It’s still early in the year so I wouldn’t label you a late bloomer yet for a One Word choice. 🙂 “Hold fast” sounds like a powerful theme! Glad your son’s stomach issues are over; hopefully mine will be soon. Still in the middle of testing for now though. 🙁

I appreciate your prayers, Jean. As the week has progressed and I’ve tried to get doctor appointments, I haven’t been as “welcoming” as I’d like. ha. But that’s okay. Grace to grow into! Today is a new day so I’ll claim his new mercies and begin fresh.

I always admire when people choose “joy” as their word because it has a lot of “trust” built into it as well. Although I don’t know you in person, I definitely see you exhibiting joy online so I can understand how your friends tell you that they already see joy in you. Gonna be a good year ahead!

Lots of profound insight worth repeating in your comment, Floyd:

“It’s amazing how different the world is when we use our free will to see it that way. The Way.”

Sitting with this for a few minutes before I get started with my day…. Thanks, brother.

It should be an exciting year with “wonder” as your word, Betsy! I’ll look forward to what God will bring into it for you and your family. Already I’m not doing as well as I hoped with “welcome” but that leaves me lots of room for growth, right? 🙂 God knows how to handle it all so I’ll try to trust him more with it all. Have a blessed week.

“Choose” was a brave pick. And now how perfectly that leads you into a year of “Behold.” I’m always amazed not just at how God helps us pick the right word for each year, but also how one year’s word leads into the next year’s word. My last year’s word “now” has been a perfect segue into this year of “welcome.” Can’t wait to see how God will use our words this year! Thanks for stopping by, Anna.

“Welcome” and “open” have SO much in common, so I’ll look forward to how your year unfolds too, Trudy. Brene Brown’s book would probably really touch you too. It’s very good about encouraging us to remain vulnerable in our worlds, even though it might be painful at times. The pros outweigh the cons. Blessings to you!

Thank you, Debbie. Agreed—pain has a way of capturing our attention like almost nothing else, for better or worse. I’m having more tests done today and next week to hopefully get to the root of things. Praying you have a wonderful year with your precious children!

Thanks, Maria. I do hope good things will come from “Welcome.” It’s already been challenging me and I’m falling short. 🙂 But I guess that’s one of the reasons God knew I needed it.

You are a living testimony to your word choice, Miranda. Thank you for sharing this. I pray that God will bring proper justice to your family sooner rather than later. Continue to hope!