Comfort To Be A Comfort{Five-Minute Friday}

Today I am joining my friends and Lisa-Jo again for Five Minute Friday. If you’re new here (welcome!) the rules are simple: Write, don’t edit, link your post to her page, and then share the encouragement like wildfire. You can do that, I know you can.

The prompt this week is: Comfort

I remember crawling up in bed between my mom and dad as a little girl.  There was just something about about being snuggled up between them that gave me comfort.  Comfort to go back to sleep after a bad dream. Comfort to talk about anything and everything.  Comfort to just be.  Even as became a teenager and was to really to big to be crashing in their bed I still found my comfort there.  I remember a couple of nights before my wedding when the nerves and excitement were increasing I wanted so much to tap on their door one last time but I couldn't I was grown up.... I was to old to need mommy and daddy to comfort me, right ?  A few minutes later my daddy tapped on my door and asked if I wanted to talk.  I jumped out of my bed, rush past him and jumped in next to mom.  We talked for hours.  That time with my mom and dad was such a comfort as I walked into marriage.

Monday night as my baby girl got home from college I was in bed with a migraine and what did she do but crawl in right next to me and talked until we both fell asleep.  Then tonight my son stop by for a visit and snuggled up right next to me on the couch.  I hope that their dad and I have been as much of a comfort to them as my parent have been to me.  However, I pray even more that we that always pointed them to the One that is the Great Comforter that will be with them always.

Who has been there to comfort you ?  Who are you comforting ?

Amy

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It's Not Easy Being Green {Five-Minute Friday}

Today I am joining my friends and Lisa-Jo again for Five Minute Friday. If you’re new here (welcome!) the rules are simple: Write, don’t edit, link your post to her page, and then share the encouragement like wildfire. You can do that, I know you can.

The prompt this week is: Brave

When I was younger, much younger, there was an album (yes I am that old) that I loved for my mom to play.    It had songs like:

Doing the Pegion by Bert and Ernie
I got 2 eyes by Cookie Monster
1-2-3-4 by The Count

But my very favorite was It's Not Easy Being Green by Kermit the Frog.  I think back then I just liked Kermit.  However, when I became a mother and decide to pull out the old album to play for my own little ones just for old times sake.  I begin to really hear the lyrics that my little green friend sang.  I loved the lesson that he was teaching.  Yes it isn't easy being green, looking different or being different in anyway. Kermit first acknowledged that yes things are not easy when you are different but there are are blessings in the differences.  He carries on about how those difference can be seen as and advantage.  By the end of the song Kermie has even decide that he is pretty proud to be green and different.

We all have our own version of being green.  You know the thing that makes is different? That thing that we think makes us stand out, and not in a good way?  What if we looked at ourselves and others with God's eyes.  If we just saw ourselves has He does.  What if we were brave and learned to be the best us He has called us to be?

So my friend be brave.....be green and proud of it today.

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Not My Friend {Five Minute Friday}

Today ( really yesterday) I am joining my friends and Lisa-Jo again for Five Minute Friday(well actually Saturday.  I am a day late and many dollars short). If you’re new here (welcome!) the rules are simple: Write, don’t edit, link your post to her page, and then share the encouragement like wildfire. You can do that, I know you can.

The prompt this week is: Friend

Needing some fresh air and sunshine I decided to talk a walk in the local park during my lunch.  Two sweet little girls playing in the sandbox caught my attention so I sat on the bench to watch this young friendship play out.  Then I was shocked when the older girl suddenly stood up, put her hands on her hips and yelled, "You're not my friend."  Then she stomped off to her mom.  The cute little one in the yellow sundress sat there for a minute as if she was thinking,"What did I do." Then she lowered her head, began to cry and slowly walked the opposite direction.  My heart was broken for them both.

I have, at one time or another, been like both of them.  I have been the one that was hurt and I have also been the one that did the hurting.  I wondered the rest of the day what had happened that cause these two to so easily and quickly walk away.  Then I began to think of my own life.  My own friendships.  What had happened in my past relationships that caused me to so easily walk away.  Why had I not tried harder. Why had I not fought to stay close.

I have grown to learn how special and precious friendships are.  How much we need to have those connections to "Jesus with skin on." (Lysa TerKeurst's phrase).

How do you nurture your friendships?  Do you take the time and effort to work on your relationships ?


Amy

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Jump {Five Minute Friday}

Today I am joining my friends and Lisa-Jo again for Five Minute Friday. If you’re new here (welcome!) the rules are simple: Write, don’t edit, link your post to her page, and then share the encouragement like wildfire. You can do that, I know you can.

The prompt this week is: Jump



I slowly took one step at a time up the tall thin ladder finally reaching the second platform.  I had never climbed this high.  My knees began to knock together as I look over the edge at the water below. I thought

to myself, "I can't do it." then took a couple of steps back.  However, I knew the rule was that once you go up you have to jump.  The lifeguard will not allow you to go back down the ladder.  The only way for me to get safely back to my mom was to jump off the 5 meters high platform.  As I walked back to the edge I begin to hear people yelling, "JUMP, JUMP,JUMP!"  Some were yelling out of frustration because I was holding them up.I think some were yelling because they wanted to see if I would end up doing a "belly-flop". I believe that most of the people were shouting simply to encourage me.  Feeling that encouragement, I took just one small step off the end of the platform and the free fall began.  It was such a freeing feeling as I "flew" through the air.  I was worried that hitting the water would hurt. I was able to keep myself straight and when I went into the water I was so invigorated.  As I swam to the side of the pool, mom was there waiting on me, I just said, "I want to try the top one now." (the top platform has since been closed)



My journey of following God has been a lot like my experience at Point Mallard on the diving platform.  Once I committed to following God's calling, I begun to hear all kind of voice yelling at me.  Some were yelling words of judgement, some words of frustration but most have been and still are speaking words of encouragement. It is those words of encouragement (both online and in real life) that has pushed me to take small steps to grow closer and closer to Him.  Now I am just looking to Him saying. "I want to go to the next level."

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We Are Here For A Purpose {Five Minute Friday}

Today I am joining my friends and Lisa-Jo again for Five Minute Friday. If you’re new here (welcome!) the rules are simple: Write, don’t edit, link your post to her page, and then share the encouragement like wildfire. You can do that, I know you can.


The prompt this week is:   Here

GO!

As I sit here at my office, I have to kind of chuckle at just how God’s ways and timing are perfect even when we can’t see it.


Let me explain:

I have worked outside the home all of my adult life. About 3 years ago I had grow weary of the rat race and daily grind. However, with a daughter about to go off to college I know quitting was not an option. I actually enjoyed the work I was doing so I didn’t want to change jobs either. I love my co-workers so I wasn’t sure what the problem was. I caught myself saying way to often, as I would plop down at my desk, “I hate being here.” I had begin to take my position for granted. Then the first bomb dropped. In November 2011 I was told my job would be moving out of state. Yes I would be offered the opportunity to move with my work but for family reasons I knew I could not. To say the next 14 months have stressful would be a major understand.

I tell you story only as a background to tell you how God taught to be happy with my “here”. No matter where or what the “here” is.

During the months of not know if I would be out of work for the first time in over 25 years, God taught me how blessed I was in so many ways:

• That I had a husband and family that loved me for who I was not what I did.
• That I had a friends that supported me with love and prayers
• That I had put to much of my self-esteem in what I did for a living
• That He would provide as He always had
• The most important thing that He has taught me is that He is God and I am not

God holds us all in the palm of His hand. Nothing comes to us that has not already passed through Him. All we are required to do is to worship, serve and bring glory to Him no matter our “here”

STOP!

PS – Praise God - I have been blessed with a new job within the same company and one that is staying in my same city.

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After The Void is Filled {Five-Minute Friday}

Today I am joining my friends and Lisa-Jo again for Five Minute Friday. If you’re new here (welcome!) the rules are simple: Write, don’t edit, link your post to her page, and then share the encouragement like wildfire. You can do that, I know you can.


The prompt this week is: After

GO!

I thought it would happen after I graduated high school. But it didn't.
I thought I would feel different afterI said, "I Do !!".  But I didn't
Then I pictured it to all change after I had children. Yes, things changed but not as I pictured them to.
Each time I thought after this event or after that change the void in my life would be filled and I would finally feel satisfied.  That I would finally feel complete but it didn't happen.

At least not until after one especially stressful week in Aug of 2000. 

I end the week running into church late for the evening service.  I have to be honest, my mind really was not there and I am not sure my heart was either.  I was just going through the motions.  Once settled in my normal pew I noticed there was something different in the church.  The service began with the youth preforming a drama to the song "Arise My Love". 

If you don't know the song there is a verse where Jesus is in the cross and God turns His back because He could not look on the sin Jesus was carrying.  My sin.  As a real 'daddy's girl' the thought of a daddy turning his back on his child for someone else just broke my heart in a way I have never been broken before.  After that night I found the peace, love and satisfaction I have been seeking.  What could not have been found in another human or another thing was finally found after I turn my life over to Christ on that night.

Stop!

I know my time is up but I can't leave this post without offering you the same gift I recieved that night.  If you are trying to fill an unexplained void you feel let me tell you that Christ is the only one that can fill that space for you.  If you want to know more please contact me at amypboyd@bellsouth.net and I will be happy to share with you. 

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Bent, Broken, Mended {Five-Minute Friday}

Today I am joining my friends and Lisa-Jo again for Five Minute Friday. If you’re new here (welcome!) the rules are simple: Write, don’t edit, link your post to her page, and then share the encouragement like wildfire. You can do that, I know you can. 
The prompt this week is:  Broken

"I didn't do it. I didn't touch her. I wasn't even outside with her."  My son was screaming as he came running down the hall.  His little sister was following close behind crying the big tears I am hurt kind of cry.  As I got closer to her I realized the her was curved like a bow and was already swelling. I was able to calm her down enough to find out that she had walked outside to get her shoes from the trampoline but fell and landed on her arm.  That evening

ended with a trip to the ER, a nice heavy plaster cast and instructions to follow up with our regular orthopedic doctor the next day (yes we are the type of family with a regular ortho doc -- he is on speed dial).  Dr Russell snapped the X-ray up on the screen and pointed out two different problems. First the inner bone (Radius) was broken and it wasn't a clean break. He promised me it could be mended but would take 8-10 week in a cast.  Now on to the second problem was the outer bone (Ulna).  This bone was not broken but it was bend.  He advised us that they would watch her growth until the age of about 13 (she was 7 at the time).  If the bone did not straighten on its own then he would have to surgically break the bone and cast it to repair.  

I have never broken a bone in my body but I have been broken.  I have been knocked-down, beaten up and broken-hearted.  In my younger years I allowed the father of lies to break me by the whispers he spoke in my ear, the thoughts he put in my head and the distorted image he caused me to see in the mirror. Then God, in His grace and mercy, reach out and placed people in my life that point me to Him.  Those broken places were mended. However, there

were still a bents.  I was still bent but worry. By fear. By the unknown. After years of being just

bent last year I was 'surgically' broken by the Great Physician.  Things that I thought I had under control because out of control.  The fear, worry and unknown became to much and I just had to hand myself over to Him.  He carefully placed a cast on this break by placing friends, prayer, and most love in my life until I was mended.  I am sure there are or will be new bends to come but I know He can heal all.


PS.  My daughter's arm did straighten out on it's own and there was no need for surgery.  At least not on that arm but that is a different story for later.

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I Have to Remember {Five-Minute Friday}

Today I am joining my friends and Lisa-Jo again for Five Minute Friday. If you’re new here (welcome!) the rules are simple: Write, don’t edit, link your post to her page, and then share the encouragement like wildfire. You can do that, I know you can. 
The prompt this week is:  Remember

They told me to just forget it.

I have been told to just get over it.
Once I was told it didn't really matter in my life today.
Others have said it is time to move on and leave that part of me behind.

And I want to.  I wish I could forget all the times I hurt, I wish the memory of all the lies that I told myself would fade away. I have prayed for the slate in my mind to be wiped clean.

But I can't.  In fact I have learned that I have to remember.  That it is necessary for me to always remember,  I must remember the miry pit that He brought me from.  If I don't remember the sting of the hurtful words then I won't recognize the the relief He offered.  If I don't remember the battle in mind then I won't realize the sweetness of the victory.  If I don't remember the death I once desired I will never fully live the life I have been given.

It has become my calling, my burden , my passion to share my remembering with other so that they too can not only remember a pain or a hurt but also remember the peace and comfort of redemption He offers.

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Halfhearted or Wholehearted {Five Minute Friday}

Today I am joining my friends and Lisa-Jo again for Five Minute Friday. If you’re new here (welcome!) the rules are simple: Write, don’t edit, link your post to her page, and then share the encouragement like wildfire. You can do that, I know you can. The prompt this week is:  Rest

As I link up with my friends at Lisa's place I am amazed at some to the words these writers share and how quickly they write.  I always try to stay up so that I can get the prompt as soon as Lisa post it which is normally around midnight on Thursday night.  However, even when I see the word the words just do not seem to flow as easily or quickly as I would like them to.  I have to chew on it for a while. Digest it into my heart.  And today's word was no exception.  Rest could mean so many different things but our first thought is of time away, doing nothing, just relaxing.  We expect to come away from a time of rest refilled and rejuvenated.  That is not always the case,

Earlier this year I have to have surgery the required me to rest for a few weeks.  Doctor's orders were to 'just lay around and do nothing.'  I was sore from the procedure but I was also very worn down by the stresses of life so I took his directions to heart.  For two weeks I did nothing.  I didn't go to work, cook, wash clothes or dishes. When it was time for me to begin taking back on my normal daily activity I was surprised at the fact that I was still very very tired.  It was no longer a physical weakness. Nor was it even an emotional tiredness.  It was a type of tired I have not really know before.  I have been struggling with it for weeks now.  At times it is not as heavy on me as it is at others but it never goes away.  I just have not been able to put my finger on where it was coming from,  That is until yesterday as I was folding clothes.  (Yes God has a sense of humor. One of the things I dislike doing the most gave me my answer).  

RU? halfhearted ~ wholehearted

 This shirt was the next on in the load I was working on.  It was one my son had gotten at a youth conference years ago.  The phrase, "R U ? halfhearted ~ wholehearted" just jumped out at me.  

That is it.  
That is the struggle that is making me so tired. 
I am tired of just being halfhearted. 
I am tired of comparing what I know God expected to the looks of other that don't understand.
I am tired of only following God when it is convenient of my life. 

I AM TIRED !!!!!!! 

Today I want to learn to just simply rest. 

To rest in Him.  

What about you? R U Halfhearted ~ Wholehearted? 

What is it that is making you so tired ? 

"My presences will go with you, and I will give you rest"

Exodus 33:14

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Not My Home {Five Minute Friday}

Today I am joining my friends and Lisa-Jo this morning for Five Minute Friday. If you’re new here (welcome!) the rules are simple: Write, don’t edit, link your post to her page, and then share the encouragement like wildfire. You can do that, I know you can. The prompt this week is:  Home


As newly-weds and soon to be parents, we were trying to save money every chance we could but we knew once the house was completed it would ours. So we spent hours after night and weekends doing all the things that we need to do to build a house. My husband and father-in-law would piece together the piles of boards into the walls of each room while my mom and I were price shopping on everything even down to the plumbing pipes.  Excitement grew as the construction shifted from the structuring of the house to decorating.  We laid tile in the kitchen. Put up ceiling fans. Then  the day came that we had worked towards for about 18 months.....move in day. I was and still am very proud of our house.  Our house.  Knowing the work that we input make the thought of our house even more special.  Just a few years later when I made the last mortgage payment, realizing now it really was our house, the special feeling just increased. I love being able to call it our house.....my house.

However, I few years ago I realize that although this is my house it is not our home.

These walls hold so many memories, 23 years worth. Mike chased Anthony around and around for hours as a toddler.  We played a game of peek-a-boo ball (I'll have to explain at another time) with Samantha.  Both kids celebrated birthdays. proms, first dates and broken hearts. Countless dinners have been eaten in the kitchen.  Numerous loads of laundry washed in the laundry closet. I can't even begin to list the conversations, the disagreements, the hugs and the tears that have been poured out here.  It is these things that changed the structure we built to the place we live now. So I will call it my house but they (my family) are my home.

Christmas 2012

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Ordinary {Five Minute Friday}

Today I am joining my friends and Lisa-Jo this morning for Five Minute Friday. If you’re new here (welcome!) the rules are simple: Write, don’t edit, link your post to her page, and then share the encouragement like wildfire. You can do that, I know you can. The prompt this week is:  Ordinary

It was just a normal ordinary Saturday. The sky was deary and the wind was cold but he still got up early. Early enough that the sun had not even woken up.  A soft kiss on the cheek and he was out the.  He was going to spend the perched 20 feet high in a tree. Waiting. He was hoping to at least get a chance to harvest the big buck he had seen signs of back before the hunting season had begun. While he was gone I spent the day preforming ordinary weekend chores like, grocery shopping, housework and of course a little reading.  Through it all I would have a passing thought of him enter my mind.  I would wonder if he was warm enough. If he might change his mind and come home early. If he had meet his goal. I even wondered where this passion of his came from.  The day went on and it was time for the sun to fade back over the hill.  As I stood at the sink washing a few dishes I heard the crunch of his truck tires over the gravel. As he walked up the stairs I open the door to see him standing there grinning with a single wildflower.  I first assumed he was over joyed because he had gotten the buck but then he said. "I been thinking about you all day."  

On that day, that ordinary day his love for me was as strong and as evident as it was on our wedding day.
That wildflower sat in a plastic cup on my kitchen table for days (way long than they should have) as a reminder not only of my husband's love also a reflect of Christ love.  It is that love that changes every ordinary day into something extremely extraordinary.

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All Mama Did and Still Does {Five Minute Friday}

Today I am joining my friends and Lisa-Jo this morning for Five Minute Friday. If you’re new here (welcome!) the rules are simple: Write, don’t edit, link your post to her page, and then share the encouragement like wildfire. You can do that, I know you can. The prompt this week is a little different than Lisa's normal one word, it is a phrase.:  Tell me all about what your mama did that made her yours….

When you first meet my mama you may notice her beautifully soft silver hair. Or maybe it will be her sweet inviting smile that catches your attention. After spending time with her you will become endeared to her by her calming voice and wise advise. When she leaves you may notice her slight limp from knee surgery but mostly you will anticipate when you will have a chance to spend time with her again.  These are attributes you will notice in just a short time but if you stick around her for as long as I have then you will at some point notice her hands.  Not so much for the way they look but for all the things they do.  Those hands have done so much for so many people in so many ways.  These are just a few of all those hands have done for me:

As a baby those hands held me close as she rocked me to sleep.
As a tot those hands cleaned up the many messed I made as I learned new things.
As a pre-K little girl those hands began to teach my how to color within the lines.
As a elementary student those hands would awake early to french braid my hair for special school days.
As a middle schooler those hands patiently sewed a hula hoop in a dress the night before a play beacause I forgot to tell her I needed a large 18th century type hoop skirt.
As a high schooler  hands gently wiped away the tears that flowed after a best friend hurt my feelings, or when I didn't make the dance team and especially when I came home with my heart broken by my first love.
As a bride-to-be those hands spend hours upon hours lovingly stitching tiny pearl beads and lace to the train of my dress to make it a one of a kind.
As a bride those hands carefully placed my veil carefully on my over sprayed hair.
As a young wife those hands taught me how to make my house a home with just a little paint, decorating and a lot of love.
As a new mom those hands taught me how to use my hands to sweetly care for my own little ones.

Those hands have cooked, cleaned, sewn and repaired but most importantly those hands, my mama's hands, taught me to love not just in word but in deed.

Dear children, let us not love with words or 

tongue but with actions and in truth. 

1 John 3:18

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Beloved {Five Minute Friday}

Today I am joining my friends and Lisa-Jo this morning for Five Minute Friday. If you’re new here (welcome!) the rules are simple: Write, don’t edit, link your post to her page, and then share the encouragement like wildfire. You can do that, I know you can. The prompt this week is:  Beloved

Beloved

According to a Google search:

Meaning of "Amy"
English name

In English, the name Amy means- Beloved.. Other origins for the name Amy include - English, Latin-American, French. The name Amy is most often used as a girl name or female name.

The very name given to me at birth means beloved - dearly loved - a much loved person yet growing up I never felt that type of love.  My parents loved me then and continue to love me now more than any words can express.  They gave me such a ‘Norman Rockwell’ type upbringing.  However, there was just something missing that was never filled at least not until one Sunday evening in 2002.

As I sat in what had become our regular seat in our new church I had a feeling come of me that was unexplainable.  The sanctuary was darkened with only a few black lights shining on the drama team.  They are worshiping to the song ‘Arise My Love’.  As the each note of the song played my heart began to beat a little harder.  I got a little more uncomfortable in my seat. 

Then the lyric, ”Could it be that His Father had forsaken Him? Turned His back on His son despising our sin”, and the drama member depicting God turned around and refused to look at ‘Jesus’.   It was at that moment that I felt my name was appropriate.  I am beloved.  I am dearly loved.  Jesus Christ loved me so much that He went to the cross and had His very own Father turn away from Him.  As a daddy’s girl I can’t imagine having my dad turn his back on me because of other people’s wrong doing. Yet that is exactly what happened to Jesus.  The relationship between Father and Son was broken because of His love for me.  Yes is love is for all but that night in that moment it was His love of me that changed my life.

There is no great feeling that to know you are beloved.

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Do I Really Believe ?

Joining my friends and Lisa-Jo this morning for Five Minute Friday. If you’re new here (welcome!) the rules are simple: Write, don’t edit, link your post to her page, and then share the encouragement like wildfire. You can do that, I know you can. The prompt this week is, .

Afraid

I believe God created the Heavens and Earth.
I believe that He saved Noah in the flood.
I believe that He brought the Israelites out of Egypt by parting the Red Sea.
I believe Jesus was born of a virgin, lived as a man, died on the cross and rose again.

All these things I believe.  However, I am more like the father in the book of Mark chapter 9 than I care to always admit.

²⁴ And straightway the father of the child cried out, 

and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

I find it easy to believe that God provided for all the biblical characters but when it comes to my own life I am afraid.  

Afraid that He doesn't see my need.

Afraid that He won't hear my prayers.

Afraid that He is to busy caring for others, more important.

Just plain afraid.

I look back at my journal.

At all the times He has provided.  

All the needs He has meet. 

All the love He has shown 

I mean if He did nothing else beyond cross and resurrection isn't that more than enough proof of His love.

So I push the fear aside and make the decision that I will chose to trust Him.

PS. This is my first time to join up with Five Minute Friday but when I saw the prompt of Afraid I knew I had to link-up.  . 

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