If you had to choose a word–one single solitary word–to represent your hopes, dreams, and aspirations for the new year, what word would you choose?
A word to live out. A prophesy over the steps you’ll take and the dreams you’ll seize.
Last Year
This time last year, I chose the word, LEAP.
And leap through 2013 I did!
I leapt from the safety of WordPress.com to the great unknown of WordPress.org. And I couldn’t be happier about that decision.
I leapt back onto the theatre stage again after several years off. It felt good to be under the hot lights again. To put on someone else’s shoes for a while. Walk around in them a bit.
I leapt into a new decade, turning 30 this past March. And I have never felt more sure of myself or my leaping than ever before. For that growth, I am grateful.
I leapt onto a cruise ship for the first time this past May, conquering some of my greatest fears in doing so. And not only did I survive to tell the tale, but I dare say I thrived….
I leapt to attend my first blog conference this August. The butterflies in my stomach quickly gave way to warm fuzzies as blog buddies transformed into real-life buddies! And I cannot wait for Haven 2014.
I leapt from referring to myself as “a person with a blog” to “a blogger” sometime around my first blogiversary. For some reason, that felt like a big deal. Bloggers, maybe this resonates?
I leapt to entertain you all by singing a song for you on YouTube. To be silly. To be me. To do something that both terrifies and thrills me all at once.
I leapt to embrace an age-old dream of dying my hair fire-engine red. And I did it! (Peek-a-boo style.) And I have no regrets.
And so that I never forget this past year and all the leaping it entailed, I have that one word spelled out in a beautiful wire necklace, hand-crafted by my friend Johanna. She lives in Germany–we’ve never met in person–yet she made and mailed me a necklace; further evidence that I’ve encountered some of the most kind, generous, and loving individuals through blogging. So, here’s a random idea: maybe we need to watch less of the news and hang out on blogs more. It’s just a thought….
This Year
This year, I choose BALANCE. Or rather, BALANCE chose me.
Sometime around this fall, when I was starting to feel really overwhelmed by my overflowing email inbox and the plethora of blog comments I had not yet responded to and blog post deadlines I was struggling to meet, I thought to myself,
“Something needs to change. If I want my blog to be sustainable, and I do, I need to change the way I’m doing things. I need more balance. And since I’m my own boss here, it’s up to me to create that balance.”
And I think it was then that I knew what my “one word” for the next year would be.
Yet this balance I crave? It does not come naturally. Remember, I’m a perfectionist. A people-pleaser. With an “all or nothing” personality. I’ve grown accustomed to going the extra mile to create a really out-of-this-world project, even if it means pulling an all-nighter or ignoring the laundry for a week or (cough) three. But it does not lead to healthy living. Au contraire!
And while I don’t expect zen-like peace every waking hour (nice though it would be), I do know that there are some changes I can make to my life to create more balance. For instance:
a morning routine that involves prayer and Bible reading, prior to even glancing at my email inbox!
daily distraction-free, timed writing
regular exercise (because we’ve fallen off the wagon in a major way…and I’d love to get back to our 3x/week routine)
get back into the habit of menu planning (just need to fix a few parts to my Menu Planner to Rule Them All that fell apart after a violent slam of the freezer door into the wall, and we are ready to rock)
working smarter, not harder (i.e. scheduling social media and automating my email newsletter)
delegating responsibilities with The Silhouette Challenge Facebook Group I coordinate (and thanks to my Support Team of 6 great gals, I’ve already started to do that!)
build more margin into my blog posts by posting 2-3 posts/week instead of 3-4; also, working more than a day ahead on blog drafts!
boundary management a.k.a. “the art of saying no” (which is one of my greatest struggles, perhaps second only to my sweet-tooth struggle!)
taking intentional breaks where I “unplug” completely (it was such a valuable exercise for me this past summer)
A lot of the “work” of this goal for balance is done through developing new habits. And that’s never been easy for me. (Discipline is not my strong suit.) But I have hope you can teach an old dog new tricks. Especially if that old dog is fed up enough with the way things are and is yearning for a change. Like this old dog is.
So, here is my new year’s prayer: for the strength to relinquish old habits and the perseverance to commit to new ones. Even though they may go against my natural inclinations. Even though every bone in my body may resist it. Because I know it will be good for me in the long run. Kind of like spinach.
I’ll be back again soon with my Blogging Dreams & Goals for 2014 (<– here they are). And this year holds some BIG dreams! Although I hinted at many of them here, I’ll be sharing more juicy details about exactly what I’m itching to accomplish in this brand new year. In the meantime, feel free to look back at my Blogging Dreams & Goals for 2013. What a difference a year makes, right?
Your Turn
What about you, dear reader? If you had to proclaim one single word for your 2014 year, what would it be?
Where to Next?
I’ve been choosing a word of the year for a decade now! It’s been one of the most meaningful practices of my adult life. For the curious ones, here are some more rabbit trails worth exploring:
- 2022: Faithful
- 2021: Remember
- 2020: Enough
- 2019: Presence
- 2018: Rhythm
- 2017: Nourish
- 2016: Purpose, not Perfection
- 2015: Surrender
- 2014: Balance (you’re here!)
- 2013: Leap
Greetings, friend! I’m Lauren – girl-mom, theatre geek, Jesus-follower, & pun-lover. And I’m thrilled to welcome you to my cozy corner of the internet, The Thinking Closet. Here, my passions for creative projects & soul-rest come together to inspire you to believe in your enough-ness so you can life the life for which you were made. Won’t you grab a yummy drink and stay a while?
I know I say it every year, but I can hardly believe how quickly the past 12 months have flown by. It seems especially true this year. 2013 has been a rough one for us in more ways than one and I can’t say I’m sad to see it go. I have high hopes for 2014, though. Sometimes when you come to the end of your own resources, you are forced to realize that you were never meant to do things in your own strength anyway. Why do I always seem to forget to call on Jesus first, rather than as a desperate last resort? I have good intentions to spend quiet time with Him everyday, but it seems like my prayers are something I hastily utter as I move through the “have-to’s” of each day. I have to get this done, I have to get that done, I have to go here, I have to do this, and so on.
This will make the third year that I’ve chosen a word to claim as my focal point for the year. I have prayed about it. I have pondered it. I have asked myself about the point of it at all. I have a draft folder full of unfinished blog posts about my word for last year and the year before. I just never had the time to properly formulate my thoughts. My word last year, peace, certainly didn’t seem to have much bearing on the year I experienced. Peace seemed to be elusive at every turn, though that is more my own shortcoming than any flaw with the concept itself. So what could I focus on this year that would align with God’s will and my own internal chaos?
The answer came in the question itself: PURPOSE.
Why am I dealing with so many health problems?
Why did we have to move from a place that we loved?
Why am I blogging?
What direction are we taking with our homeschool studies?
Why can’t we ever break even, let alone get ahead?
What does God want me to do with all of this?
Those are just a few of my questions. There are so many that range from the mundane (how can I get all the housework done?) to the life-changing (how can I lead my children to Christ?).
Some things just don’t make sense. I can’t see a clear answer. Some things are born out of frustration, being overtired, stressed, and generally overwhelmed. Some questions are born out of a genuine desire to follow God’s will — that whole embracing destiny theme.
When I have a moment of clarity, I know that it all has a purpose. Our Heavenly Father wastes nothing. There is a reason I am here. There is a reason I am in this situation. There is a plan and a purpose for it all.
Purpose. In the grand scheme of things, my purpose is to glorify God. I’m to be a shining star for Christ. I pray that I am, that I will be. How can this purpose be accomplished? I must surrender my will and my plans in exchange for His greater purpose.
My goal for this year is to clear away the debris — both the mental clutter and the actual clutter. I want to focus on my God-given purpose for motherhood, marriage, home, homeschooling, and even blogging. There will be some changes around here.
I don’t like the idea of resolutions because those don’t last. Choosing a word will help me to purposely focus on the race set before me. I don’t just want to run it aimlessly. I want to finish strong. With purpose.
- Author
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Sara is a homeschool mom to 3 creative girls. She holds a degree in Social Work specializing in early childhood development, which led to her interest in individualized educational options like homeschooling. She believes that learning should be a lifelong adventure, not just a checklist to get through. She is a writer, avid reader, introvert (INFJ), and dreamer of dreams.
I think I’m going to do it again.
I think I’m skipping New Year’s Resolutions for something that for me and many others, has seemed to work much better. I’m referring to building my year around one simple, clear theme that reflects where my spiritual, mental and overall life wheels have been turning.
You can read more about the idea behind the idea here.
What’s interesting is that in establishing that one-word theme, you have no idea at the start where it may take you. My one word for this past year was Lean. You can read more about it here. This year I have learned much about leaning in, leaning on the Lord, and getting lean than I bargained for. Some of that was a case of seeing the light; some was a case of feeling the heat.
To be clear, I didn’t always lean well this year. But I learned more, experienced more, accomplished more, and was challenged more by that level of focus on that one word than if I had made a list of New Year’s resolutions.
So. What about now? What’s this year all about?
To get a clear idea, I knew I’d have to go to the Sanctuary – to that place where I seem to hear the Lord more clearly than anywhere else.
Time to head to the shower.
I happened to be in Athens, Georgia for my nephew’s wedding, and my hotel room just happened to have a shower readily available. So there in the steady spray of life and spirit made possible by the Holiday Inn Express, I began to wait on the Lord and search for my Descants of the Soul. What has been the “back beat” – the song behind the song – of my life over the most recent seasons?
If I had turned it into a dialogue between me and the Lord, it would have gone something like this:
Me: Lord, what should my One Word be for next year?
God: One
Me: Exactly. Just one word that’s the theme for what you are working into my life and where I need to focus.
God: One.
Me: That’s right. Just one. Not a long list of resolutions. Just a single word.
God: One.
Me: Yes, that’s what I’m saying – just…
God: ONE!
Me: Huh? Ohhhhh!
(Sometimes it takes a little while for some things to sink in.)
A Building, Recurring Theme
This year’s theme of One began early last year, when the folks at Dr. Pepper played this commercial during the National Championship Game. The song, by the Nashville group Vinyl Hearts, inspired this post and later inspired the theme for a Single’s conference where I was blessed to speak.
Then a couple of months ago I was having a conversation with someone about heaven and had one of those heard-myself-saying-something-that-had-to-be-the-Lord moments. “Do you know what I think heaven’s going to be like?” I said. “A place of complete oneness and unity. That’s why Jesus prayed that we all would be One in John 17. He wanted us to be one as He and the Father are One. That’s heaven.”
Then every once in a while there is something in my temperament that has to be reminded to reel some things in. I tend to be a scattershooter who can be “pretty good” at a lot of things, but get too restless to focus enough for knock-‘em-dead excellence. I hate saying no to anything that looks like an opportunity. So by not ever saying no to anything, I am saying no to everything in terms of results. I seem to be in one of those seasons where the message seems to be, Focus, Focus, Focus.
So, My One Word for 2014: One
Clarity of Focus
What if I began every day the way I am beginning this year? What if, rather than a list of urgent things to be done, I approached each day with one target – one focus? What if I took on every day by asking, “What is the ONE thing that, before this day is complete, I need to get done?”? In other words, instead of focusing on productivity in the urgent, I’m focusing on productivity in the important.
It’s not that the urgent things are ignored or neglected – that just leads to emotional anarchy. It’s just that the main thing for each day becomes the true main thing. And I believe if we get better and better at doing this, our lives will reflect more order, better priorities, more peace, and yes, more saying “no” to the trivial.
Unity of Heart
The more I understand of the heart of God, and the older I get, the less patience I have for the constant bickering that is American life. I’m tired of culture wars, worship wars, political wars, denominational battles and (please!) theological wars.
I’ve about decided that American church members are going to be a bit lost in heaven (assuming they get here) because in heaven there’s nobody to fight or argue with.
Sure, conflict is inevitable in a fallen world. But that doesn’t mean I have to frame my entire life around it. Nor does it mean that I have to approve of or agree with everybody I connect with. What if we spent a year focusing more on how we share life than on how we disagree or disapprove? What would that do to our fellowship? How would that affect our level of wisdom or love? What would that do for the spread of our gospel or message?
Integrity of Life
Integrity means more than telling the truth. It means being true to who we are, both in the ways all of us are alike and even more so in the ways we are all unique. And the wonderful part of being one-in-a-billion is that we don’t have to give up our uniqueness to walk in unity or fellowship.
You are nobody’s clone and you don’t have to be. Your one assignment is to be the one person that one God has designed you to be. Live as the person you are naturally talented, spiritually gifted, and gloriously saved to be. Do that, not as an expression of selfishness, but as an expression of love for God first, then others.
What if we focused every day on being the one? The one person that only we can be? The one role only we can play? The one task or purpose only we can fulfill?
That’s what “One” means today. One focus. One heart. One life. And that’s my One Word for 2014.
I’d love to hear yours. Feel free to click on “reply” below, enter the Resolution-Free Zone, and let me know what your One Word is.
Tagged as:
Focus,
Integrity,
Unity
This the first year that I have chosen One Word for the year.
“One word that sums up who you want to be or how you want to live.
One word that you can focus on every day, all year long.
Your one word will shape not only your year, but also you. It will become the compass that directs your decisions and guides your steps.”
I had thought of choosing “Nothing” last year, as in “The Son can do nothing by himself.” (John 5:19) or “By myself, I can do nothing,” (John 5:30)—but it seems a bit too “Click on me” and attention-seeking, like a trick One Word.
My hope was that I would do nothing—not choose a holiday destination, blog topic, activity, or conflict, without checking in with Him. But perhaps it is providential that I never did write that post, for I have failed. J
* * *
I played with a couple of words this year. Exponential, a word inspired by Idelette who describes it: Not one plus one plus one. 1 + 1 + 1 but the zing of multiplication.
Oh, Lord, I thought: I want that, I need that, in my writing and in my life.
I could write so much more than I do. I could lose so much more weight. I could use my time so much better. I need your wind in my sails.
* * *
The other word I wanted and desired was “acceleration.”
Then I thought of that Ignatian question, “How do these words make me feel?”
Short answer: Tired.
Nope, they were not for me. The updraft of the Holy Spirit was not in them.
They were fine as prayer requests, as free gifts from God, but not as goals.
* * *
So I choose another word which is the real, true desire of my heart: Alignment.
I visualise God as a waterfall tumbling with good ideas. The ideas we need to blog better, to run a home or business better, to get healthier or parent better are found in Him (a bit like the Room of Requirement in Harry Potter, but one for good ideas). I want to bring my mind, spirit and imagination in alignment with him.
I see Jesus as a very kind person who knew how to love. I want to bring my heart in alignment with his.
I can be full of nervous energy, bursting with ideas, plans, dreams, schemes and ambitions. I want to bring these into alignment with the dream He has for me–for He has a dream for me, just as I have a dream for each of my daughters.
He is wisdom. I picture his wisdom as a straight golden ray of light, like you sometimes see on sunny days in Oxford. I want to step into that ray of golden light, in alignment with him.
All of us do, achieve, produce a fraction of what we are capable of, and a fraction of what we want to because we fritter away our energy on ideas, activities and plans which are out of alignment with who we really are; with the dreams and ambitions we have for ourselves; and the destiny our Heavenly Father has in mind for us.
I want to submit what I write, where I travel, what I buy, what projects I take on to my Father’s wisdom. I want them to be in alignment with his ideas.
I want to slow down, to live deliberately, in Thoreau’s phrase. Ah, that would be another nice resolution: “I will live my life slowly!”
* * *
One last reason I want to be in alignment with God: He is truly a waterfall of ideas. When I am still and quiet and listen, ideas and creativity flow, more ideas for blog posts than I have time to write.
When I am tired, I feel a bit insecure, too middle-aged, not disciplined enough, not energetic enough, not well-read enough.
When God’s people tell him about their inadequacies, he does not bother to reassure them. (Some of these things may well be true!!)
He has another solution.
* * *
This was Jeremiah’s response to his prophetic call:
“Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”
7 But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’
9 Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth.” (Jer 1 6-9)
Alignment: When God puts words in your mouth.
Or as the Lord reassured Moses,
“The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” Exodus 4:11
For that, one must be in alignment.
* * *
When we are in alignment, God helps us speak and teaches us what to say, and a blog post or essay or talk which could take hours or days can be done rapidly, and is exponentially better too.
Exponentially better, exponentially faster, exponentially more—the only way I know to bring off any of the above so that the very thought does not weary me is:
Alignment.
So Lord, take 2014. Make it an amazing year in my life, the best so far. And let me live it in alignment with you.
“Help me through the changing;
You know that sometimes fear takes over,
bring me ever closer, ever closer to you,
bring me closer to the child you want me to be.”
~ Crossbeam. Grace
I walked along a dirt path this morning.
On a winter cloud-puffed day.
The mist had pulled its blanket over the hills.
I don’t mind the cold. A soft-worn scarf, gloves and my robin-egg blue beanie keep me warm. In the winter,the trails are bare except for the occasional walker here or there.
So, I welcomed the stretch of quiet solitude and brisk-chilled air, the way a swimmer welcomes a breath of air between strokes.
The kids returned to school this week so I’ve been stuck in the house cleaning up, trying to clear a space for the new year after the holidays.
It will take more than a few days to put things away.
There are things I want to get rid of. That I’m not quite sure if I can.
I keep saying I might need it.
I might want it.
Later.
But, I know I’m not the same as I have been.
It’s time to change.
To let go of who I’ve been, to discover who I am becoming.
To dare to believe who God says I am today. As is.
Into The Soil
The one word God placed on my heart last year — as He whispered into my anxiety-ridden sobs — has now become the one word He’s gently placing into my hand.
This one word was planted like a spring-blooming flower. In the winter. Down into the soil of my heart. In the dark.
This one word surfaced during my year of panic attacks.
I didn’t understand how it could be true.
I didn’t understand how to live it fully.
And as I made my way towards the close of 2013, I heard it again.
It came audibly to my heart one lonely, dark moment I relived in a memory last month.
How I used to lie on the floor.
Crying as a little girl in the dark. Watching gray silhouettes of dust bunnies blur with tears in the glow of street lights and traffic headlights streaming past our house.
I didn’t understand why I was born.
Why was I here?
In that echo of pain, the little girl in me did not know Jesus was right beside her.
My One Word
This was me in the past. But, the me today saw Jesus kneeling beside her. His arms placed around her.
As the tears flowed and with my hands clenched, I wished — oh I wished Jesus was real in the skin. So, I could open the palms of my hands and grab onto Him.
In this intimate moment, Dr. P asked me to think of a beautiful place I once shared with Jesus.
My rolodex of memories spun and there I was, a twenty-something young woman sitting in the moonlight, snow falling into a canyon and a creek.
It was there, my soul heard God’s Winter Song sing over me.
And it was there — in that moment — as I relived that memory of God’s beauty and comfort, I heard the one word.
It was the one word God the Father said about Jesus — during the only two times His voice was recorded as having spoken in the Scriptures. When Jesus was baptized and when He was transfigured.
Beloved.
You are my daughter.
…Beloved.
This is my One Word for 2014.
Beloved.
Too Beautiful
I’ve been thinking a lot about this one word.
Buried in the winter of my heart.
I picture Jesus kneeling beside that little girl on the floor.
And I imagine Jesus’ kind, gentle hands taking hers into his.
Soothing it.
Warming it.
His teardrops falling to touch it.
Leaving an imprint carved on the palm of His hands.
It’s my name.
Though I’m reluctant to say it.
It’s too beautiful.
It’s too perfect to be true.
But, it’s what I see looking into my trembling hand — as I turn a new chapter along my journey, recovering from post-traumatic stress.
Beloved.
It’s as if Jesus is telling me —
Don’t simply think about this word anymore.
I want you to live it.
The journey isn’t over.
It’s just begun.
A New Prayer
Beloved.
It’s prompting a new prayer in my soul for this year:
Begin a new work of love in me, Jesus.
This is my prayer.
Like the mist rolling across mountain tops this morning, I saw the sun begin to crest. Emerging.
And I saw both mist and sun. I’m in the middle.
You know those spring-blooming flowers buried in the cold of winter?
Its bulb is programmed by nature to not only survive the cold, but to use the period of winter to trigger a biochemical process necessary to bring the bulb to flower in the spring.
Invisible to us, “nestled inside each is a tiny embryonic flower complete with leaves, surrounded by layers of plant food ready to nourish the bulb to bloom” (1)
Spring-blooming flowers must be planted in the fall.
Something Beautiful and True
My one word for 2014 is moving from my heart into my hands.
Together, let’s become the Beloved God calls us by name.
Let’s take this journey together this year.
I think about you and me.
We are soil for God’s one words.
We are good soil.
He has planted something beautiful and true in you this year.
It doesn’t matter how the journey looks or how it will travel.
The beauty of the faith journey isn’t measured by how far you’ve walked; it lies in who you’ve been walking with.
And the Person we are walking with changes who we are.
Listen this year.
To the one word He’s already planted in your heart.
Look this year.
At the words He’s placing into your hands today.
Draw near this year.
To the One who calls you His.
Becoming The Beloved
And if it’s not clear what you hear or what you see, it’s okay.
Because the One we belong to sees us.
Hears us.
Loves us.
We are His beloved.
Let’s encourage each other on this journey of faith.
Becoming the Beloved.
Let it be our anthem.
Share your voice —
Dare to live —
As the Beloved.
One movement. At a time.
Closer to Him.
“The scribe tells us what he has read
and the prophet tells what he has seen.”
~ A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God
“But you, beloved,
building yourselves upon your most holy faith,
praying in the Holy Spirit,
keep yourselves in the love of God…”
~Jude 20
~~~~~
What is your One Word for 2014?
What is a new prayer emerging from your heart?
Pull up a chair. I’d love to start the new year hearing from you.Click to comment.
{ Psst… If you’re still reflecting on your One Word for the year, feel free to circle back and comment later. The link-up below will stay open until the end of the month. I’ll be creating a special graphic with all our One Words so we can see our community’s One Word journeys visually. }
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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3) Then, pull up a chair. Visit the post before yours and say hi with a comment. Make a faith friend.
*Today’s Thursday 1/9/14 Writing prompt:
What is your One Word for 2014?*Next Thursday’s 1/16/14 Writing prompt :
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1. [A.D.R. Bulbs, “Why Bulbs Don’t Freeze In Winter”, http://www.adrbulbs.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/home.showpage/pageID/141/index.htm]↩
I gave up making new year’s resolutions three years ago. They didn’t really work for me. I’d lose steam about six weeks into the new year, or I would forget about them altogether in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. And if I did happen to find my list of resolutions, I would become discouraged because I hadn’t met those lofty goals which, I might add, were always set so unrealistically high they were unattainable anyway. Then I stumbled upon somebody’s blog with the ONE WORD concept. Since that time many other ONE WORD websites have sprung up detailing this idea. I did a Google search this morning and found a lot of ONE WORD websites, so I’m not truly sure which one I read three years ago.
But the concept is straightforward and simple. Forget resolutions. Choose ONE WORD you want to be your ‘mantra’ or focus for the year. It can be a verb or a noun. Anything, really. My first ONE WORD was a good one. It was PERSPECTIVE. Even now, I still think about that word. A lot. Especially when I am disappointed or feeling down or sad. I ponder that word and realize that I have the choice to view everything in this life with perspective. Everything I do or say or think in this life is a choice. It really is the epitome of “the glass is half empty / full” sort of thing.
Last year, it took me almost until February to come up with my ONE WORD. I don’t know why it was so hard for me to choose a word last year. I thought and thought and thought about it and finally chose the word DELIGHT. It was also a good word. And it worked for me for a little while. But (if I’m being really honest) somewhere between summer and autumn I forgot the word. Yep. Unfortunately it just didn’t really stick with me. In fact, although I could easily remember my word PERSPECTIVE from the year before, I actually had to go back and look at my blog post from last January to see what my ONE WORD had been!
This year however, I chose my ONE WORD for 2014 back in early December. And it hit me like a lightning bolt when I was feeling blue and rather out of sorts with myself. At the time, I had no idea what to get my husband for Christmas. We were trying to keep holiday expenses in check and opted to do small, thoughtful things for each other. I had no idea what to do for him. Finally, I had a great idea: I decided to make him a photo book.
But where to start? I literally have somewhere between 10 and 20 thousand digital photos stored on my external hard drive. I had to narrow down the selection. So I thought it might be fun to make a photo book of all the highlights from 2013. I started in January and chose some of my best photos from each of the months of 2013. The birthdays, the big events, the funny pictures from our everyday lives. And then there were the trips. Oh my goodness, I hadn’t realized just how many trips we had taken in the past year alone!
It was fun for me to re-visit those fabulous locales, breathtaking vistas and so many happy memories. I ended up with dozens more photos than I could fit into one photo book. I included photos of our boys, our home, our cherished pets. And as I gathered all my favorite photos together to create this “year in review” photo album, I was enveloped with a feeling of supreme thanksgiving and gratefulness.
And then it became abundantly clear. My ONE WORD for 2014 is:
GRATITUDE
This isn’t just a feeling. For me, it is a verb. It is action. I am and will be grateful for the untold blessings in my life. There are so many!
And as I was working on this photo book for my husband, my ONE WORD was reinforced when I happened to be watching that perennial favorite holiday movie, White Christmas. There is a scene with Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney where he sings, “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep.” The concept being that if you’re so busy counting all the blessings in your life, you won’t have time to worry!
So just for fun, I “googled” the word GRATITUDE and the first link that came up was the Wikipedia definition. Oh gosh, you can certainly look it up and there is a very long, tedious, definition and lofty explanation….yada, yada, yada. But I found the following paragraph to be particularly interesting and timely:
Grateful people are happier, less depressed, less stressed, and more satisfied with their lives and relationships. Grateful people also have higher levels of control of their environments, personal growth, purpose in life, and self acceptance. Grateful people have more positive ways of coping with the difficulties they experience in life, being more likely to seek support from other people, reinterpret and grow from the experience, and spend more time planning how to deal with the problem. Grateful people sleep better, and this seems to be because they think less negative and more positive thoughts just before going to sleep.
The simple act of creating a photo memory book spurred me into seeing just how wonderful and how blessed my life truly is. It began as a gift for my husband, which he totally loves and appreciates; but ultimately, it was a gift to myself.
This year’s word is one that will stick with me. I’ll not only remember this word on a daily basis, I will focus on it and put it into action. I will appreciate my family, my friends, my fun little career, all the wonderful people I meet throughout the year, and give thanks to the Lord for all the many blessings he showers down upon us. That doesn’t mean I won’t experience my share of heartache and bad times; I know that into every life rain must fall. But I will do everything I can to have GRATITUDE for my faith to get me through those bad times.
It is my greatest hope and wish that each of you might choose the ONE WORD that means the most to you for the coming year. If you’ve chosen your ONE WORD I’d love to know what it is and I hope you’ll share your word with me here in the comment section.
Wishing you blessings, peace, joy, and a heart full of gratitude in 2014!
By on January 1, 2014 / Family, Fun, Holiday, Hope, New Year, ONE WORD, Winter