Welcome to this week’s edition of the Five Minute Friday link-up! We’re so glad you’re here! Sit back, kick up your feet, and stay a while. 🙂
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This week’s FMF writing prompt is: REALIZE
After I became a mom (almost 18 years ago!), I gained a brand new perspective on what my mom did for me and my younger sister. As the years continue to pass by, I realize more and more just how much she sacrificed for us.
When I was seven years old and my younger sister was five, our mom became a single mom.
By God’s grace, I still have no idea what that must be like.
Every now and then, something happens and I think, “How did she ever do that?!”
This past week, my husband, teenagers, and I drove over 18 hours one way to get from Michigan to Florida for spring break. We put over 2,650 miles on our car in ten days.
When I was growing up, my single mom used to drive through the night to Florida by herself to take my sister and me on spring break.
Through the night?! By herself?!Â
At the time, I didn’t think much of it. I just curled up in the back seat and slept. Oblivious.
Now, I have no idea how she managed it.
She’s been gone for more than 11 years now, and I wish I had told her more often how grateful I was (and still am) for all that she did for us. I know it wasn’t easy, and yet I can’t remember hearing her complain. She did it all out of joy.
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FEATURED RESOURCE
If you’d like to read more about my amazing mom and her legacy, I share quite a bit of her story (among many other things) in my memoir,
A Place to Land: A Story of Longing and Belonging
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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:Â
I realized quite recently
that I’m of no real consequence,
but Lord God had the decency
to ask where is my common sense?
Was I just a sneering punk
with a Born To Lose tattoo,
suggesting that He produced junk,
having nowt better to do?
He sat me down and made me hear
what He felt ’bout my assumption,
and on His cheek I saw a tear…
does Almighty God lack gumption,
or does He really truly care
about my lack of being fair?
Four minutes minus change. Worth it for Real.
Beautiful tribute to your mom.
I feel the same about my mom, Kate. My dad left our family in a time when divorce wasn’t really a thing. No one close to us had ever experienced what we were going through. My mom faced it bravely and with dignity moving us from California to Michigan to be close to our grandparents. She went to work and provided my sisters and I with a great life. I remain in awe of her today! Sounds like our moms had a lot in common!