Five Minute Friday: Cherished

ThoughtfulEscapes — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 21:38:44 +0000

Writing for fun. This is something new to me. In the past writing has been for the purpose of documenting, so I don’t forget in the busyness of life. Writing has become enjoyable. I look forward to writing for 5MinFri, even though life hasn’t allowed as much blogging as I would like – I know I have a ‘date’ with my blog on Fridays. This week I’m making it on Thursday night – because once again I haven’t made it here all day, and now the 5MinFri prompt is out :-).

So, today is another Five Minute Friday. I’m linking up with Lisa-Jo. Today’s word is Cherished.

Here are the rules:

Write for 5 minutes – no editing, over thinking, or backtracking.
Link back to Lisa-Jo’s – invite others to join in.
Encourage others by commenting – for sure commenting on the person who linked up before you.

This is your invite – come join the fun!

Cherished…

[Go]

My heart aches for little girls, big girls, and adult girls to feel cherished.

So often we go through life learning to cope, survive, prove we are strong. I am learning anew how much I need my Savior.

Not all girls have an earthly daddy. Mine doesn’t.

However, that doesn’t have to mean you can’t feel cherished. Our Heavenly Father promises to be the father to the fatherless.

Cherished is being protected.

Cherished is being provided for.

Cherished can be a feeling when held by strong arms.

What about as women. Some women have a husband and don’t feel cherished. I’m truly sorry and my heart aches for you. Some women are single, some are single moms, some are moms of young children, some are out-of-nest moms, some are widowers.

We also can feel cherished.

We can crawl into our Heavenly Fathers strong arms.

He is waiting.

He wants us to.

Will you join me in feeling cherished by your Heavenly Father?

[Stop]

This week I have crawled into bed several times asking my Heavenly Father to hold me, allow me to feel His arms around me. He did.

Do you know the meaning of cherish? I looked it up because I wanted to know why it made me feel different than ‘love’. As I wrote I was wondering, why does cherish seem to be a deeper term? This is what I found, Cherish means:

to hold dear
feel or show affection
to nurture
keep or cultivate with care and affection

and it’s synonyms are: adore. love. worship.

We are to cherish our Heavenly Father.

We are to love our Heavenly Father.

We are to adore our Heavenly Father.

We are to worship our Heavenly Father.

We use the term ‘love’ so loosely. and while our Heavenly Father doesn’t worship us, we are to worship Him. Cherish seems to have a longer lasting commitment. You can’t nurture something or someone without time spent together.

A husband loves his wife, because they are married and he is faithful; I expect she feels cherished when he goes above and beyond his ‘duty’ and spends extra time planning, be with her, holding her. It is an extra special love.

A daddy shows he cherishes his daughter by spending time with her. He loves her because he is her parent, which can be interpreted ‘because he has to’. Girls need to know they are cherished by their daddy.

A mother loves her children. Some days it is easier to show than others. Children feel cherished when mom spends extra time showing them.

I want my children to know I cherish them. Not just when they were babies, toddlers, young children – but even now. They know I love them – because, after all I am mom and I ‘have to’. When I am really present they know they are cherished in my heart.

Our Heavenly Father cherishes us. each one of us.

He sent His son to die on the cross and rise again – for each of our sins.

No matter what sins we have committed. [and we commit them daily]

No matter what mistakes we’ve made.

When we repent, He forgives.

Our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Let us not forget.

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Merry, Blessed Christmas to you and your family!

ThoughtfulEscapes — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 21:38:39 +0000

Here are a couple pictures (taken in manual! -please forgive the imperfections, I’m still learning) of our last week and more of the same to continue through this holiday weekend. I promise I will be better about posting – right after this holiday season which brings so many more plans into our everyday lives. I’m working hard to include times of rest in each day – so far that rest has come in many disguises….namely major messes, lots of sewing, and drop everything I thought I was going to do to join in taking kids ice skating (practiced more photos in manual :-D).

This is three of the girl cousins asleep in my living room, under the “lights of the Christmas tree”. This was one night last week – as the trial run for the next couple nights, because we are actually starting Christmas tonight. Yes, my “tree” is actually 3 porch decorations strung with one strand of lights. This is the space our living room can afford and how my children have done it the last few years, :-D. Tonight my cousins are coming and will spend the night, then tomorrow is a hang out day with a big dinner (dad smokes meat – yummy!) with all 16 of us. Then the cousins will go to their house and we’ll have our traditional Eve of Christmas Eve with my brothers’ families. We do our Christmas on Christmas Eve morning so they can each have their own Christmas morning and go to their wives’ families on Christmas day. This year we added one more night/morning to include my cousins :-D.

Source: etsy.com via Alaskamom on Pinterest

I think of this ‘pin’ when I’m trying to not go crazy when my living room looks like this! My living room is 15×15 and we do a lot of living {read: all our living – school, work, crafts} in this space. This is on Tuesday night working on Christmas presents.

{Memories in the Making!}

Yesterday was a significant day in Alaska – December 21st. It is the shortest day of the year, from here on out we gain daylight. Starting with 2 seconds today – yes, every little bit counts! This is the view from my living room, yesterday during the brightest part of the day. During the winter I don’t get any direct sunlight into my apartment. The sunlight on the trees is the most I see for many months – when there is sunlight from now on it will be inching its way down the trees. 😀 – yes!!!

I hope you are having a very merry and blessed Christmas season, even with the lessons learned and other hardships of the year. There is restoration available to all who ask – John 21:15-19. This weeks sermon is still in my mind. The reality is I will fail. Very simply we were walked through the process of Peter’s Restoration, this is after he has denied Christ three times (earlier in John, chapter 18). I’m going to note these steps of restoration with our Christ here, so I know where I can find it again later :-).

***He will confront & convict me. The Holy Spirit will. {this is not the same as others confronting, and conviction is not the same as guilt} Conviction from the Spirit always, always carries the promise of God’s affection. {it’s not my place to think (believe) my sin is too big (or too many) to be forgiven – He promises to forgive us when we ask} Conviction from the Spirit does not lead to moralistic self-help. It is not up to me to be better by doing something – I need to repent; it’s a heart issue.

***Respond with confident repentance. I am known deeply and personally by Him. He already knew I would fail, He knew before He created me. He knew I’d mess up before I became His, yet He still chose me.

***Get on with the mission He has for me. I need to keep moving through life. I will fail again and He will forgive me again. He knew this was the way it would be all along. He has a plan for me, a perfect plan (Jeremiah 29:11-13). So this is the pattern — Me: fail; Him: lovingly confront/convict; Me: repent; Him: forgive/restore; Me: fail again; Him: lovingly confront/convict; Me: repent again; Him: forgive/restore freely; repeat throughout life. {My summary: I am not perfect, I will fail Jesus. He will confront me. If I respond with repentance, He will forgive me. He will restore me. …and I will fail again. He didn’t create me to be perfect, but to have a relationship with Him. To spend time with Him on a regular basis. To love Him. To trust Him.}

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Restoration in Christ Archives | Flowers&Rust Co.

Five Minute Friday: Cherished

Cherished…

Merry, Blessed Christmas to you and your family!