Here’s this week’s installment of Five Minute Friday. You might remember the task is to write for five minutes on a specific prompt word. The initiative was started by Lisa-Jo Baker (http://lisajobaker.com/2013/07/five-minute-friday-belong/) who thought about writing and how often our perfectionism gets in the way of our words. And she figured, why not take five minutes and see what comes out: not a perfect post, not a profound post, just five minutes of focused writing.

Hundreds of bloggers take part each week. I’m proud to be one of them and look forward to reading what others write. It’s always a treat reading different interpretations on a common word.

This week’s prompt is BELONG

Here goes. The timer is set for five minutes {clock starts now}

Almost from the moment we are born, we search for acceptance … to belong … to fit it. We seek it in our families, among our friends, in our interests, during out working and adult lives. We want to have the feeling we are part of something bigger than ourselves, connected to those around us. Sometimes, this yearning for acceptance leads us to some questionable actions. We either try to hard to fit it or we choose to follow the crowd.

It’s ironic, though, we already belong. By being ourselves and living to our own potential, we become the person we were created to be. Maybe we’re not the smart kid or the pretty one or the popular one but we are ourselves and we are unique.

We who choose to believe know we belong to something larger than ourselves. We believe we were created precisely to be unique with specific gifts and talents. We are charged to use these to further the Kingdom… STOP

… We belong to God, through His Son with the prompting of the Holy Spirit. It’s a pretty cool inclusion. Believe you belong!

THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: You can’t hold a man down unless you stay down with him.