What If Your Word of the Year Isn’t Working?
—Grace & Truth Linkup
Should I Have Chosen This Word?
What if your One Word seems to backfire?
Have you ever felt that your life leaped out of control with your word instead of becoming more peaceful and calming?
After choosing Breath in 2010 as my One Word, my father was diagnosed with lung cancer. And died by Valentine’s Day.
Then seven months later in the same year, after several years with Alzheimer’s already, my mother also took her last breath and joined my dad in Heaven.
I wasn’t sure I should have chosen Breath.
Seeing both my parents lose their capacity to breathe in the same year felt like too much.
Featured Post—Word of the Year Dilemma
Maybe that’s why Lauren’s honesty really resonates with me this week as our featured post.
Lauren chose Trust in 2021. While she gleaned much from it and grew in her relationship with God through it, she also wondered if she learned her lessons from it.
But is still wondering about our word maybe the sign of a good one?
Our words are often signposts pointing us to our need for more of God, more of love.
At the end of every year, I make a list of things I learned from my words. From Breath I learned that inhales and exhales work best in balance, and to not take even breathing for granted.
Yet I also learn at the end of each year I have more questions about my word (and maybe about life) than when I began.
Maybe that’s how God is growing us.
The more we know, the more we realize we don’t know. And the more we want to know. About life and beauty and goodness and God.
I don’t regret that I chose Breath in 2010. It left me hungry for more Spirit.
As I wrestle with Release as my word this year, I have a strong hunch I’ll see it differently in December than I see it now in January.
At least that’s what I hope.
Read all of Lauren’s post at her blog, then add your own blog links below.
If you feel like your word may not be prompting change yet, hold on. The year is just beginning. God still has a lot of time left with it.
I’m starting a #Write28Days series on Tuesday, February 1: Find Your Mantra {28 Daily Mantras}. But I’m realizing I don’t even have a mantra for my word RELEASE. Hmm…if you have any ideas, pass them along! I do have a verse though: “God arms me with strength. His perfect way sets me free.” 2 Samuel 22:33 (GW)
For Lauren’s new 2022 word REST, I’d offer the mantra I’ll share on February 14 (and one of my personal favorites): “You don’t have to finish today.” I find much freedom (and rest) in the reminder I don’t have to get everything done today. It’s okay.
Share your thoughts in the comments.
I’m linking at these blog parties
1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.
2. Comment on 1 or 2 other links. Grace & Truth linkup encourages community.
3. Every host features one entry from the previous week. To be featured, include this button or link back here on your post (mandatory to be featured, but not to participate).
We encourage you to follow our hosts on their blogs or social media.
MAREE DEE – Embracing the Unexpected
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LAUREN SPARKS
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LISA BURGESS – Lisa notes
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TAMMY KENNINGTON – Restoring hope. Pursuing peace.
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Now Let’s Link Up!
You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enter- Find Your Mantra {28 Daily Mantras} Introduction (Series begins February 1)
- Find Your Mantra {28 Daily Mantras}…Table of Contents
I have a sense that, for me, REST is going to be a wild ride, and maybe it’s those hands-off words like RELEASE and BREATHE that we have to really trust God to live our way into them?
Here’s a mantra idea for Release – “Let go or be dragged.” I have a magnet with this mantra on it ; it was my sister-in-law’s magnet and she gave it to me during an intense season of my life when I was struggling and overwhelmed with a relationship in my family. That magnet is one of the few things I put on our fridge; it is a daily reminder for me. Maybe its message will speak to you like it did and does to me.
This is a powerful mantra for Release! Thanks, Carla. I’m definitely writing that one down and will use it. I’m already thinking of ways I’ve seen myself “be dragged” when I didn’t release. 😉
“Our words are often signposts pointing us to our need for more of God, more of love.” He sure know what I need more than I do! I’m learning to expect the unexpected from God. 🙂
I believe words have power. The question become was Breathe a prophetic word for your life or a word of encouragement to get you through the year. For the past two years I chose words around completion and getting it done. The thing I wanted to get done didn’t come near completion. But the everyday job tasks that were hard to perform due to family issues were accomplished. We got through a move to a new house and I learned a workable system to keeping my house in order. God used that word to push me on when I could have just thrown up my hands. I didn’t chose a word for 2022. I’m just reading the word and asking God for daily guidance.
Oh my, dearest Lisa. I’m so very sorry about your parents’ loss. I can’t imagine how hard that was for you, and to know that the breath of life had stopped for them. So, so hard.
Turning a sharp corner, this thought came to mind: What if your word isn’t working? Remember that God always is!
Love,
Lynn
God always gives me my word so I know it’s the one I need. That being said, this year has started very differently than the last couple of years.