Modern Day Samaritan Woman

FIVE MINUTE FRIDAY

DECIDE

When time permits I join a group of writers for Five Minute Friday, hosted by Kate Motaung. Every week we write for five minutes after receiving a one word prompt. No editing or over thinking involved….Just writing for the love of writing. For more information please visit Kate Motaung at Heading Home. 

 The word for this week is:

START:

Sometimes when we decide to do something in obedience to Father, we can’t always know or predict just how that one act of simple obedience can open up a door to us that we were not even aware of. Sometimes the instruction doesn’t always make sense to us, or we feel foolish when contemplating it.

In September 2015, I was convicted to start wearing a head covering during prayer. Although it took me a few weeks to reach the point of obedience, it really wasn’t such a difficult thing to do. You can read about that journey here. 

Several months have unfolded since that time and my life has taken quite a few knocks and turns, yet the rewards that occurred as a result of being obedient have been incalculable to me.

Holy Spirit took me on a journey in my prayer life that cannot ever be measured. He taught me how to pray and intercede for my loved ones, my marriage, my country and beyond.

The adventure in the spirit realm has been unlike any I have ever experienced. From pray-er, to pleader, to Warrior… The vastness and depths and substance of physically becoming engaged in the battle cannot even be explained in words.

One wall in my prayer room became an entire room covered with blessings, versus, warfare and more. More and more names were added to the wall of prayer. Promptings to perform certain acts prophetically were added to the fray until I understood precisely what I was doing and even why.

With hindsight I understand a lot better why I had to wear the head covering. Father wanted me to understand that when I cover my head I am declaring to the physical and spiritual realm that I am submitting to His Order and His Government; and therefore to His Protection.

In doing so, He in turn could lead me to higher, deeper things.

No, we do not always understand why we are required to perform certain instructions, yet those simple acts of obedience can certainly change our lives.

Have you received an instruction from our Father that seems unexplainable?

Decide today to be obedient. He does not disappoint. There is no telling where that simple act of obedience will take you.

END

*Hugs* till next time.

Ariéte

Modern Day Samaritan Woman

FIVE MINUTE FRIDAY

TIME

When time permits I join a group of writers for Five Minute Friday, hosted by Kate Motaung. Every week we write for five minutes after receiving a one word prompt. No editing or over thinking involved….Just writing for the love of writing. For more information please visit Kate Motaung at Heading Home.

 The word for this week is:

START:

Time is the one thing that moves on with or without our consent. 

Whether we are ready or not time ticks by second by second and like the sands of the hour glass very soon it will be used up…

As the second hand clock ticks around the clock and we like soldiers march to the consistent rhyme …

Are we paying attention?

Do we live with intention?

Are we aware of the words we are spreading?

Do we share the good tidings or merely echo media findings?

Do we take up the challenge to share our personal talent?

Do we encourage those we love to live large and look above?

Do we pour “generously” of ourselves or do we just sit on shelves?

Do our lives honour our Maker?

Are we takers or sharers?

The clock is still ticking…

May we end well without quitting!!!

END

*Hugs* till next time.

Ariéte

Modern Day Samaritan Woman

FIVE MINUTE FRIDAY

CHOOSING

When time permits I join a group of writers for Five Minute Friday, hosted by KateMotaung. Every week we write for five minutes after receiving a one word prompt. No editing or over thinking involved….Just writing for the love of writing. For more information please visit Kate Motaung at Heading Home. 

 This week we were invited to choose our own word.

My choice was:

START:

Every day of our lives we make choices. Starting with getting up out of bed and for the rest of the day conscious and unconscious choices are made. Most of which we hardly really think about. We just progress from one choice to the other.

But on occasion we are forced to stop and make life changing choices.

During the past two weeks I reached a CROSSROAD in my life where I had to think hard and pray hard and make some life changing choices…

They were not easy decisions to make but they were necessary.

Soul Saving Necessary…

SO I STOOD IN THE MIDDLE OF MY CROSSROAD

And noted that…

I could continue on an unsteady, unstable pathway…offering only abandonment, loneliness, sorrow and emotional abuse …

OR

I could turn off to the left or to the right and walk into a mist of uncertainty…walk in an entirely different direction, and simultaneously take control of my own life and choices.

So I am choosing a life of peaceful solitude and freedom versus a life of isolated loneliness and confinement.

I am choosing a life of liberty to laugh at adversity versus a life of domination with no voice.

I am choosing to control my destiny versus being swept aside against my will.

I choose for the second time in my life to lay down my plans and dreams ….

I am choosing life…the abundant life offered by my Saviour…

He knows the way and if I choose to listen closely, then I will hear His voice and the mist that surrounds me does not matter…because He will lead and I will follow Him all the way home.

In between, 2016 looms gloriously near with the promise of new beginnings, new opportunities and a brand new slate.

END

*Hugs* till next time.

Ariéte

Modern Day Samaritan Woman

FIVE MINUTE FRIDAY

SEASON

When time permits I join a group of writers for Five Minute Friday, hosted by Kate Motaung. Every week we write for five minutes after receiving a one word prompt. No editing or over thinking involved….Just writing for the love of writing. For more information please visit Kate Motaung at Heading Home.

 The word for this week is:

Kate Motaung wrote a beautiful book called Letters to Grief…And on the anniversary of this book…

I DECIDED TO WRITE MY OWN LETTER TO GRIEF BECAUSE GRIEF KNOWS HAS NO GOOD SEASON:

START:

Letter to Grief

Dear Grief,

Yes I am addressing you as “dear”, although I do not really like you at all; but you are a familiar companion, having accompanied me for most of life.

You have imposed yourself on my hospitality on more occasions than is polite to do so and for the most part you have always overstayed your welcome.

Just like a spider spins its web in dark corners, so do you seek any and every opportunity to ambush me unexpectedly and cruelly. Have you no mercy?

There have been occasions when I have seen you coming down the road towards me, but try as I might to avoid you, you are unavoidable. You are like a chronic illness, always just below the surface, waiting to make your presence known to me.

You are no respecter of seasons either. Like death you just invade, overwhelm and cover me with such a heavy cloak of sadness at times, that there have been occasions when I was certain that I would drown in the dark folds of your weight…

From my earliest childhood memories, I can recall you sitting on my bed like a “nanny”, watching and observing my reaction to your presence. Ever ready to impose another test on me…

As a young mother, I recall your hovering over my children, and you had no boundaries, diving right into my marriage over and over again, and yet here you are, after all this time still in my peripheral vision. Is there no end to your testing? Will I never pass this exam and be rid of you forever?

I have had to watch helplessly, as you imposed your unwelcome presence on my loved ones,  knowing that I could do nothing more than love them and hug them tight, as I pried your gnarled and ugly fingers from their flesh and hearts, and forced you to loosen your grip on them.

Proverbs 14:13

“Even in laughter the heart may be in pain, And the end of joy may be grief.” (AMP)

No, I can’t say that I like you very much. The heaviness, sadness and dreaded pain that accompany your presence are just too much sometimes. Knowing that you are ever ready to pounce, does nothing to endear me to you.

No Sir!!! Not even close….

But, try as I might to be rid of you, I instinctively know that I need you – what a dreadful paradox …

Because your dogged persistence and endless unsolicited visits, my character is shaped and refined and this makes me a better person. In your undesirable presence, I learn to be less judgmental, and more merciful to others. In your presence, I find comfort in my fellow man who has also been afflicted by your unwelcome visits.

In your presence I learn to turn to my Creator for HIS grace and mercy. Your consistency is probably one of the main reasons I dare not stray too far away from my Saviour, and for that reason alone, do I tolerate you because when “My soul dissolves because of grief; (Father) Renew and strengthen me according to [the promises of] Your word.” Psalm 119:28

END:

*Hugs* till next time.

Ariéte