One word for 2021

Every year I choose "one word" to focus on for the coming year. Resolutions are tricky. Once you've blown it with a resolution, it's over! But one word that serves as a focus for the year - well that's much more doable! It acts as a beacon in the storms of the year and helps guide you. It amazes me how accurate each word has been when I look back at the previous year. 

I find that I do best when I let the word "choose me." Somehow it's just a word that rolls around in my mind for days or weeks prior to the new year. I don't have to think much about it - it just keeps popping into my view as the new year approaches.

One year my word was "hope" - and that year hope was exactly what we needed when my husband's company abruptly closed its doors and he went 6 months looking for another job. Hope definitely carried us that year. 

One year my word was "move" and while I thought it meant I'd get back to running, that was the year I changed schools and started teaching at a small country school in the district that I really knew nothing about! So thankful for the blessings that came with that word.

This year my word was "good" - that's right. 2020's word was "good" and while it's easy to find all the ways it was NOT good, I believe that God is somehow still working it all out for our good. All of it. 

I will admit I'm ready for 2020 to be over. Most of the year has simply been a blur. I did learn some good things - like how to eat "keto" which has had a huge impact on helping me with diabetes management. I learned how to grow plants - not a lot of them, but for someone with a brown thumb, I was pretty happy about it. I learned a LOT about how to teach online and have even been able to tutor students after school thanks to zoom. 

Mostly I've learned to roll with whatever comes. We all have. I started to write about a lot of crazy things that have happened this year, but everyone could probably use their own lists...and how somehow it has all turned out for good. Really. Through it all, it's all been good.

This brings me to this year's word. At first, I thought I knew what it would be - "trust". Of course, with my history of what words mean, that word worried me a bit. Visions of trust freefalls came to mind! But as we get closer to saying goodbye to 2020 and hello to 2021, another word keeps rolling in my mind - "truth".

Trust - "Firm belief in the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing; confidence or reliance. Okay, that sounds about right. I know that my trust is in God and I rely on Him.

Truth - Now that's a tricky one. It has become popular to say that everyone has their own "truth" but that is absolute poppycock! Everyone has their own experience, but that does not make it truth. How many times have we watched those shows that show what happened from each person's point of view and none of them is actually accurate? They experienced something, but perhaps it was not true to all that was going on. There is so much more.

Jesus describes himself as the way, the truth, and the life, and as such he is the only means to the Father. For Paul, truth is the message of God that all of humanity has repressed ( Rom 1:18 ) and exchanged ( 1:25 ) for a lie, in that they have directed their worship not to the Creator, but to the creation. Ultimately, "truth" is God and His Word. 

So perhaps this year, my one word is actually two. "Trust Truth." That's not that different from what I originally thought it would be since I knew that my trust must lie in God and what He says. But I have to wonder, how much richer and more defined will these words be by this time next year.

Goodbye, 2020. You have been tough, but somehow through it all God has brought good from you. Hello, 2021 - I trust that Truth will prevail!

What will your word for the coming year be?

Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash

We're different now...

2020 has affected us all in many ways - most that don't show on the outside. I know this now.

It has made us harder - or maybe more resilient - or maybe just more able to roll with the punches.

For example - this morning I slept late (6:30) and was awakened by the dog to be let out. Okay - no problem. I need to get up, have coffee, and do some cleaning before going to get groceries.

I'm halfway through my cup of coffee when I start to smell something - something not at all pleasant.

Long story short(ish), some time last night after we'd gone to bed, one of the dogs needed to go out but being the sweet pups that they are, they didn't wake us up. Instead, he/she found a corner and relieved themself...and also underneath the Christmas tree next to the chair they always sleep in.

Whatever they had eaten did NOT agree with them and left a runny, quickly hardening mess. THEN - one of them (the boy dog) evidently stepped in said "late-night gift" while getting down from the chair and proceeded to run around the house this morning. That was what I "smelled".

Thanks to 2020, all this did not even phase me.

I just started cleaning, and cleaning, and cleaning, and cleaning - did I mention he ran all over the house?

Now, I have a nice clean floor for the weekend and I'm fairly certain, thanks to my keen sense of smell, that I do not have covid.

On a side note: if my family HAPPENS to get me a new broom and mop for Christmas, I won't be offended.

2020 does that to a person.

Romans 8:28

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose.

Photo by Ryan Franco on Unsplash

2020 can still be "good"

 

I've written before that my one word for 2020 was the word, "Good". While it seems that 2020 has been anything but good, I still believe that there is time to turn this year around.

At my school, a small little middle school in Mississippi, we have a service day planned for this coming week. In years past, we have sent students all around the city and surrounding community to give middle school students a taste of what it means to volunteer and help others. We've gone to nursing homes, places that serve the homeless, places that serve those in need - lots of places to help them see that they can make a difference in their world.

Of course, this year is different. Am I the only one tired of that word, 'different'?  This year we can't put students on cheese-wagons and take them around the surrounding areas to paint, sort, clean, etc. to help others. So our innovative administration is thinking outside the box and finding ways our kids can help others. Because it's in helping others that we find our own purpose, our own joy.

So, I'd like to invite you to join us in helping others. Maybe for you, it will be doing something like what I recently read about and you'll "pay it forward" by paying for the person in line behind you in McDonald's. Recently in a small town, customers at a McDonald's started sharing the love to the tune of over 900 people paying it forward! Can you begin to imagine the difference that made? Over 900 people changed the day of the person traveling behind them with a small act of kindness! 

As I shared that story with my students, I reminded them that THEY are in control of how 2020 ends. I'll admit that so far, 2020 has not been what I'd imagined and certainly not what I'd have called "good".  But there is still time to change all that. There is still time to make 2020 "good".

Our students have the opportunity to help out a place called Worthy Stables - a wonderful place that helps people with disabilities or people suffering from PTSD or those locked inside the trauma that would try to take their lives.

They have the chance to donate to Petal Children's Task Force and help kids, just like them who need food or help with school or a hundred other things.

They have the chance to help with Fieldhouse for the Homeless and help those who never imagined that one day they would live in a tent without a home or a job or the things so many of us take for granted.

They have the chance to brighten the day of those in nursing homes with cards and video concerts and small acts that let people there know they are not forgotten. 

They have a chance to make a difference in 2020.

And so do you. Maybe you'll dig into your purse and find some loose change to donate to the red kettle as you leave the store. Maybe you'll check out some of the charities I'll list below and make a donation. (One of my favorites is Worthy Stables!) Maybe you'll pay for the person behind you in the line at McDonald's. Maybe you'll find a way to make 2020 a lot less yuck and end it with a lot more hope. 

You make a difference. You really do. Don't' give up hope. 2020 can still be a year of "good".

Don't forget to check out some of the places that you can give this year and make a difference!

Worthy Stables

Petal Children's Task Force

Fieldhouse for the Homeless

Photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash

Temporary home

 

Do you ever wake up from one of those weird dreams and immediately start wondering what that was all about? No, I'm not talking about the dinosaurs dancing in tutus kind of weird, I'm talking about...well, let me just recount the dream.

Yesterday I woke up from one of those dreams that make you wonder. The dream featured some old friends that we haven't seen in literally decades other than occasionally on Facebook. It seems we were hosting a dinner party and for some reason, we were having it at their house. There were lots of people and of course my friends and dogs - lots of family dogs. Oh, and of course tons of kids running around. Everyone was having a great time, dogs would put their paws on the counter to sniff the food but even they were being polite - looking but not swiping off the counter. 

At some point, I went to put something on the stove and noticed that the wall behind the stove was scarred - that's the only way I can figure to explain it. It had been through years of something - maybe bad or sloppy cooking or something - anyway, the wallpaper (yes, wallpaper) behind the stove was sort of messed up and scarred. I thought as I put my pot on the stove to warm that it was odd that my friends hadn't tried to fix it, or at least cover it up with some sort of decorative something. I know I would have.

Then I heard my friends talking and they were saying how they were actually just renting this house. It was temporary and soon they would be moving into their new house and how excited they were about it. This home had some great features - lots of storage space, etc. and they were very comfortable in it but, well, the conversation faded out after that, or maybe I just don't remember it. 

There were other bits and pieces but that stove and what they had said were what really stuck with me after I woke up. 

How weird. Wonder what that was all about?

Then, on the way to work, it hit me. My friends were very comfortable in their temporary home and made no real effort to hide the flaws because it wasn't theirs. Oh, they kept it very clean and welcoming, but things like the scarred wall behind the stove weren't theirs to fix. They were concentrating on putting their resources into the new home that was being built. 

Me, myself, this body I live in is my temporary home. It's got some scars from use and misuse, and while I would probably try to hide those scars with something, it's really not worth spending too much time even thinking about. I'm sort of just "renting" this place out till my new home is move-in ready. The things that I think will embarrass me if they are seen aren't really worth spending time on. I do my best to keep things up, but this is an old place filled with lots of years of wear and tear. Instead of spending time worrying about it, I should spend my time enjoying the people around me and really living in this temporary home right now...wrinkles and scars and all.

So, there you have it. One weird dream and what I got from it. Oh, one more thing. When I got to school, one of my students was wearing a sweatshirt that read, "Embrace the awesome that you are!" I thought that was a pretty appropriate conclusion. I'm going to embrace the "storage space" I have and every part of this temporary home while I'm here. 

Hebrews 13:14 (NLT) "For this world is not our home; we are looking forward to our everlasting home in heaven."

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash