Five Minute Friday: Real

03 Feb Five Minute Friday: Real

It’s Friday again. Woo hoo! Today I join The Gypsy Mama to write for five minutes on her weekly prompt. No editing or rewriting allowed. Click on the link to her site if you want to try it, too. The prompt this week is “Real”.


GO


Real life is something you don’t often see much of in the world of the internet. Bloggers can pretty much create the life they want you to see. The good ones try to keep it real. But today I’m grateful that I have a real life, too. The times I have been most real are when I open up and become vulnerable. When I let others into this real life of mine which is not neat and tidy and not always clean and good. No. It’s messy and dirty and ugly at times. There have been three people groups that learned the real me. No pretty facade.


My friends in Colorado. They were the first to really see who I was. I was 21 and I didn’t know it was okay to not be perfect. But I learned in those four months to let go of all my masks. 


My Bible Study group that started shortly after we were married and pretty much ended after we had kids (although our friendships didn’t). They got to hold my hand while Todd and I walked through some rocky times and found the strength to stand again. (Lucky them!) 


And now, friends at church, who were just on the sidelines for years, have come into my life fully. They are the ones I call crying when I don’t know how I’m going to make it through the day. They are the ones who see the ugly me. The real me. Not the smile I put on for the rest of the world. John Eldredge said, regarding community, “it’s hard, it’s messy, it is never ever exactly what you want.” And that is so true. 


But it is one thing: it is real.  


STOP


That was SO much longer than five minutes, but once I said there were three people groups, I couldn’t stop without hitting each of them! Well, there it is. No facade of rewriting or deciding this post isn’t good enough to make the cut. You get the real me today too. Now, don’t you feel special?