{{Today I am linked with Lisa Jo Baker for Five Minute Friday. Here is how it works…. One word prompt. Five minutes. No editing. Lots of women. Equals a great time.}}

Today’s word …… Ordinary.

I have been blessed throughout my life with friendships. Friendships in which we can talk and touch life deeply and intimately. Not surface kind of relationships with small and meaningless talk. But friendships with forever, eternal, get under your skin kind of conversations. The talk that mulls around in your heart and mind for days after. It impacts you deeply. Changes you in ways that you never expected.

These friendships have been forged with women, whom on the surface, might seem ordinary…..

• a married woman who lived in fear of husband finding another
• a single, unwed mom when unwed mothers were still unheard of in the church
• a retired older woman battling a most aggressive and violent cancer
• a divorced mom trying to figure out how to juggle re-entering the workforce along with all the daily pressures
• a married woman who has carried the load of “bread winner” for years
• a divorced mom of two little ones, battling mental issues that were so deep and so dark, it seemed to be a pit never to be traversed

My friends. These were those life changing relationships that I will always hold close to my heart. My forever, hold them dear friends. Why? The conversations and experiences we had together were far from ordinary. As we talked and cried and prayed together, we experienced the power of God come into our situations and breathe life in them. Into us. We survived. We overcame. We kept going even when the odds were shouting, “Give. Up!”

And when I think of my ordinary friends, this is what comes to mind:

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. (Acts  4:13, NIV)

And that is what makes my ordinary friends special….. When I see the courage that is deep within each of their souls. When I realize they were ordinary women, like me, and they are making it in life. I. Am. Astonished. And I know that they spend time with Jesus. He takes the ordinary and He makes them extraordinary in ways they know not. He has been with them, strengthened them and deposited into their lives exactly what was needed.

He Holds The Ordinary.

Today I am joining with …. Five Minute Friday and Fellowship Fri. and Friendship Fri. and Fun Fri. and Fri. Flash Blog and Faithful Fri. and Essential Fri. and Faithful Fri. and Faith Filled Fri. .