New Beginnings

It’s here! 2016 is here. A new year has begun. What does that mean to you? To me it is a fresh start, a new beginning. I laughed this morning when in an email from FaithGateway (a publishing company) I discovered they were promoting a book called “My One Word”.  I have not read this book but it came up in one of my dear friend’s Christmas letter which I received last week and now it shows up again today. When things repeat themselves in my life I try to pay attention. Here’s what FaithGateway says about the book, “My One Word”:

“The concept of My One Word is simple. Lose the long list of New Year’s resolutions—all your sweeping promises to change—and do something about one thing this year instead of nothing about everything. Choose just one word that represents what you most hope God will do in you, and focus on it for an entire year. This single act will force clarity and concentrate your efforts. As you focus on your word over an extended period of time, you position yourself for God to form your character at a deep, sustainable level. Growth and change will result.”  (emphasis mine)

The Lord laid a word on my husband’s heart several years ago to help us with the upcoming year. Yesterday, even though my husband has a terrible cold and really doesn’t feel well, he brought our “one word” for 2016 to me.  It’s that important to us. As I shared this word thing that we do with some friends earlier this week I could tell from their comments they thought this must be some deep, intellectual word. Truthfully, one year our word was “inconvenient”. Just having that word “upfront” in the year helped us deal with several things that happened in our lives. We weren’t surprised when it turned out we needed to continue driving an hour and a half each way every weekend to a church we were helping. It didn’t completely un-nerve us when my Dad needed more and more help with my mother who had Alzheimer’s Disease and eventually died that year. We had been prepared that some things in life are just inconvenient and that’s okay.

I won’t tell you what our word for 2016 is, at least not yet. It is “our” word. I’ll admit I’m a bit excited to see how this word will play into our 2016. I have a focus. For me focus is a good thing because I’m interested in a ton of things! Focus helps me enjoy what is going on today instead of always looking ahead for what is next. Focus helps me choose what I will and will not do. Focus helps me learn, really learn, not just gain a “talking knowledge” of something. I’d like to challenge you to take some time to chose a word, or a focus point/area of your life that you will allow to grow in 2016. Share your word with a friend or in the comment section. Our choices always become more real when we tell someone. I can tell you that I am going to focus on two areas of ministry this year, worship and writing. What will you focus on?

If you are interested in reading “My One Word” for more encouragement you can find it here: Faith Gateway  It sounds like a good book, but remember I haven’t read it. I’ve lived it!