My One Word

We are now two weeks into the new year. Did you make any New Year’s resolutions? If you are like me, you make them and by now (two weeks in) are rethinking them or kicking yourself for already breaking them. Or if you have felt clobbered by life (as I did in 2009), maybe you pushed the whole resolution thing aside in favor of just surviving.

Some friends online told me about a New Year’s idea that I love – it’s called “My One Word”, and the idea is that instead of making a bunch of resolutions or promises that are hard to keep up with, you choose one word that represents what you sense God is working on in you, or what He is doing in your life, and you focus on that one word or idea for the year.

Just thinking about it is helping me do some positive soul searching. In retrospect, my word for 2009 would have been “Survive.” I survived multiple surgeries, the loss of two children, two cancer scares, and more stress than I have ever been under. My word for 2010 would have been “Strength” as I focused on regaining my strength physically and emotionally. Looking ahead at 2011, I keep getting drawn to the word “Submit.” Not a word we think about real positively in our culture, is it? We think of submitting as giving in and giving up. But the Greek word for it, hupotasso, actually is a military term that means “to arrange in order under” someone. The idea is not mindless obedience, but yielding out of respect for the one over you, and this is what I sense God is doing in me this year.

• I want to submit to God’s plan for my life, whatever it is, day by day.
• I want to submit my choices to the Word of God.
• I want to submit my character to the Holy Spirit’s molding power.
• I want to submit my needs to others’, beginning at home with my husband, and extending that to other relationships, too, with my family, my co-workers, and my friends.

As you look at this next year, what is your one word? Where else can you go with it? If you’ve lost a baby recently, maybe what comes to mind first is remembering your child in heaven. As you think on that, what else can you remember? God’s promises? Who you are in Christ? There are some great ideas on the website www.myoneword.org. I encourage you to think on this and ask God to show you how He wants to move in your life this year, how he wants you to steward your story. I am praying for you.