Brenda Rodgers

Category: 5 minute Fridays

  • My Shiny New Shoes

    Join me today for 5 Minute Friday with The Gypsy Mama where we write for five minutes on a given topic. No editing. No criticism. No worry. Today’s topic is: New
     

    I slid my feet in one at a time – into those polished, shiny new shoes, and my countenance became shiny, too.  So I walked around standing high and tall.  Those polished, shiny shoes made me new.

    My head got too heavy as I held it up high, so there it fell. I leaned forward, and trip, trip, trip my polished, shiny, new shoes splashed in a puddle now stained with the look of old.

    Now if only I get a new pair of polished, shiny shoes will all of these troubles fade away?

    So off I prance on my toes holding my stained, muddy, old shoes in my hand.  Off to find the next pair to make me new again.
    Photo Credit: Creative Commons

  • Beauty – A Free Gift

    Join me today for 5 Minute Friday with The Gypsy Mama where we write for five minutes on a given topic. No editing. No criticism. No worry. Today’s topic is: Beauty

    Is it coincidence that I am at the beach watching the waves crashing into the sand, listening to the shrills of children with the sounds of the waves as the white noise, feeling the granules of sand between my toes, smelling the salt in each breeze that passes over me when today, this Friday, I’m writing about Beauty.
    How much more could I ask for?  Could I expect?  From a God who gave the earth all of this for me to enjoy, for me to be a part of, for me to experience His presence?
    I sit and look out to where there is only the line – the line dividing water and sky (Genesis 1:6-8)- and I imagine Him hovering over it all (Genesis 1:2)- right before He made it be.  Giving it all of its saltiness and counting every grain of sand.
    Beauty – Free Beauty – The gift from our Savior so that we know He’s always in our presence.
    “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command,
    so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”
    Hebrews 11:3
    Share today what is beautiful in your life, and then thank God for it.

  • Wholeness on Bended Knees

    Join me today for 5 Minute Friday with The Gypsy Mama where we write for five minutes on a given topic.  No editing. No criticism.  No worry.  Today’s topic is: Wholeness

    There are so many places we go in our quest for wholeness.

    In our homes we look around and say, “No, not here.  Only if I had something bigger.  Grander.  Something that would turn heads and create awe.”

    So we leave that place that was supposed to be a safe-haven of peace and go on our journey to find wholeness elsewhere.

    We stop at the place that pays us money.  Money to get the things our house lacks.  But in the back of our minds we think to ourselves, “No, this can’t be it.  Does this really matter?  Is this really making a difference?  Will this last?”

    So on we go to the next thing along the road.  The road’s getting long now, and the hills are getting high.  Maybe this is where it is.  Maybe this object, substance, person, mindset is where my wholeness will be found.  Except that they are really idols.  And no, I know, only temporarily will I find wholeness here.

    So back I go to my original place and in that house that isn’t quite right I bend my knees until they touch the ground.  I cry out, cry out begging for something that will last, that will never change or go away.

    And there it is: Wholeness – wrapped around the words to my Savior.

  • Be Still and Know

    Dear God,
    There are so many things swarming around in my head. 

    Some big. 
    Some small. 

    Visions for the right now. 
    Visions for what could be. 
    Visions for eternity.  

    My needs.
    My wants. 
    My desires. 
    My wishes.

    They seem impossible.  Things that can never be seen, here, in this life. 

    But I want them so badly.  I know they’re from You.  They’re the fingerprints You’ve place on my heart.

    They all move around so quickly – thoughts in and out, in and out of my head.

    But in the midst I hear a small utterance of Your voice.  Your voice that can barely be heard.

    “Be still and know that I am God.”