Ordinary {Five Minute Friday}

I am linking up with Lisa-Jo Baker and the Five-Minute Friday crowd once again, with the one-word prompt: Ordinary. Feel free to join in!

Here are my best words on Ordinary (GO!):

Ordinary. Just a word, but a loaded one.

I wonder how many of us have lived years of ordinary.

Years of being a masterpiece, but not believing. We are living, breathing works of art.

It seems too far to stretch. So we live ordinary, hidden.

The good news is, eventually we learn to see ourselves and the world through wiser eyes. We see the beauty in all types of others, and finally see the beauty in ourselves.

It turns out none of us is ordinary. We are God’s works of art, that’s what. God’s masterpieces!

To be or not to be? That is not the question, but this:

Will we live as the extraordinary art we already are?

Will we put the painting on display?

Follow the nudge to reach out?

Reject the perceived standard of perfection and offer ourselves, who we are, what we have?

Author, Emily Freeman, recently released an amazing book, A Million Little Ways, on this topic. She offered 3 words earlier this year that are still unleashing volumes in me. Go make art.

Go. Make. Art.

Knowing your art will likely not be the best art out there. Make it anyway.

Your art could be singing or dancing or painting or writing or baking or encouraging or teaching or caring or playing or anything else. What did He make you to do?

The way to live extraordinary is to do it. To live it.

To be the friend you want to have.

To love every soul who crosses your path.

To hold the door, and share your umbrella.

To offer a smile that makes somebody’s day.

To keep your heart open and ears listening.

To tell what Jesus has done for you.

To teach with heart and bake with abandon.

To load dishes prayerfully, clean messes patiently, and fold laundry thankfully.

Sometimes our art–who we are–is buried, hidden, withdrawn. Sometimes we miss golden opportunities to love and give ourselves to the world around us. Sometimes we talk about our life like it’s just so ordinary.

But we are masterpieces, friends. Nothing in who we are is ever ordinary.

STOP.