5 Friday Favorites: May 2, 2025

   

It's time for my Friday link up with  A Little Bit of Everything and Momfessionals. 

On Fridays I share things that made me happy from the week - a photo, a song, a quote, a beauty product, a recipe, a pair of cute shoes, etc. If it's a product, sometimes it's something I actually own and sometimes something I just saw online that gave me a smile. Sometimes it's serious and sometimes it's silly. I suppose I believe that God is in the simple details of life and yes, I can even find Him in a tube of lipstick.

Hello and Happy Friday. The baseball has been delivering lots of fun this week. The Texas Longhorns swept the Aggies last weekend which was particularly delightful. Today we're off to the first game of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference playoffs to watch Drew and his team, so I gotta hustle. Here are my favorites from the week.

1. Johnny Swim When the War is Over

My goodness, this song. Melodically it's kind of a downer, but I find it pretty hopeful, too. Also, you are allowed to roll your eyes at the fact that I just used the term "melodically" as if I know squat about musical composition. In any event, this song put me way deep into my feelings and my thoughts and my prayers. It seems like there is something very important in this song that goes along with some of the things that God has been trying to teach me in the last several months. Things I definitely don't have a good grasp on yet. See number 5 for the processing and the lack of fully grasping.

2. $8 Target Tank

These are my very favorite tanks for summer and they're only $8 each.

3. Anrabess Denim Short Overalls

I don't know if overalls are a clothing style that I have aged out of, but you're going to need to pry my overalls out of my cold dead hands. I ordered these last week. They come in a bazillion colors and are on sale for 23% off.

4. Scamanda

Why am I into yet another weird-woman documentary? I don't know, but this one is WHACK. It's on Hulu and is the story of a woman who faked cancer to get sympathy, money and internet fame. The lengths to which she goes to sustain her lies are insane.

5. On Becoming Like a Child

Alert: SO MUCH rambling and likely too much vulnerability for the internet. On a Friday, no less. You've been warned:

I've been thinking a lot this week about the verses where Jesus implores us to be like a child. This scene shows up in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.. 

"I assure you that if you don't turn your lives around and become like this little child, you will definitely not enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3.

I have delivered not one, but two sermons on these verses. So let's just say that I have spent some significant time trying to grasp the concept.

Guess who still doesn't fully get it?

I've been struggling with neck and shoulder pain for over four months now which has led to an inability to exercise which has led to some depressing days with a side of good ol' rage. I've mentioned it before, blah, blah, blah. I'm so over it. Lots of physical therapy, doctors, injections, etc. When this passage came up again this week, I was thinking about the "kingdom of heaven" not as the eternal life beyond Earth that He promises, but more as a sense of peace and of healing that He makes available to us in the here and now. Take that as you will. I'm not a Bible scholar by any stretch. 

As I was walking my dog yesterday, I contemplated this verse again and asked (God, not the dog), "Why are you sending me this verse again? We've covered this one. And if I'm not doing it right, then, ok, so like, how? How are you asking me to change to be like a child? What is it I'm supposed to do? Just tell me what to do and I'll do it."

And there was the problem.

This is what I heard (again from God, not the dog), "I'm not asking you to do anything. Stop trying so hard to do what is not yours to do. Stop striving, stop laboring, stop overthinking, stop managing and stop beating yourself up when all of your efforts fall short. I'm not asking you to do, I'm simply asking you to be."

I'm not saying that all was right in the world when that came to me. I'm still trying to figure out what it means to just "be".  I am objectively terrible at just "being". I understand the concept logically, I think. Of being still, quiet, surrendered, mindful. Of trying to sort out what is mine to do and what is His. But this "being" without "doing" is so far out of my reach lately.

As much as I have studied about grace and mercy, I still cannot get a handle on it. I honestly don't know what it is to not strive. To not try. And no matter how much I can write and preach about the fact that we don't need to earn God's love, there must still be something in me that seems to think that all my efforts will bring me His favor. That some way, some how I should be able to fix my problems. This is false. I know it is, but I'm finding it so hard to shake.

In the song I mentioned above there are some lines that keep rolling around in my head:

I've been waiting for so long, I've been holding out hope. 

I've been ready to fight. I've been ready to flee. 

Only wish I could remember how to live in peace. 

When the war is over, maybe I can try 

To be less of a soldier and a bit more like a child.

Very little children have it figured out. They simply are. They aren't, at least at a very early age, trying to soldier through life or to prove their strength. They understand their helplessness. I remember my little boys looking up at their daddy and saying, "Daddy, up! Daddy, up!" with their chubby hands reaching toward him when they were tired or scared or hurt. They stood there, simply being in need, with arms outstretched. They weren't trying to figure out how to make whatever they were feeling go away on their own. They knew where their safety and security could be found. Not in themselves, but in the arms of their father.

No matter how wise or strong or disciplined I have imagined I have been in this life? No matter how much I've imagined that the "good girl" routine has paid off? It was never me that brought any blessing, comfort, peace or healing I've experienced. It was always Him. I am to become like a child. One who doesn't have to do anything, but only has to be. Which is to say a child in need of a Father. Of a Savior. Of the One who carries me. The One who always has. Let us trust that He won't stop now.  

Bonus Favorite: Play Off Baseball

Go Cougars. 

Have a great weekend.

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