What's Your Word?

Somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas I start thinking about my “word” for the next year. I begin by praying and asking what the Lord has for me and how he is wanting me to stretch and grow. Is there a challenge I need to overcome? Is there a virtue I want more in my life? Is there something I am passionate about? Then I start looking for clues. I read devotionals along with the attached scriptures. When I read books or listen to songs, I pay careful attention to anything that grabs me. It is like going on a treasure hunt. The criteria is simple: the word needs to stand out and speak life to me.

Journaling is very helpful through this process. If I see a word that has potential, I write it down, look up its definition and write out all the meanings. If this word is still speaking to me, I research scriptures where that word might appear, look up different translations, then write down the passages.

When I decide on a word, I often don’t know what God is trying to show me. Last December, my word was “sustain.” It kept coming to me – over and over again. In all honesty, I didn’t like this word because it implied that I would need sustaining. That rattled me. In the end, I embraced the word as an opportunity to grow. I asked my husband to engrave the word “Sustain 2020” into a bracelet for me (myintent.org) because wearing my word becomes a daily reminder for me to watch God at work in my life.

In the circumstances of life in 2020, the word “sustain” has been healing for me and I am overwhelmed with gratitude to a God who speaks so intimately. This year I needed to be reminded that He was, and is, sustaining me through the unknowns of the pandemic, through my financial worries, through the fires threatening my home, through the health scares, and through all the uncertainty in our country.

As we are fast approaching the holidays, I invite you to join me in this process and take time to think about where God is leading you and what word he might be giving you for 2021. There is no magic formula to this process. It just takes asking God and being open to his leading.