Still Standing

I'm trying something new today.  Since I had five minutes to spare, and a quiet house (the children are out playing in the dirt and sprinkler, which really means 'mud'), I thought I would try this writing prompt that I've seen a few times before.  The idea is to write for five minutes straight using a prompt word or thought.  Typically hosted by The Gypsy Momma, Five Minute Friday is over at (in)courage today. 




Today's prompt:  STILL

begin...

At 35, I still stand on the shoulders of my parents.  Now in their 50's, their lives are a living sacrifice to what mine has become.  And they still stand on the shoulders of the generations who came before them.  In fact, if I look down, I might just get dizzy.  The depth of sacrifice of a parent so their child can have, do, or be more than they imagined is daunting.  Going without is second nature to a parent providing for their offspring. 

Yet, what happens when there is nothing to give?  When the parent provides all they have materially but it is still too little?  Poverty, tattered clothes, if I look down a few people from my perch, I see those who have gone before me who endured it.  I see a girl who stole to provide food for her sister and brothers.  I see a boy who went to school with cardboard soled shoes and ate his lunch at the generous hand of a teacher for he had none.  By God's grace, they endured, persevered through it, and still stood.

Further down, a soldier stands.  Enlisting in the Civil War, helping to provide the freedom he enjoyed to all.  Generations deep, I see others fighting for freedom.  Not in wars or with weapons.  No, I see men who risked it all, coming to a new country for religious freedom.  I see them toiling the land, carving a place in this new country for their families to live in peace and worship the true God.   By God's grace, they, too, endured, persevered through it, and still stood.

So, today, I still stand, but a new generation has risen.  A new layer has been added on top of the lives my husband and I lay down in sacrifice and service to those who will come after us...for our children and their children to come...

May we, too, by God's grace, endure, persevere through it, and still stand.

stop

P.S.  You are allowed to spell check and add links and pictures after the five minutes...
so of course I did that!