Welcome to this week’s edition of the Five Minute Friday link-up! We gather each week around a single word prompt, set a timer for five minutes, and write our hearts out.
Learn more about the link-up and how it works here.
This week’s FMF writing prompt is: PERSEVERE
Setting my timer for five minutes, and . . . GO.Â
By the time you read this, my youngest kid will have graduated from high school. I know I’ve been writing about it for at least the past four weeks, but this is where we are right now. The end of an era.
I’m so, so proud of him. As many of you know, just in this past year he has endured so many heart-wrenching trials, and through it all, the Lord has kept him and his faith. Praise be to God.
He won multiple awards from teachers at his school who commended him for his godly character and for the way he cares for and serves others. Again, all glory to God.
I’m sure it will take me time to adjust to not having any children left in K-12 education . . . No more school emails, no more apple pie fundraisers, no more permission slips, no more packed lunches.
And yet this is part of the goal, right? The natural progression as we slowly let go of something that was never really ours to begin with.
A couple of weeks ago, our pastor prayed for my son and the one other high school graduate in our congregation this year. He thanked God for sustaining them, and I confess I felt a bit of “survivor’s guilt,” for lack of a better phrase.
Many of you know this day is also bittersweet for our family. My son’s best friend is supposed to be graduating alongside him, but the Lord called him home seven months ago.
We cannot commemorate this occasion without commemorating him.
“The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” ~ Job 1:21
STOP.
For graduation pictures, head over to my Instagram profile!
+++
If any of you would like to read more about our family’s journey up to this point,
including my kids’ births in South Africa, pick up a copy of my memoir,
A Place to Land: A Story of Longing and Belonging
+++
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
So sorry about your son losing his best mate.
Our world has sadly bought its fate,
with nothing good we can revere,
but we still can conquer hate
if we will just persevere
with the love that God has placed
in hidden rooms within the soul,
and holy finger that has traced
the hieroglyph that makes us whole,
reaching outward to embrace
the fallen and forgotten host
that feel that they have lost the race,
but in their despair are the most
vital way that we can please
our Lord, loving the least of these.
I clicked on the link to your Instagram profile but did not see any graduation pictures there.😢
Sandra, it doesn’t look like much, but this was the post on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ-ylVft27V/