Middle

Joining again this week with the #Five Minute Friday group of writers who write for 5 minutes on a one-word prompt. This week’s prompt is: Middle

I am a middle-child; probably past middle-age; still in the middle of menopause; still living in the middle of coming out of Lockdowns; still in the middle of trying to get back to work.

In the middle of the has been, but not yet of the Kingdom of God; in the middle of being renewed; in the middle of being made into the likeness of Christ; in the middle of being made holy.

As they say: ‘Life is not a rehearsal’ and I, like most others, are having to navigate our way through this life with many twists and turns and ways we have never been before, it is new, we have never walked this way before, we don’t get to try it out and then go back and do it again, better next time.

Life is the here and now, the daily nitty gritty, daily decisions, daily pressures, daily joys and sorrows, laughs and tears. I have never walked this way before, yesterday is past, tomorrow still to come, I am in today and am blessed that God has said, “I am with you”; “I am with you in this; I am with you in this messy middle” and that is what makes the difference – God being with me.

She

I’m joining with the #Five Minute Friday group of writers today to write on their one word prompt for 5 minutes. Today’s prompt is: She

I don’t know why, but perhaps it is because I am reading through Genesis just now, but when I saw the prompt my immediate thought was of Adam saying to God “She gave me the fruit”, She made me eat it, She is to blame!!!

We all do that don’t we? Well I do anyway, I blame others, I deflect the blame away from myself, I self-justify why I have sinned, or fallen or done or said something I shouldn’t have. We don’t want to be the bad one, we don’t want to be thought of as unkind, so we justify our words and actions to make them sound acceptable.

However, there is no excuse! We have sinned, we have been unkind, said some not nice things, got angry in the heat of the moment and we need to acknowledge that, we need to hold our hands up and say, ‘that was me, I did that’ because only then can we come to God in repentance and only then can we receive His forgiveness, His grace.

So next time instead of blaming, let us acknowledge ‘it was me’ and turn to God for His grace to forgive and wipe us clean of this blame game.