I’m joining today with the Five Minute Friday community of writers who write for 5 minutes about a one word prompt.

Today’s writing prompt: MIDDLE

The middle of a cinnamon roll is the best part of the pastry. Does anyone even really like the outside? 

It’s a bit tougher, a little chewier because the heat permeating from the oven got to it first and stayed with it the longest. 

It’s the same with any pastry, dessert or dish, really. 

Think about the middle of a chocolate cake, or a chocolate chip cookie. You can’t wait to sink your teeth into the gooey center, warmth filling your mouth as your taste buds run wild with pleasure. 

When you find yourself in the middle of life, though, it tends not to feel so gooey, chocolatey and warm. 

It tends to feel like the stiff outside of that cinnamon roll;

Dull, uninteresting and maybe even a little undesirable. 

I mean, there’s a reason why you now have the option to purchase only the middle of the cinnamon roll rather than the entire pastry. 

They do this so you don’t have to deal with unraveling it the old fashioned way. You get what you want and you don’t have to work for it. 

But life doesn’t work that way and it’s not likely that anyone is going to unravel your life for you just so you can get to the good parts. 

Life is made up of a beginning, middle and end and we are a people who long for what’s next. We get excited about new beginnings and then find ourselves longing to get to the finished product. 

The middle of anything – a project, a career, a marriage –  can become monotonous, mundane. 

It can easily become ordinary and simple and sometimes even a little difficult and wearisome. 

We tend to forget though that the middle, mundane moments of our lives make a life whole.  

The middle is what takes up the most space in our hearts and in the course of our lives and we have a choice. 

A choice to either view the mundane with awe and wonder or a choice to keep yearning for what’s next and miss out on the joy of what’s right in front of us. 

I’m beginning to believe that there’s no such thing as a small blessing. 

Light leaking in from a kitchen window. 

The smell of a new book cracked open for the first time. 

The way shades of apricot and coral mix together to create the glory of a sunset. 

Children laughing and ‘I love yous’ before bed.

Standing at the kitchen sink as soap bubbles stick to wipe the grease away from a dinner plate. 

All of the middle moments of our lives are God-given gifts each day to be opened and wondered at. 

When we choose to find awe in these moments, when we choose to be content and find joy right in the middle of our lives, we are responding to the deep call of the Holy Spirit within us. 

The call to worship and receive each gift as it comes.

The call to be loved by the Giver, Himself.  

We get one chance at this great, big life and we get to choose how we spend our middle moments. 

I want to spend them showing up honestly, truthfully and full of love and lots of laughter. 

I want to spend them with a soul filled with wonder and a heart washed with the love of God.

This is the day that the Lord has made;

let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:24

xoxo,