Welcome to this week’s edition of the Five Minute Friday writing prompt link-up! Each week we gather around a single word prompt to write with abandon and without overthinking.
Learn more about the link-up and how it works here.
This week’s FMF writing prompt is: EFFORT
Setting my timer for five minutes, and . . . GO.
If you read these posts regularly, you’ll know that my 17-year-old son was sick for 29 days in November and December. He missed fourteen days of school, since some of those days during his illness were weekends, Thanksgiving break, and snow days.
Fourteen days of instructional time during your senior year of high school when you have AP classes, Honors classes, and dual enrollment classes is kind of a big deal!
Plus, the poor kid didn’t feel well enough to work on any of his missed assignments while he was still sick.
This meant when he finally did go back to school, the pile of missing assignments and missed quizzes and tests seemed insurmountable. Oh, and did I mention he went back the week before his semester exams! Oy!
But he put his head down, created a list of priorities, divided up his time, and got to work. His AP Calculus teacher opted to give him an Incomplete rather than force him to take the semester exam without having learned the material. Instead, he spent all of Christmas break teaching himself fourteen missed lessons of AP Calc on his own.
Considering how much he missed, I did not have high expectations for his report card. I thought, Well, he had a good run. It’s fine if things tank this semester.
But guess what? Somehow, by sheer effort and the grace of God, he managed to finish the semester with incredible grades. I was shocked.
I intended to use this story as an illustration for our relationship with God, and how we can sometimes feel “behind” in our spiritual lives. But as I started writing, I realized no matter how much effort I put forth, He is always and ever the One who sustains me and keeps me close to Him.
STOP.
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Speaking of effort, if you’re making an effort to write more regularly and consistently this year, this resource is for you:
Inside you’ll find 18 practical ways to help you meet your writing goals.
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Join us with your own freewrite on the prompt, EFFORT, then visit your link-up neighbor to read their post and leave an encouraging comment:
To get here was an effort
(I mean, you know, staying alive)
and I am really not the sort
who’d pick adversity to thrive.
I’d rather have a frosty beer
beneath a warming sun,
with a hot dame really near
for a bit of fun.
God did hear, and He did answer
and that’s not my life.
My ticker’s crook and I got cancer,
but I also got a wife
who’s so hot (and also charming)
that she’s the cause of global warming.
😀
Wow, that is really impressive.
With that kind of determination, your son will do well in life.
So glad he’s better. Good word!
❤️ G
I’m sure you are all very proud of his well-deserved success too! Well done!