A Series of Moments: #2 FMF Party

You may have noticed something consistent around here lately. A certain post that goes up in the wee hours of the morning each Friday, shared on a blog hosted by Lisa Jo Baker. The challenge: to write in 5 minutes flat. No editing. No worrying about fonts or style or grammar, just getting the words out on paper.

It’s a way for me to get my own agenda and desires out of the way and just write the words God puts on my heart.

Did you notice I didn’t post last week?

Of all the weeks not to post, I miss the week that we hold a LIVE Five Minute Friday party at Allume?

Well. I may have been a little busy running two laptops to make sure the live feed worked and all your Twitter suggestions were being captured. And you know what? If I had the opportunity to do that every week and never write another post? To be able to sit in a room full of other women, eating chocolate, laughing, connecting? To hear the voices of the writers who were brave enough to go on stage and behind a microphone to share what they JUST wrote in five minutes? If I could do all of that, I might never need to write another FMF post myself 🙂

I have a few “moments” from my Allume weekend that I’ll be sharing, and I noticed a theme. I’m not sure any of them happened during an “agenda moment!” I went into the weekend with a flexible plan and tried to give myself grace to go where God wanted me. One of those places was the Five Minute Friday meet up. If I’m honest, I didn’t think there would be more than one or two women who would step up to the stage to read. I projected my own fears and insecurities on the group and just assumed that maybe a few of the “big” bloggers would…but they’re professionals and can do this!

I had my socks rocked by the incredible women who went up. One after the other. Reading their raw, unedited, beautiful posts. To hear the inflection and emotion in their voices brought words to life and brought more meaning that we could ever have expected to the writing prompt: Voice.

My favorite? The sweet woman who brought us all to tears as she read the post she wrote for the mama sitting next to her with a sweet baby boy. A women she didn’t know, but who God put on her heart to write a prayer for because…us mamas? We lose our voice. A lot. And that little boy needs to grow up knowing his mama is more than just that….she has a voice. And we were wrecked.

And THEN! The sweet mama found courage to go on stage and read HER post about her fears and struggles to find a voice in the midst of motherhood, and we were done.

So thank you. Not only to Lisa Jo for giving us all a safe place to be authentically US in our writing each week, but to Mary Beth & Kris who took the challenge to make this Five Minute Friday Party come to life. It was among the biggest and most encouraging moments of my weekend.