It’s Friday, Friday, Snowmeggdon’s coming on Friday!  (I so hope you read that hearing Rebecca Black’s one hit wonder) . Silly songs aside, it is Friday and time for another Five Minute Friday post.   

Today’s word prompt was: bare.  I took a little creative license with it and had fun writing today’s entry. I hope enjoy reading, “Bare-ly There Church Planter”.

Wanna join in the fun?  
1. Write for 5 minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. Go buck wild with encouragement for the five minuter who linked up before you.
Bare-ly There Church Planter

When I think of the word “bare”, I think of the women intimates line called, “Barely There”.  Maybe if this word prompt came last week, I’d have a heartfelt post about baring my soul before God and being transparent in my relationships and writing, but not this week.  My husband is in San Diego at a conference for our denomination and he’s due back on Monday. It’s usually right about this time I begin cleaning the house to welcome him home and buying a little somethin’, somethin’ to …ahem…welcome him home.  
Which is why frilly, pretty, sexy underthings are on the brain. I visited Barely There’s the site for some inspiration for today’s five minutes post and found….. nothing.  Grrr!  This week’s entry is going to be a rambling mess of blah!  But then I thought about the purpose of having “barely there” underthings.  The company’s goal is to create undergarments that accentuate your positive, beautiful, glorious, go -‘head-girl-in-your-awesomeness body in an understated way (not great for creating wow-za moments for the hubby, but pretty helpful for a jeans and tshirt kinda day) . The bras and underwear are meant to support and help shape a more winsome you. “Barely There’s says they  “are ruffle, wrinkle, crinkle, line, tag and seam free.” Interesting, that the creators have decided that their underwear should decrease in frills,  so that our natural beauty may be increased.
 And I wonder where in the Bible have I heard of decreasing for the sake of increasing?  John, who after his disciples came running to him and reporting that Jesus was doing the work (baptizing and teaching) he did and wanting to get a prideful rise out of him, said, “I must decrease so that He must increase”.
I think there’s something there for me.  On this church planting journey, I know they’ll be moments when I want to say, “hey look at me in my awesome, frilly, pretty self! Check this way I’ve served and that way I’ve ministered!”  Maybe Jesus wants me to embrace being “barely there”—a support and help created to make the Body more winsome.  Humility is hard and modesty isn’t easy, but I think they help us tap into the heart of our Humble King who washed feet because he was so confident in His God-given identity. 
Prayer written after five minutes…
Lord, help me decrease so that you may increase. Show me my God-given identity that emboldens me to serve in understated, behind the scenes, humble ways.  Use me to support and help the Body, showing off her beauty.  Help me, Lord be “barely there”…

P.S.
A big snowstorm is coming towards Boston, so the kids and I are hunkered down in the house.  I’ve got chicken cooking for homemade chicken noodle soup, shovel at the ready (and an unsuspecting ten year old to send out clear our back porch after the storm), and a story cubes to play with the kids once I’m over hearing the TV in the background.  Please pray for me, this Southern girl loves the idea of snow more than the actual implications of it :).