This week I will start with another confession…I am not one of those people who has a list of New Year’s Resolutions! Ideally, it is a great idea—a new year, a fresh start, new resolutions. Maybe it has a little to do with not wanting to feel like a failure, if by chance, I don’t follow through with those resolutions.
One thing that I try to keep in mind though is that actually every day is a new day, a fresh start, new chances to improve our life in whatever way we feel led by His Spirit. God’s mercies are new every day!
Toward the end of 2014 a friend of mine introduced me to a new concept; something called a “word of the year.” I have adopted this practice since New Year’s 2015 and wanted to share it with you in the hopes that you will be inspired to implement this practice as well. In my humble opinion, it is something you can start and do at any point in the calendar year.
Doing this allows me to focus more on the positive, how I see God working in my life, rather than looking at the possible failure of not obtaining the resolutions I might have made.
The way this has worked in my life is, especially during the month of December, you start thinking and praying for the Lord to direct your “word of the year” for the following year. Look for what theme or word the Lord brings along your path, in your Bible reading, people you interact with. Maybe it is something you were struggling with the past year or that the Lord showed you to be more open to.
Once you have that peace about your word for the year the task is to keep on the lookout for how God will use that word powerfully in your life throughout the coming year.
Photo courtesy of Leonard J Matthews under Creative Commons License (CC BY-ND 2.0)
This year, the same friend of mine, introduced me to a Facebook group called “One Word 365 Community” where people share their word of the year, ways the Lord has used that word in their lives, even collages people make with their word and about the significance of their word in their lives. It has been inspiring and very interesting to see all the different words and sharings that people were led to choose.
In fact, the thought has occurred to me that it would be an interesting thing to change the word each month as there are so many great and meaningful words that can inspire our walk with the Lord.
What is a blessing is to see how God will open your mind and heart to see how your word jumps out at you in different circumstances in your life throughout the year. Be open to see God at work! It always brings a smile to my face when I see Him!
In fact, at Christmas time this year, a friend sent me a card with only the word “Believe” on the front of it. Continue reading to see why I had to share with her after how much it meant to me.
Depending on your word of the year, it is possible God would bring one of these passages to your sight throughout the year~
Photo courtesy of Charlotte90T under Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
In case you were curious as to some possible word choices, I will share my words of the year, and what the word meant for me personally in my life journey, to give you an idea and maybe inspiration, in case you decide to try this practice in your life starting one day soon.
Helped me realize with Christ, I am empowered to do more than I ever thought or knew. It helped me gain confidence in who I am in Christ.
Helped me see I could grow in my faith, in my abilities, in my actions and have more faith in myself with Christ.
Helped me keep forefront in my mind that only with Christ do we have true hope; hope that everything works out for our best with Him.
Helped me focus on believing more than worry; put my faith and trust in Christ being in charge of all.
(Did you catch why the Christmas card I received was so meaningful? :))
2019-This year I ended up with TWO words!
was the first word I felt strongly about…
Action to follow that small, still voice right away; not delaying and merely thinking about it. As Nike says, “Just Do It!” Send a quick text or note to someone telling them you are praying for them, say that prayer right away for that person that comes to mind.
Shortly after, I felt strongly about the phrase…
Showing love not judgement for all people that I meet. Share that unconditional love that God shares and has for each one of us! He does not judge us; He loves us unconditionally and is always waiting for us to return to Him.
I was confused a little in my mind about having the two words and as I was sharing that with my friend that started me on this word of the year, it occurred to me that in reality the two words work in unison as well as individually…..
I can put into ACTION that UNCONDITIONAL LOVE!
As an added bonus for me this year, because of joining the Facebook group I mentioned above, I found there is a gal there that has an etsy page, called Beautiful By His Design. She lovingly will create your “word of the year” using the calligraphy and water color combination that you request. I think it is such a nice touch to have that simple reminder right before your eyes and love how mine turned out!
Can you help me finish this post?
If you are a person who already does this word for the year, if you feel so inclined, please share your word and what it means to you, in the comment section below.
Conversely, if you are inspired to start this practice and in a few days of reflection come up with your word for the year, please stop back and post that as well. It is a blessing to share and learn from each other!
The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. –Lamentations 3:22-23 (NLT)
PS I will not be posting next week as I am slated to be away; feel free to stop by anyway and read an old archive post or two! Blessings~Hope to Inspire you!
Gratitude is my word. I keep the sign Susan made for me when we were at Sky Lake by my chair in the living room. The sign Susan says “gratitude “. It reminds me not only of you and Susan and the time we had together but it also reminds me to be grateful for my life regardless of what might occur.
That is very nice special, Sandy!! Thank you so much for sharing~I love the great truth of your reminder. I am so grateful for the gift of your friendship and how our lives intersected. Be blessed and continue with that gratitude!
FOCUS keeps coming to me as I read this. Heaven knows I need to!
That is great, Donna! Thank you so much for reading….I’m glad you were inspired with a word too! Keep that focus! 🙂
Blessings be upon you and with you my dear friend Christine. How amazingly appropriate to be reading this post. Sensed that I really needed to reply to it as what has already been confirmed in my life is this: 20/20 VISION. Seeing things more clearly and with A LOT MORE clarity. Allowing the Lord to organize my thoughts by taking every thought captive to make it obedient to Him.
I have found in the previous and now passing year of 2019 that when we ask God for confirmation in our lives, He MOST DEFINITELY has many different avenues of doing so. Let me just say that 2019 has been quite an amazing journey of both healing and numerous confirmations of God’s immeasurable love being poured into my life through many various means. 2019 has also been such an inspiration of renewed hope and watching God do some really mind blowing things. My friend, I am so very extremely blessed that you have gotten to be a part of this journey with me. I am so TRULY grateful to God for your continued prayers, encouragement and sharing of His hand at work in your life.
There’s so much to that “20/20 VISION” because it’s spot on with seeing things from God’s perspective. The fact that this has been confirmed quite a few times already in my life is simply showing me God’s continuous handy work in motion. Just know this my friend; you are a tremendous encouragement and outpouring of His unconditional love to the body of Christ already as it is. It’s interesting that you’ve chosen to ask God to implement MORE of this into action. As a matter of fact, there’s a scripture that ties in very nicely with what has given you to hold onto.
1 John 3:18 “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”
How very fitting indeed that God is in the center of the vision He’s given you for this upcoming year, and yet this will follow you your entire life. Since you are very close to His beating heart, you already know that His infinite love reaches to the heavens and His faithfulness stretches to the sky. Pretty sure there’s a song in there somewhere, lol (hint: Third Day 😉 ) So you see, God confirms, reaffirms and reassures that this indeed is His beating heart for you and for the many of those who are longing for that deeper connection, affection and even protection of His love.
Many blessings to you my dear friend and may He continually pour into you His overflowing of immeasurable love and may this overflow from your life to the many lives of others He will bring into your path. May He wash over you continually in His Word to confirm, reaffirm and reassure you in the great plans He has for you to walk out. May His perfect peace resound, abound and be ALWAYS around you in all things pertaining to life and godliness and may He draw you increasingly and unceasingly to the very beating heart of His throne where you hear His voice saying to you: “This is the way; walk in it.” Oh how He loves you so very dearly as HIS PRECIOUS DAUGHTER. Shalom.
Christopher~~Wow….Your words are always such a blessing in my faith journey; such an encouragement!! Thank you for the many ways you speak life into my soul. How I love that “20/20 Vision!!” So very perfect for this coming year. 🙂 Yes, that TD song made me SMILE big time!! Somehow I think I’ve heard that a few times….more like every TD concert I have gone to! 🙂 May God continue to bless and guide your every footstep as you continue to serve and seek Him each moment. My 2020 word is “Contentment” though I really only had confirmation from a blog post I read about discontentment; it just felt like MY word. A few days ago I read 1 Timothy 6:6….my definite confirmation for that word! Blessings for that 20/20 Vision, my friend!
I think for me – word of the year could be humility. I was thinking about mercy, as another one, or “joy” and “acceptance” as a few others. But after spinning my thoughts over and over again, my main word is likely humility. That was kinda of “tricky” question to ask – word of the year – but maybe sometimes I think way too much…..ha!! (can a person “think” with his/her heart?)
Humility is a wonderful word, Carm! I’m so glad you have a word for the year. I think it is good to strive for something like that. As I shared, sometimes we fail but we can keep trying. It is always interesting to see “ways” your word will come up to remind you of it throughout the year. 🙂 I am definitely with you with thinking way too much! 😉 And, yes, I think we “think” with our hearts too. Blessings, my friend!
Greetings yet again. It seems we all do indeed have a great deal of “humility” to be learning through this most challenging of times. It’s so easy to get caught into the web of everything else that’s going on around us and then lose sight of those things that truly matter. But, what is “humility” really?
There’s probably so many answers that one could give to this very question. Anywhere from admitting that we really don’t have the answers to anything going on, especially during this time to realizing we do need God’s Strength to pull us through it all.
Jesus says in John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
But, Jesus’s Words went so far beyond just speaking about this love. He put it all on display on the Cross at Calvary. He who has known Eternity from even before the very onset of creation became a man to die on a hill that He created. Think about it: He died on a hill that He created. He knew what awaited Him before it ever came to pass and He still chose to go through with it.
This has to be the most profound definition and expression of humility: God’s Love put on display through His Son, Jesus Christ. This loving humility stretches far beyond the confines of time and baffles every rationale within the human mind. Nothing could ever possibly match this kind of humility or love.
And this same humility and love found In Christ speaks to His children even this day. That we too ought to be putting His Love and His Humility on display by laying down our lives for our friends. It doesn’t stop there though. Christ who calls us His friends tells us that we are to even lay down our lives for our enemies. That which Christ is compelling us to do, He has already done. After Jesus had been beaten, bruised, mocked, spit on, nailed to the Cross and utterly humiliated, He had one simple, yet profound response: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
We too at one time were enemies of the Cross before we accepted Christ into our hearts and lives to have His Perfect Way and His Perfect Will transform us from the inside-out. Those that are enemies of the Cross don’t know what we know, but that doesn’t mean we cannot show them. Indeed, we are to show everyone the reason for our hope, no matter what the cost may be. If Jesus was able to endure the ridicule, the trials and the challenges this life brings, we too can be like Him and endure it until our very last breath. Shalom.
P.S. the heart is the seat of the mind, the will and the emotions. It is the core (very central part) of our being. Just remember this that His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are His Ways our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His Ways are higher than our ways. [Isaiah 55] God’s Word indicates, He knows a word before it’s even on our tongue. [Psalm 139] Indeed, He knows us better than we know ourselves. Praying that you are drawn closer to His heart which beats endlessly with Perfect Love for you. Shalom.
What great truth you share, Christopher! Jesus truly was the ultimate example of “humility” as you point out. It is a blessing to explore the many ways He modeled that for us. Thank you so much for reading and sharing! Blessings to you~
Thank you so much for referring me to this post. I am still so amazed and humbled when God speaks into my life!! As I stated in the email I sent to you yesterday, (telling you about my crazy life and then shyly asking if you had a word or life verse…lol) mine is Grateful. Agradecido. Danny Gokey’s newest song by that name is really good imo!! Little did I know then that you had blogged about this very thing a few years back. Not only that, but you had been doing the same thing as me with words and verses. Let’s see….2016-2019 it was Grace. I knew the definition of the word and all but never actually believed it for myself. I was really good at giving grace to everyone around me. But not so much at receiving or living in grace. So it took me some years I guess to absorb the full meaning. 2019-2020 it was Believe. Learning to believe that His grace and love for me was unconditional. And that… Romans 8:28….He works all things for good for those who Love Him! Which brings me to 2021 Agradecido!! Now that I’m finally starting to grasp His unmearsurable love for me, how can I be anything other than Grateful? Looking back over my life I can see His hand covering me at every moment. Even when I ran out ahead. Thank You Lord that I could not outrun Your reach!!
Wow…God sure is good how He connects everything! Thank you for taking the time to read this post and for sharing. 🙂 It is pretty amazing to see the similarities with our words and verses! Yes, you are so correct that we can’t be anything but grateful!! God has done so much for us by sending Jesus and for the way He works in our lives! Continued prayers and blessings to you and your family! Blessed to know you~
My word this year will be Gratitude. These past couple of years I have been working on myself. In this journey I have really counted on so many people to help me on my new path. I always felt my faith was strong but I was weak in my Personal relationship with Jesus. The blessing of friendship is vital to the path of sanctification. I become so aware of the Value of friendships. I used to have trouble getting over friends and family deaths. Now I so appreciate the relationships I’ve learned how to celebrate the times shared with them. One of my recent experiences was with a 80+ year old Gentleman, Uncle Pete. Our relationship started with attending weekly mass together. Wow imagine that. My heart was singing. We would discuss the homilies for days after. Hence my personal relationship with Jesus was alive and I wanted more. I miss my Friends and family members Every day. But now I find Great joy in having them in my life. So yah GRATITUDE. I’d be remiss if I don’t mention you Christine. When we met that day in Johnson City to get a copy of your new book you had a glow about you. You were so sweet and kind. I have shared your books with friends and the inside changed. So I am so Grateful for you and your influence on my life. You’ve made me a better person. With love and GRATITUDE my dear friend. Be Blessed always and have a wonderful and healthy 2024.🙋♂️✌🙏💚
Greetings, Pat! Thank you for faithfully reading my reflections and your beautiful, heart-felt message that filled my heart with joy. I, too, have become so aware of the value of friendships these past three years because of the ripple effect of meeting Uncle Pete through publishing that first book. How grateful I am that YOU were one of the men that came with Uncle Pete! You are a beautiful light shining in this sometimes dark world. I so enjoy the spiritual conversations we have as we challenge and encourage each other on this journey. I wish all the best in 2024 to you and your family and I look forward to getting together soon! God bless~ Love and prayers.