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
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