#fmfpartysnailmail {If you're looking for community, this is for you.}

If you ask me, there isn't enough happy snail mail going around. These days, the overwhelming majority of envelopes found in my mailbox are addressed to whatever resident happens to be current; grocery store fliers or glossy envelopes telling me I'm pre-approved for the latest and greatest deal with a credit card company.

And its no secret that the bulk of our lives has been slipping away silently, as we become more and more absorbed in the world of followers and friends and likes. We crave community and fill up with cheap counterfeits. The other day, I signed up for a series of emails that promised me if I followed the given advice, I would have multitudes clamoring at my words here. But the more I thought about it, the more I despaired. Would I really matter to those people? How many would subscribe, and leave my words idle and unread in their inbox? I promptly unsubscribed, feeling a bit like a loser.

Its enough to make anyone feel a little queasy, if you think about it long enough. And the truth of the matter is that it isolates you.

I first became acquainted with #fmfparty through a friend. I had just gotten married and moved to a town where I didn't know anybody, so loneliness plagued me. I longed for an authentic community where I could share life's joys and pains with women who really understood what it meant to live real and live raw. I wanted to get beyond the profile photo to the heart. #fmfparty, for me, was confirmation that God heard my prayers, and a reminder that He gives good gifts.

And now, #fmfparty has expanded from an on screen community to an in hand community with #fmfsnailmailparty.

Once a week, we sit down at our desks and dining room tables and on the inside to write letters. Five minutes a week spent writing an embrace that can be held in the hand; a reason to race to the mailbox in the afternoon. From mamas up late to nurse their babies and college students studying for finals and empty nesters and literally everyone in between. We gather at the altar to encourage one another.

For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst. -- Matthew 18:20

Its such a blessing to be part of a community of women who live full and real and raw for such a time as this. 

And you, friend, are invited. It would be God's great grace to walk with you throughout this season.