It’s been a hectic Friday. I didn’t get a change to look up this week’s Five Minute Friday prompt until early this afternoon and I’ve been so busy running I haven’t had a chance to put pen to paper … or in this case, keystrokes to screen.

Five Minute Friday. That’s when a group of writers — a couple of hundred strong — congregate to put their thoughts on a specific prompt word into {hopefully} coherent sentences in five minutes {more or less}. It’s the brainchild of Lisa Jo Baker (http://lisajobaker.com/five-minute-friday/) and has been a source of writing satisfaction for a number of years. Nothing too pithy. No extreme editing; no worrying about perfect grammar, font or punctuation. Unscripted. Unedited. Real. Just five minutes of focused writing. {Okay, we may clean it up a little, but only a little after the initial five minutes transform the words from abstract to reality.}

Some weeks, the words flow freely. Other times, they stick like molasses. But always the prompt triggers a thought in our would-be writers’ minds that just has to be shared.

And so it is this week with the prompt … RELEASE. Hmmm. Maybe that previous sentence should be rewritten … But always the prompt triggers a thought in our would-be writers. minds that just has to be released. Rewriting, however, is sort of like cheating, so we’ll stick with the first version.

Back to the prompt. The clock is set and the writing begins NOW…

My first thought was the proverb, If you love something set it free; if it returns its yours forever.

We’ve all been faced with that release many times in out lives … our first loves … our forever friends and spouses … our children … our jobs and possessions. And we’ve all writhed in angst at the thought of losing something or someone we thought was the center of our life.

But it is true. You do have to let go … release the people in our lives to allow them to grow … the things in our lives that stifle us. As hard as it may seem, there is a time to let go. It’s hardest when the kids leave the nest. You hope you’ve prepared them and you hope they always know the way home.

As I pondered that for this week’s assignment, I realized it’s the same with God. He has let us go … His precious creations. He has set us free. And it’s up to us to decide whether to return to Him. STOP

If you love something set it free; if it returns its yours forever. A spouse’s love. A parent’s love. Our Father’s love.

I know the way home. Do you?

That’s what I came up with this week. I hope it wasn’t a five minute ramble.

THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: All of the good traits of a Jesus follower, all the love, all the witness, all the persuasion, all the power, all the patience you need isn’t yours. The good result comes through you but not from you.