You Make It Easy... a Five Minute Friday post.

It was great to be back in the swing of things tonight over on Twitter for the #fmfparty! If you write for Five Minutes and link up - but have not yet made your way over to Twitter... well, that is really where this Tribe, --this Community, thrives! Twitter parties aren't as hard or confusing as you may think! Join us on Thursday nights for fellowship and fun, while we wait for Kate to give us the one word prompt!

This is Five Minute Friday (- a five minute timed free write) and our One Word Prompt for the day is: EASY and this one is in honor of my Mama...

{GO}

I'm the baby of the family... the million dollar baby... the miracle that survived.  I've written about my early arrival before...  I am also the only one of my siblings still living in our hometown and I am blessed to live right next door to our parents.

I know.  I know that I take this for granted and I should be more intentional in spending time with them. I think when the option is so readily available, we forget to take advantage of it. Next week my sisters are coming to town and I can. not. wait.

Yesterday was Moms' birthday and we will celebrate when we are all together but here's the thing: God has provided for her and my Dad in ways that while they would not say they are rich, they are definitely not wanting.

She is so blessed... she is kind and giving and funny.  She draws people in and is charming and infectious and warm.

This is all wonderful. It makes it easy to want to shower her with gifts, but it makes it hard to actually pick out a birthday present!

I don't know about your parents but my mine are at the age where they are already giving things back to us... cleaning out the house and old photo boxes and regifting things we gave them years ago.  

I think this is a normal thing, right? Either way, however, it makes giving anything new tricky.

What I want to give her is the assurance that her one life matters... that she is loved and honored and cherished.  That she has done amazing things with her life --even though so often we can feel small and ordinary... we can feel invisible and insignificant.  

We can fall for the lie that if we are not famous or wealthy, that we haven't really made a mark on the world.  But she has... she still is, and this is how:

She makes it easy to love.  

She is far from perfect, she'd (sadly) be the first to point out, but she lives her life ready to love.  She speaks life and encouragement to others. She is a giver and sower and oh my how she is a lover of love. 

My gift to her would simply be to let her know that we see.

We have seen the sacrifices that she has made for each of us... and the way she lays down in order to lift us up.  We see her heart and her hopes and her dreams for us to have more, to be better, to reach farther... and because of how she is living... we are better off for it and we are thankful.

I'm sure we'll all tell her that next weekend... in one way or another.  But I want her to know that her children really do rise up and call her blessed!

 {STOP} 

She really does make it easy to love... her, yes - but through her example we have watched and seen... we learned how to love... how to forgive... how to stay... how to laugh and cry and be real... we have learned how to be a mother, a sister, and a friend... We are learning still!

Happy Birthday, Mama! I love you so!

(We'll have cake and celebrate when all your babies are under your roof!)

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: "EASY"

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!

P.S. Don't forget to go HERE and enter to win a copy of Looking for Lovely by Annie F. Downs! You're gonna LOVE it!