GATHER - A Five Minute Friday Post

I can't say it enough, really - I love my tribe! The Gathering that happens on Twitter on Thursday nights and then flashmob writes out their hearts and hits publish all over the interwebs on Thursday and Friday (and sometimes on Tuesdays!) But, I know... I'm like a broken record here, stuck on repeat! However today I am thinking of a different community. Let's just get started.  

This is Five Minute Friday and our Word Prompt for the day is: GATHER

{GO}

We have been talking about Gathering for weeks now. Well - really, for our whole lives! I wrote last week about how my Honey and I - we are just wired for Gathering and it is so deeply a part of our DNA that it just naturally happens all around us.

I have been talking If:Gatherings (livestreaming, on Voxer, and Local - in real life!) I have been talking about gatherings of groups in our home, at church, in coffee shops, at retreats, and even right here on the Internet... all intentionally building each other up and pushing each other on.

Today, however... these girlies are on my heart:

They are mine... although technically only one of them... and really - more than mine, they are His!  But I have claimed them all as my own and loved them through all these growing years!  

I have heard their laughter and held their tears... listened to their giggly whispers and their angry screams... I have pulled them close and prayed them through.  All as they learned to walk and talk, and run and fall (and get back up again) in all the fun and not so fun ways. They learned it all, together. 

They have been up and down, full of joy and full of somethin' else, broken and healed!  They have had good times and hard times and through all of their times, they have gathered -sometimes in tight dark corners and sometimes in wide open spaces full of light.  

And now they are (technically) all grown up and I find I pray for them still... and I know that I always will! 

Over the next couple of weekends, we will gather friends and family around our Holly Dolly and celebrate the life that God has been knitting and forming inside of her... He has been growing this baby under her ribs, right next to her heart and he has worked his way right into ours as well! More than any other prayer, we pray that her Little Man grows up hearing the rhythm of God's heartbeat beating for him, too --that he knows that he is loved. Cherished. Blessed.

We will gather around these new parents and we will hold them up and help them through. We will do the dishes, cook some meals, fold the laundry, and just (for the love) let Mama sleep once in awhile. (Can I get an Amen?) 

It really does take a Village and not a one of us has 'got this' on our own! Lisa-Jo is right... every one of us, at one point (or a million) is #SurprisedByMotherhood and oh how we want our girlie to know that she not alone.  Ever.   

--That this is hard and exhausting and will make you laugh-cry and cry-laugh *more than a sane person should. But also that this is the most amazing job she will ever ever have. 

--That this will stretch her and challenge her and change her in all the best ways.  It will teach her how her heavenly Father loves because oh my goodness there is nothing like falling in love with your own for the very first time and knowing --really knowing-- that as much as you love them, He loves them more!

So we will gather family (and friends that are like family) this weekend and next weekend we will do it again with the friends she has grown up with... We will play silly games and snack on food, we will watch her unwrap All The Adorable Baby Things and we will ooh and aah and celebrate this life... 

...his life, yes --but this life.  The one we are blessed and honored to be living together, as we have gathered through all of these years. 

We will celebrate the heritage and the history that we have... as well as the friendship and the future that continues to grow! 

(...and, obviously, we will Love. This. Baby!)

{STOP}

I hit the Five Minute Mark at * but needed to wrap up my thoughts! I am having all the feels, and (technically) this won't even make me the grandma yet!  Holly Dolly and my own Girlie have been BFFs since they arrived at Gatherings in car seats and were set down side by side.  They have been side by side ever since!

We are blessed to have lived life through all of these years with long term, fully invested friends and we do not take this for granted.  What about you?  Do you have friends now that you grew up with?  If so, how do you stay in contact and connected? We know we may not always live in the same small town - so we are intentional about spending time together now, while we are still so close!

I love the #fmfparty Community that gathers on Twitter and all across the Internet on Thursday nights and on Fridays... on into the next week, where we encourage and uplift... where we share prayer requests and praise reports... where we talk food and friends and we find support and kindred hearts and we are reminded that life is good and God is good and we are not alone... and then we all write for five minutes flat, a flash mob of wordsmiths letting our hearts and our fingers do the talking tapping and we hit publish before we can second guess... we just let Him flow!   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 "GATHER"


Oh ...the fine print: if you don't know what FMF is!  Five Minute Fridays have been hosted by Lisa Jo Baker.  This week we start gathering over at Kate Motaung's.  FMF is open to anyone, so to learn more about it - and to jump in yourself (the more the merrier!) or just to find a linky to see what everyone is writing about today - click HERE!  The idea is to simply write... for Five Minutes flat... no editing, no deep thinking - or at least REthinking, no spell check - just write! Let it flow! We all write using a prompt that Lisa posts at 10pm Thursday night (EST.)  I'm loving the community of amazing bloggers and the creativity that flows from these magical Five Minutes!