Image courtesy of: nikkikiwiii

Happy Friday! Its Five-Minute Fridays with encouraging wordsmith, Lisa-Jo.  She provides a word prompt, we write for five-minutes, then post.

It is often a surprise to see what comes out. Posting is like desensitization shots for my inner perfectionist.

This week's prompt is "EXPECTATIONS."

START.

My friend Val has a great saying: she wants to live with expectancy but not with a lot of expectations. I like that because expectations lead to disappointment sometimes.

Plus, we live in an age with advertisements that promise more than actually exists so we are bound to be disappointed if we are expecting another person, or another thing, to fill up all of our soul holes.

Only God can fill all those empty spots in my soul.

I'm learning to live with less expectations of how my life should look like. I'm learning to accept with gratitude what He gives me.

I'm learning to find that balance of waiting expectantly for Him to show up and surprise me. To trust whatever comes my way is part of His good plan for me even if I don't quite know yet how it is all going to work out.

But there is one expectation that won't be disappointed, and that is the expectation that He will keep His promises. He doesn't overpromise then underdeliver. Instead, He does more than I can imagine. (Ephesians 3:20).

Still trying to wrap my mind and heart around that truth. It seems so beyond me. But maybe that is the point.

STOP.

How do you deal with expectations? Yours? Others?

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© Soul Stops/Dolly Lee 2012.   Limited License: Okay for noncommercial use if you attribute this post to me and link to my permalink and blog.

Photo Credit:Findstuff2

I have missed blogging this past week and I have also missed visiting my friends' blogs.

But I said a temporary "Good-Bye" to blogging so I could say "Yes" to time with family and sand between our toes.

So happy to be here on a Friday night. Hubby and our girl are watching the game show Wheel of Fortune.

It's Five Minute Friday again, and Lisa-Jo invites us to "set a timer, throw caution to the winds and try to remember what it was like to just write without worrying if it’s just right or not."

I confess I struggle to not worry. In-process to permanently saying "Good-bye" to worry.

Oh...the word prompt is "Good-Bye."

START.

I am realizing that "Good-Bye" does not have to be a bad thing if it will lead to a new "hello" to something better.

For example, I am saying "good-bye" to letting fear control my life. It has been a process but it has allowed me to say "hello" to new experiences. Zip-lining. Blogging. Making New friends through blogging.

All good things that I would not have experienced if I had continued to let fear instead of God control me.

I've been reading Mark 16 about Jesus's resurrection and how his friends said a very sad and tearful "Good-Bye" to him on Friday. Then when they said "Hello" on Sunday, it was to a brand-new Jesus in his resurrected body.

One that allowed Him to enter a room through a closed door. His death allowed Him to say to them, "My Father and your Father."

He couldn't say that before.  God was only His Father. But now, "Hello" to a whole new relationship with God as Father and Jesus as Savior and brother.

Completely wild. Beyond the disciples' wildest dreams. I've been struck at how they didn't believe that He has arisen at first.

I'm like that sometimes.  I can't really believe that what Jesus tells me about Himself is true.

It seems too good to be true.

STOP.

If you want to read Mark 16:1-13, link here. Notice Jesus' friends' initial response to the news of his resurrection. They did eventually believe. Thankfully.

It was a process for them which I find encouraging.

What are you saying "Good-Bye" to so you can say "Hello" to something better?

What difference does Jesus' resurrection make in your life?

Thank you for reading and/or sharing your thoughts. I am always appreciative of you!

Please link up and join the fun at The Gypsy Mama. 

© Soul Stops/Dolly Lee 2012. Creative Commons License: Okay for noncommercial use if you link back to this post's permalink and attribute my work to me.

Image courtesy of: findstuff22

It's Friday again and time to write for five-minutes unedited in an effort (for me) to silence the naysayer within using a word prompt provided by the encouraging Lisa-Jo of The Gypsy Mama.

For my regular readers, who know how I struggle, I will try, really hard, to not correct the typos as I write...we'll see how that works out. But I will try.

Thanks again for your grace.

The word for today is "GIFT."

START.

Dear Jesus,

Thank you for the gift of spring, and

its promise of new life in every

budding flower, and new

trailing vine.

Thank you for my sweet

husband, who is

so patient with me, and

for our dear girl - an

answer to prayer.

Thank you for my friends,

so sweet and so

kind. Thank you

for these gifts

undeserved.

Thank you for

the gifts that came

heavily disguised, and

did not look like gifts at

all. They were not pretty, and

they did not come with a

bow. I did not want them.

No I did not. I wanted something else.

But You in your infinite

wisdom and love and

patience gave them to me.

They were your tools

to wean me from

self-dependence, and

a focus on the things of this

world. They were used by

You to give me a greater

thirst and desire for You

and for your heavenly

kingdom, and for the

hidden virtues of patience,

prayer, and forgiveness.

As I think about Christ's

suffering on the way to the

cross, and on the cross, He

gave a gift. A gift that was not

pretty but rather quite bloody and

bruised and he felt abandoned

as he hung there on

the cross all alone. But

He gave the gift of companionship

to every person who has ever

suffered injustice, and the hope

that is not the end. He rose

from the dead. He gave us the

gift of life, now and

forevermore.

STOP.

"Still, it's what God had in mind all along,

to crush him with pain.

The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin

so that he'd see life come from it---life, life, and more life.

And God's plan will deeply prosper though him [Jesus]." Isaiah 53:10 MSG

It is hard to comprehend the depth of the gift that God has given us through Jesus.

I know you're busy, so thanks for the GIFT of your presence.  Always grateful.

If I can pray for you, please let me know at soulstops (at) gmail (dot) com.

If you share and you have a blog, please leave your URL on the Disqus form so that others/I can visit you.  Thanks.

Pretty please with lots of sprinkles on top...link up and join the fun at The Gypsy Mama. 

© Soul Stops/Dolly Lee 2012. Limited License: okay for noncommercial use only IF you attribute to me and link to this post.