to risk accidentally seeing the winner of American Idol on Twitter while chatting away! (Ask me how I know not to hang out on social media on nights like that? Experience... and finding out who wins before anyone else in the room knows, that's how!) Anyway - I missed y'all - but I wanted to fully enjoy the last ever ('for now') American Idol with the fam'!

This is Five Minute Friday (- a five minute timed free write) and our One Word Prompt for the day is: WHOLE

{GO}

I'm not sure why it is that I tend to have to repeat this cycle of learning and relearning a couple of core truths. Core things that I know that I know... until it seems I need a refresher!

Rest and Identity, man.  Those are my two things.

Thankfully, with each relearning, I build a little higher and stand a little taller. 

There's not so much a Crash and Burn that forces me to heal anymore. It's more of a feeling... a pulling that weighs me down until I remember that I am made to be a resting place and that I know who I am... it's just that sometimes I forget!

(For those of you who have been around here for awhile... you'll see what I did there!)

God whispered it soft to me, yet again... and He is just so loving and consistent.  He reminds me over and over of how He has made me to be Slow... to Soak and to Savor... to Rest and Refresh first, so that I can carry that with me wherever I go. 



He sings it over me quietly and shouts it out loud when needed: 

I want you to bring your WHOLE self to the Table! 

Listen, y'all - this is nearly impossible to do if we are not operating out of who He made us to be!


He asks this of each of us... to come to the table... to show up... to follow His lead and to be who we are.  

He never asks us to be someone else... to do something He hasn't already given us the ability to complete. He is not one to put on heavy burdens.  Oh no. We do that all on our own! 

When we are operating out of who we are, we are well equipped and full able to do what He has for us to do. I'm not saying that it will always be easy... or even fun sometimes... but the grace to get it done will be there. 

However when we are operating out of other things: others' expectations or giftings that are not our own, self-imposed pressure or under unrealistic standards - it will be exhausting and will leave us feeling drained, undone, --anything but whole!

Some seasons are full and busy and packed with Bossy Lists and some seasons are slower and quiet and filled with wide open spaces.  

We must learn that in order to be healed and be whole... to be wholly who He made us to be, we must learn to lean in to and embrace both of those seasons!  

The fast and the slow...
The chaos and the quiet...
The Spring and the Fall...
The Summer and the Winter... 

Our God has made us to be WHOLE... and to be wholly His. 

Much like with the four seasons, we are fruitful and thriving in all seasons -even if when it doesn't look like it from the outside- as long as we're grafted in and connected to the Vine!

 {STOP} 

So this is a reoccurring theme with me... this learning and relearning about the importance of Rest and about remembering who I am (and that who I am is enough!) 

What I bring to the table looks different... what you bring to the table looks different, and that's okay! In fact, that is the way it is SUPPOSED to be!

When I return to being who I am and operating from a place of rest, oh my goodness, sweet friends --God and I? We get a lot more done, with a lot less striving and straining!

I am praying that as Spring arrives and all the buzzing and waking from winter begins, you will remember who you are and operate fully out of that truth!  

May you find Rest and Refreshing... 
and may you fill up and spill out
and bring it with you wherever you go!

Linking up with Kate Motaung and the #fmfparty Community today.  Five Minute Fridays gives us the chance to dive right in and share what He puts on our hearts! Click HERE to read what others have to say about: "WHOLE"

The FMF lowdown: The gathering happens on Twitter on Thursday nights & then we write our hearts out & hit publish all over the interwebs on Thursday & Friday (& sometimes on Tuesdays!) It's where we encourage & uplift... where we share prayer requests & praise reports... where we talk food & friends & we find support & kindred hearts. It's where we are reminded that life is good & God is good & we're not alone... & then we all write for five minutes flat, a flash mob of wordsmiths letting our hearts & our fingers do the talking tapping & we hit publish before we can second guess it all away. We'd love to have you join us!