Welcome to this week’s editing of our weekly blog link-up!
If you’re new, we’re thrilled to have you joining us! Each week we gather around a single word prompt to freewrite for five minutes flat, then read each other’s posts and leave encouraging comments.
Learn more about the link-up here.
We’ve got lots of exciting opportunities coming up, so be sure to join the mailing list to stay up to date!
This past week, we had our first ever FMF Fellowship on Zoom and it was so much fun! I’m so glad Sarah Geringer took this screenshot, because I totally forgot:
We had about 35 people attend from all over the US, plus a few from countries in Europe and one from Australia! Hoping to offer something similar again in the future.
This week’s FMF writing prompt is: FIX
Over the past couple of months, we’ve been slowly working our way through a list of house projects — mostly painting rooms, but also tasks like hanging new curtain rods, changing light switches . . . that sort of thing.
I confess that before a few months ago, I wasn’t entirely sure how to properly use a drill. Embarrassing, I know. My husband graciously showed me what to do, and now I’m hooked. (Okay, I did take a good chunk out of my finger on one unwieldy occasion, but I recovered and overcame the trauma enough to pick up the drill again.)
I’ve been surprised by how satisfying it feels to fix something. To drill a hole and make something work. To build a structure that didn’t exist before.
Then I realized that this, too, is part of what it means to bear the image of God. He is the ultimate Creator, the ultimate restorer, the ultimate fixer of all broken things. He is the only one who can truly build, heal, and make whole.
Yet He gives us opportunities to reflect His image, His character, His qualities in what He enables us to create. Including the use of our words.
Consider the poem that Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman wrote and read at President Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony this past week.
Was it not a reflection of the image of God, using the power of words created by the Word made flesh to promote healing and restoration among the broken?
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SAVE THE DATE:
In this live workshop on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021 at 2pm EST, I’ll be demonstrating how to use the free version of Canva to create your own graphics to use on social media, in blog posts, as book covers, and more!
Bring your questions, and I’ll do my best to answer them on the spot.
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Join the link-up with your own five-minute freewrite below, then visit your link-up neighbor to read their post and leave an encouraging comment!
There’s just one way to fix us,
one way to keep us whole,
and that’s to not toss under bus
a single blessed soul.
I look just like a hippie,
and I’m to the right of Genghis Khan,
but bet, please, your sweet bippy
that I am a Christian man
who holds it straight and firm and true,
this drink from Jesus’ trough,
that I will stand up for you
even though you piss me off,
’cause though we deadly disagree,
you’re still (roll eyes) brother to me.
Love this!
Ms. Gorman’s poem was so beautiful. I’m not ashamed to admit that I teared up. I am ever-wary about the mixing of faith and patriotism, but there was something about yesterday’s inauguration that left me feeling hopeful.
Ah I haven’t managed to work a drill yet!
I loved your reflection. If we’d only surrender to the ultimate ‘Fixer’!
The drill has always been my nemesis—but I mastered it two summers ago while helping to build a pergola. I felt so accomplished! May we always remember that words can heal and chose ours wisely.
Flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone,
Sin would enter and blood would atone,
Mankind would grow far and wide,
God was always on our side,
But sin would take a mighty toll,
Many would fall and lose their soul,
Alters were full and blood would flow,
Redemption would follow and hearts were aglow,
But each time sin would return with a vengeance,
Satan is sneaky and mankind is dense,
At last a Messiah would enter and save,
The final blood sacrifice on the cross God gave,
To unify the world at last,
In his image we each were cast,
Without a tool or wrench in hand,
God gave His son to save our land,
We must accept this final fix,
Before our clock gives it’s final tick.
I currently have this verse on my fridge:
“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you; all whose thoughts are fixed on you.” Isaiah 26:3
The connection between our thoughts and our state of being is reinforced in this verse and many other Scriptures. Fixing our minds on Christ “fixes“ us. It changes our perspective, even when our circumstances may not change. Fixing our thoughts on Jesus steadies and grounds us in unexplainable peace because he is the Prince of Peace.
Love the ‘He gives us opportunities to reflect His image, His character, His qualities in what He enables us to create.’ Thanks!! #40