Dwelling in Hope

In the beginning of 2023, my husband shared with me instead of a New Year’s resolution (for most of us, a fleeting principle), why don’t I take the approach of narrowing down on a word for the year, and then build goals, and then habits around that word. A concept he just worked on the prior year. This is an exercise I did many times in business, but it never occurred to me to seriously do it for myself.

We had been in a season of putting out fires and never seemed to come up for air. Constantly keeping my head above water, and bracing myself for the next devastating incident, it had been a long time since I had pressed pause and taken the time to sit with God to listen to Him and hear what He wanted for my life. I knew in my heart I was not meant to be experiencing the consequences of my family of origin, work and immediate family’s choices. God had a plan for my life, and I was to be pursuing that with Him. I needed to get back in my lane where God intended me to be in the first place and talk to Him to figure out what He had in store for the season I was in.

After much prayer and reflection, I came to terms with my word. It also came into focus when listening to one of Casting Crowns songs where they say, “it’s time for us to more than just survive, we were made to THRIVE.” There it was! This song summed up what my heart cry was… “thirst for more of Him, I wanted Him to flush my soul, so I could know Him, and make Him known, lift His name, and shine like the sun, and make darkness run and hide, I was made for so much more than ordinary life. I want joy unspeakable, faith unsinkable, love unstoppable, where anything is possible.”

With that mission, I had my word, set some goals, aligned some habits, got a bracelet with “thrive” on it to remind me daily what my focus was and soared into 2023.

At the halfway mark, I would say, focusing on one word versus a resolution or list of goals, has really helped me stay on target, for the most part.

Can I challenge you to consider picking a word for yourself if you haven’t already done so? There are a number of months left of 2023 – what do YOU want to partner with God and focus on?