How do you end one year and begin the next? Do you reflect on the prior year, set goals, or make resolutions?
Over the years I have done all of that. Some years I’ve taken most of December to reflect on the year and prepare for the next year. Other years the old one goes, the new one comes, and I just carry on with the day to day of life.
Back in 2011 I faced a turning point in my life and my faith. In 2010 we found out we were pregnant with our first child. 2010 ended with excitement of the little one that we would get to meet in the new year, our family was growing and getting ready. But as quickly as we found out we were pregnant; we found out that our world was going to be rocked in a different way. About a month after finding out we were pregnant; the doctor found no heartbeat. At 17 weeks pregnant my world came crashing down around me.
Fall of 2011 I gave up my classroom and began to walk through the grief. During that time, I was gifted a spot in a photography & journaling class called Illuminate. I carried two things from that class: the 100-step challenge and choosing a word for the upcoming year.
The 100-step challenge was to take 100 steps, take a picture. Take another 100 steps and take a picture. You could do this as many times as you wanted. I forget what we were to write about, but it was it was a task given to us to help us begin taking steps forward as we processed grief.
At the end of the last class, we were given the challenge to choose a word for our next year. I had never done that before, but in the midst of the grief and life moving forward, I figured I could hold on to one word for the year. A word that would become a rock to come back during that next year. A word that would help me to rebuild myself and my faith.
I’ve set goals or resolutions in the past, most of the time that would get set aside and forgotten about. But how do you choose one word and why do you choose that specific word. I knew I didn’t have the ability to make a resolution or goals for 2012 and that is where choosing a word comes into the picture.
Where do you begin? We were told to pick a word that resonated, encouraged, uplifted us in a way to help us continue to move forward and to focus on. A word that on the hard days we could hold on to. The word I chose for it was trust. I was given a plaque that had the word trust on it and a bible verse. I had lost all my trust. Trust in myself, my abilities, my goals, my dreams, and God. So trust seemed like a good place to start.
By nature, I am a planner and goal setter. Some years I still set goals, but that has become an ongoing thing I work on. Once I meet, I set new ones or as I grow and change, I adjust the goals. Having one word creates a foundation or sounding board that I can keep coming back to throughout the year. Something that stays the same yet shows up in a multitude of ways.
Every year since then I choose a word to have as a focus on. Some years I’m still carrying it through the year, other years it gets forgotten about. Usually, I can look back at the end of the year and see how that word was woven throughout the days.
A couple of years ago I decided to link my word with my faith. My faith journey is still young in some ways, but it is growing. This year I have my word and a verse. I got the idea to add a verse to it last year, but I never came up with one, because I couldn’t decide which one to pick.
This year my word chose me. I had heard it a handful of months ago during a sermon and it stuck in my heart. Rooted and refreshed. I have been working on my habits and my priorities, but I knew something was still slightly off. I began to recognize that I need to sink some roots into my faith and make that a priority, instead of it being a part of my life me being a part of it. So rooted in God’s word, filling up on it, and being refreshed.
The verse I picked is one that I’m hoping I will keep in my heart and keep it in mind as I go about the day. John 15:4 ~ “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.”
I’ve already seen both show up since the beginning of the year. It is being woven into all that I have done, listened to, our activities, and more.
Who would have thought 14 years later I would still be choosing a word for the year and now a verse as well.
It is good to reflect on the prior year and to set goals or habits going forward, but there is something about having a word and verse that seems to settle deeper into the heart and show up more throughout the day.
I encourage you to give it a try, see how it goes. Adding a verse to it allows for it to settle deeper into your heart and be woven in the day to day.
I hope and pray that you will be rooted and refreshed in the way that you truly need most.
Until next time,
~ Liz
heartroots.net 