The Howell Blessings

Jumping back in with a beautiful group of writers over at Lisa Jo Bakers , for Five Minute Friday.  Today's word is Choose. GO: Life is full of choices. When we wake up in the morning we can choose to be in a good mood or a bad one, regardless of how we felt upon rising.  We can choose to love our spouse in spite of their faults or we can choose to harbor resentment towards them for not being meeting our expectations. I am currently choosing to do a 21 day detox diet, even though I could just as easily choose to stop at anytime and grab a handful of peanut M&M's, but I made a choice to do what I feel like is best for me in the long run.   We all need to make a decision on what we choose to do with and in our lives.  Some are short term choices, like my detox, and others are long term choices, like who we marry. The most important choice we can make is where we spend eternity. With any choice we need to decide what is best and stick with it.  It'...

It's  Five Minute Friday . Where everyone writes for five, unedited minutes all on the same prompt. This week, that prompt is the challenge itself, the dare if you will.  Lisa Jo has been encouraging honest writing and yeah baby...that is scary stuff.  This week’s prompt is “WRITE.” Here Goes. I’ve been writing since I was a little girl. I had a diary, as most young girls do, and faithfully wrote in it whenever I felt I had something I wanted to share with myself. I used it as a sounding board. Sometimes I would go back to change my thoughts to what seemed more appropriate even though the first draft was the most honest. As I grew up I graduated from a diary to a journal.  A journal sounded more mature than a diary, yet it functioned the same way. The writing it contained certainly had more mature themes though. I started the journal in my early twenties. The first few pages began with the dating of my husband then moved on to having o...

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true , whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.   Philippians 4:8  As women most of us are good about pointing out these thought-worthy things about other people yet we fail miserably at applying this truth to ourselves. As an adverb TRUE means:  in accordance with fact or reality, and  accurate or exact.  How many of us have stood in front of a mirror and whipped ourselves verbally for what we see?   Statistics say that an  average size woman in the US stands 5 foot 4 1/2 inches tall (or slightly more than  1.6459m) .  The high end of a healthy BMI (24.9) for this height is about 145 pounds (or about  65.77 kg). Why is it then that we (me included) look at ourselves in the mirror and focus on "that" jiggle, or "that" bulge? Even if you are someone who doe...

It's 5 Minute Friday and today's word is SMALL Go! They say good things come in small packages.  As a child I had a hard time believing that because I liked big things!  Bring me a bicycle and a horse, forget that small stuff  I wanted something big, and I wanted to be BIG! As I matured a little, I began to think maybe there was something to this small stuff. I liked perfume, which came in small bottles and books. Even later I thought I had it all figured out. Of course I know what they mean now....a diamond ring!  How perfectly small and good that was. Now that I am older, I realize that it's not always things you can buy.  I appreciate small things now, like a small squeeze of my hand by my sweetie, a small thank you note from my nephews and nieces or friends.  I appreciate a small act of calling just to say hi. But I think my favorite small things are the little packages that are coming along now.   ...

Today's word : Broken Go! We've all experienced being broken. For some of us we've had years of pain,  disappointment, fighting and giving in. We've had high hopes only to be let down. We've been so angry it causes tears to stream. We've had losses of those close to us whether it was a death of loved one, the death of a friendship or the death of a marriage. They say when one breaks a bone, the break heals stronger than it was before. It has been reinforced by the scar tissue that is only there because of the break. The Psalmist says * When the righteous cry for help, the  Lord  hears and delivers them out of all their troubles The  Lord  is near to  the brokenhearted   and saves  the crushed in spirit. To heal we must first cry. Cry tears of pain,  cry in sadness, cry in anger, cry in mourning. But above all, we must  cry out for help. Until we cry, we don't release what has broken us and begin the healing. Broken...

I am linking up with Lisa Jo Baker for her 5 Minute Friday writing flash mob.  Today's word - Belong. Go! I wanted to be just like my brothers growing up, except I didn’t belong to “the boys club”. Instead I was the one chased by my brothers on bicycles holding bugs out over their handlebars, taunting me with the horrid creatures they knew I was afraid of.   In high school I wanted to be one of the popular girls. Instead my parents moved 1800 miles away as I was nearing the end of my freshman year. The girls I came to like at my new school had different colored skin than I did and because of the state we lived in and the times of the decade I was told we couldn’t be friends. I couldn’t belong in their group.   As a young adult, I socialized with co-workers and neighbors. Most of them smoked and drank and played dangerously close to cheating on their spouses or significant others. I never really felt I belonged in that crowd, always begging out earl...