Welcome back! I’ve missed you all! Welcome to the very first Five Minute Friday link-up of 2024.
I’m so thrilled that you’re here. I hope you had a blessed, restful, and restorative holiday season.
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This week’s FMF writing prompt is: PATTERN
Setting my timer for five minutes, and . . . GO.Â
Toward the end of last year, it occurred to me that much of my life follows a pattern. The same, predictable routine.
Alarms go off in the morning. Get up, get ready. Do your thing for the day. Get ready for bed, go to sleep, repeat.
Day and night, night and day.
Winter, spring, summer, fall, repeat.
Someone gives you something, you say thank you.
You do something wrong, you say sorry. (Usually.)
Church on Sundays, school and work on Mondays.
But how much of it is on autopilot, and how much of it is intentional?
As we start the beginning of a new year — which is, in itself, an undeserved gift — what new patterns do I want to implement in my life for my own good and the good of others, and which old patterns do I need to discard?
Sometimes I look back on a week and think, “What actually happened that was significant? What did I do that mattered?”
I don’t want to live my life on autopilot. I don’t want to coast through my days without paying attention or aiming to make some kind of difference or impact, however small.
As we look ahead to this new year, may the Lord teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain hearts of wisdom (Psalm 90:12) and live out the rest of our days for Him, continually seeking ways to give Him glory.
Amen?
STOP.
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Speaking of habits and patterns . . . If you’re looking for a way to increase your writing frequency and strengthen your writing habits, the Writing Progress Tracker is now available in a spiral-bound edition!
CHECK OUT THE WRITING PROGRESS TRACKER HERE
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Also . . . I have big news coming soon!
Just one more reason you want to get on the email list, so you can find out next week what’s in the box! 😉
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Click the blue button below to join this week’s link-up with your own five-minute freewritie on the prompt, PATTERN, then visit your link-up neighbor to read their post and leave an encouraging comment!
K8, I don’t think you have to worry about doing stuff that matters. You define the term.
It’s a pattern that’s revealing
(chest pain, cough, and swollen feet)
that my heart might need some healing,
elseways soon I’m gonna meet
Jesus at that pearly gate
(to Him it won’t be a surprise
as He’s the author of my fate)
but nonetheless He’ll roll his eyes
and ask me just why I appeared
on this greatest of my days
with a mountain-man full beard
and a t-shirt singing praise
of an AC/DC tour
that no angel could endure.
Four minutes, and don’t it show!
I have spent a lot of time thinking about ways I can be more intentional with my time. It is challenging in this world of distractions, and in trying to break the ‘pattern’ of reaching for my phone any old time I realize how much I spend in mindless scrolling. Thanks for hosting…it’s been a long time since I’ve made it here on a Friday but hoping to change that going forward. Happy new year!
I can’t speak for all who are retired – but after those hectic years, raising children – the hustle and bustle of earning an income – and the stresses of life, now that we are retired, we enjoy each day and each one is new to us. Sure we have our routine or things won’t get done and it is good for us. For the most part, every day can be an adventure if we want it to be. If not, then it is a time to stay home and just enjoy each other and our pets. I’ve never felt so content and free in my life. Very nice post that I enjoyed and provoked some thought about not allowing myself to live on auto-pilot. I did that in my younger days and I certainly do not want to repeat that mistake.
Pattern.
A repetition of form.
A template used to duplicate or create in likeness.
Be not conformed to the pattern of this world…..What conforming patterns need I break free from? What repetitions? What models do I copy, which form me?
Seeking praise of men.
But be transformed by the renewing of your mind….Lord, free me of my sinful repetitions; free me from pursuit of worldly models. Renew my mind, and restore me to be the image-bearer you created me to be. Amen.
I occassionally ask myself that question about whether I was on autopilot too. I probably need to ask it more and think harder about the answer. It’s good to be back writing an FMF but I bet it will become a pattern for me to actually writing mine on Saturdays!
I like that… that wanting to be intentional about evoking some type of good influence or change in the world around us.
A good pattern to undertake yes?
Being intentional is great, but I’m sure you have been intentional and set up a lot of really fruitful and good patterns already in your life. It is good of course to leave enough flexibility to be able to abandon our plans to go where the wind of the Spirit directs too.