Welcome to this week’s edition of the Five Minute Friday link-up! Each week we gather around a single word prompt and freewrite for five minutes flat.
If you’re new to the FMF community, you can learn more about the link-up and how it works here.
Today we’re in for a special treat, as I’ve asked my friend Brenda Yoder to guest post for us.
Brenda’s newest book recently released, called Uncomplicated: Simple Secrets for a Compelling Life.
If your life feels complicated right now, you’re definitely going to want to check it out!
In honor of Brenda’s new book . . .
This week’s FMF writing prompt is: COMPLICATE
Here’s our guest Brenda Yoder with her five-minute freewrite on the prompt, COMPLICATE . . .
Life is complicated. Our response to it doesn’t have to be.
Recently, these words slapped me in the face as my new book launch was incredibly complicated. After initial preorders were delivered, Amazon failed to stock the book, derailing the finely-tuned book launch strategy.
It was a reminder that no matter what we think we have control of or how we orchestrate things, life—or the life God has planned for us—isn’t simple.
There’s an illusion that an uncomplicated life is a dreamy, simple Instagram life. In reality, life is hard at times—perhaps most of the time. But as our forebearers showed us, our response to life’s complications does not have to be complicated. We can respond with forbearance and equanimity, that calm, even-mindedness in the face of challenging circumstances. We can be resourceful and creatively problem-solve. And we can be content, being satisfied with what is, even if it’s not what we hoped for.
I told myself to do this after writing a book on these processes. I did the next best thing rather than lament about what wasn’t. Instead, I focused on what was—a new book that was born and the places other than Amazon where people could get it—the uncomplicated next steps.
STOP.
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Check out Brenda’s new book, Uncomplicated, HERE
or at your local bookstore!
Affiliate links have been used in this post
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Brenda is a former History teacher and lover of antiques, gardens, front porch rockers, and her grandkids. She and her husband, Ron, raised four children on their family dairy farm in northern Indiana, where they currently raise Bernese Mountain dogs, goats, chickens, and cattle and host an Airbnb. They love camping and visiting their grandchildren and adult children throughout the country. She loves gardening, decorating, and having good conversations over coffee. You can connect with Brenda on Instagram or at brendayoder.com, where she writes about life, faith, and family beyond the storybook image.
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Once my life was complicated,
but now that's in the past
for God above has demonstrated
that I'm not built to last.
Another system going south,
and breathing through a hose,
but to complaints I shut my mouth,
for something inside knows
that this is simply meant to be,
my witness's new proof
that's out there for the world to see
that some may learn the truth
that whatever falls apart,
it can't kick God out of your heart.
Three minutes flat. The oxygen does seem to help with focus.