Some have suggested a word for the year to live by. Others decide on a word for their week. This week I heard of someone who wakes up every morning and chooses a word for their day. Having a Word of the year or week or day is a really fun way to set your intentions and theme for the year or each day, or any other life event for that matter. Instead of a rigid resolution, a Word of the Year is a constant (yet gentle) reminder to focus on creating positive change. Use your Word to help guide your decisions and continue moving towards what you want.
The first step to creating anything you want is to be self-aware and have a specific intention. A Word of the Year will help set you in the right direction by bringing more awareness to your intentions.
Your Word of the Year sets an intention, a theme if you please, for how you want your year or week or day to flow. Picking or choosing a Word of the Year is an excellent way to do this. You may just have one word that really sticks out to you for your yearly theme, if that’s the case, just choose one. Or, you might have a group of words or set of themes that you want to set as your intention—it’s totally up to each of us. And I think that it is something that I need to try harder to do. Someone has suggested how to choose your Word. Maybe this will work for you.
Grab a piece of paper and make two columns. On one side, write down everything that went well over the past year. On the other side, write what you would like to change.Then review the list of what went well. How do these things make you feel? What do you want more of? Choose up to five words that really speak to how you want your year to feel. Nouns, verbs, anything works—just words that feel good to you. Review them all, then narrow it down to one you know you need more of in your heart. Then, write your word on a card and stick it to your bathroom mirror or anywhere else you’ll see it every day. Some places could be on your car’s sun visor, your office wall, or make it your computer desktop or phone wallpaper.
Here are 50 words to spark creativity and reflection and inspiration: Transform, Courage, Harmony , Adventure, Balance, Resilience, Growth, Mindfulness, Joy, Empower, Focus, Heal, Innovate, Thrive, Simplify, Connect, Explore, Gratitude, Peace, Create, Nurture, Discover, Inspire, Flourish, Awaken, Believe, Reflect, Elevate, Persevere, Dream, Sustain, Empathy, Challenge, Diversity, Kindness, Wisdom, Freedom, Renew, Resolve, Engage, Passion, Vibrant, Calm, Illuminate, Transform, Integrity, Breathe, Aspire, Unite, Evolve. Some of those words would never be my choice but I am sure that they would be perfect for someone else.
I have used a few different words as kind of a theme for me in the past. Those highlighted words have all been themes at various times. They are words that have affected me strongly and this year’s challenges I have had.
Some days I could choose the word for the day—Be Still and know....... I can fill in many different ending words. The obvious ending is Know God. David said that no matter what was happening around him, God was his refuge and strength. Safe in the assurance that He is God, and we can wait on Him. That can be defined as "relax," "let go," or "stop." It implies an act of surrender. The original Hebrew word used for being still is raphah and it means to stop striving, to cause yourself to let go, to willingly submit ourselves to God and his control, surrender to God, to slacken off, leave alone, become weak, to relax, to let alone, to be quiet, to be silent, inactive or still. Be still and know God. Be still and listen. Choosing a word for your day can set the tone that your day can take. Choosing a happy word and concentrating on it might keep gloom and doom away from your thinking throughout the day. One year my word was Joy. I wanted to find the Joy in everything—no matter what. This year that word would have been hard for me. One Word for this year for me might have been Survival! And the Word Family. Every day I have had to renew my thoughts on–I will survive! Survive the difficult days, survive the pain until there can be relief. Survive the increase in the pain. Survive the next thing that can go wrong knowing that Jesus survived great pain and suffered even more than I. Who am I to expect to never have pain and sadness! Others have experienced the same and far worse. I will SURVIVE!
My other word for the days of this year is the word Family! While this year has seemed difficult, it would have been far worse without family! They have prayed with me and for me on some of my most discouraging days. They have come to my rescue when I saw no way out or no way forward. When some of the most simplest of things were too hard to even think about, my family stepped forward to help. I had help with moving a leg that did not want to do the prescribed exercises. I had help with laundry and have received food treats. I have had advice on how to do daily living that seemed so difficult. I have had advice on pain. There have been many cards and visits and phone calls and hugs and there are those who have taken over jobs that I thought were my jobs until they became too hard for me to attempt. Many have overlooked things that I thought were unpresentable for them to see. Several have been my extra ears to help me remember important information from medical people. Many have been encouragers when all I could see was a road ahead that seemed impossible for me to travel, and when I could see no way forward, there were many who kept reminding me that I only had to do one day at a time and that I could do just one day and then just one more day!
I have a husband who has had to take on duties that he normally does not want to do. We appreciate the willingness to drive us to distant appointments and push the wheelchair to make it easy for us to keep medical appointments even when it had to be pushed uphill with heavy me in it. And all these things were done because of love! I could see the love of God in action even through my tears. I have always known that my family has love in their hearts but this year I just don't have to know it—I see it!
Yes, one of my words for today, this week and this year has been Family! I am blessed with immediate nearby family and family far away and extended family and my church families. I am so thankful for each person. I so appreciate them and everything that has been taken care of and given to me. I feel indebted forever. But they have all freely given and don’t expect return benefits. I have not had to TRY to see God this week. I have seen Him in action through my Family. This reminds me of how as much as we can give thanks to God for all that He has done for us, He has given us so much more than we deserve or can even begin to imagine. Our thanks will be an eternity of gratefulness to Him. I can never repay all that has been done in love by my family for me. All I can do is love them and pray for them and that will never be enough thanks for the kindness and care.
I have a messy house. As I sit in my chair or painfully move to another room, I see the many things that I want to take care of—scrub, dust, get the webs, straighten, put in place. But I can't. All I see is a messy house! This week I read a story of a little boy who wrote a poem called "The Monster Who Was Sorry." The poem begins with a confession: he doesn't like it when his father yells at him. The monster's response is to throw his sister down the stairs, then to destroy his room, and finally, to destroy the whole town. The poem concludes: "Then I sit in my messy house and say to myself, 'I shouldn't have done all that.'"
Paul made a similar statement. "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but I do what I hate" (Romans 7:15). Regret has a way of shining the floodlights on the mess within us. If we are honest, we must admit that we identify fully with both the little boy and the Apostle Paul. Our Christian journey has often caused us to peer at the monster and the “messy house” the monster leaves within. With Paul, we cry, “Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24) Or in the New International Version (NIV)--"What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?"
Romans 7:24-25 is about the struggle to serve God while I am still in the fight against sin. The verse gives the idea that through faith in Jesus, I can serve God and do His will, even while I am still struggling with sin. Paul's confession shows how impossible my own effort to clean my messy house is. But I do not make that journey alone. In fact, I am probably the one who can see the mess and others would not have even seen the mess if I had not shown it to them in the first place. It is the Holy Spirit that reveals the ugly truth to me, but it is also that same Spirit that encourages me with the hope of a way out of my messy dilemma. Just as we are shown the ugliness of the monster within me, so too are we allowed to see the beauty of the only One who can tame the monster and clean our inner house. "Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows... But he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:4-5). Jesus tames my monsters and cleans my messy house. He alone removes from me the condemnation. The condemnation that is self-inflected. No condemnation from those who love me. No condemnation from God. He has volunteered to be my helper for the cleaning and is my Elder Brother in my FAMILY! The family member who cares and helps and loves and helps me SURVIVE!
My family helps me survive! And God does, too!