My Annual Tradition: Picking a Word of the Year
For the last five years or so I’ve been picking a word of the year. Let’s be real though, usually God picks them for me. I’ll pick something I think fits my goals and He’ll throw me for a loop with one I didn’t know I needed. Like last year for example, I wanted my word to be consistency. It aligned with the goals I had planned. To be more consistent in my spiritual life, with my health, motherhood, marriage and those are just to name a few. But before I could even write down the word, I felt Him prompt me with a scary word: Trust. I didn’t like that word, not one bit because it was something completely out of my control. Yet, that’s the one I was to press into. The year before that, He gave me the word slowness. I had all these ideas of things I wanted to put on my calendar, then I felt Him tell me, “not so many things sweetheart. You need to pump the brakes for a minute.” It was something I didn’t realize I needed after finding myself pretty burnt out.
Now you may be thinking, what about this year Janelly? Tell us already! Okay, so my word of 2025 is….drum roll…faith. Yup, you read that right. The good ol’ word we Christians use like just any other biblical noun. As regularly as we brush our teeth. Unlike trust, something that also required me to hand over the keys of control, I’m actually really excited about this word! Why is that? Because I think of people like Mary who when she was approached by the angel and was told she would have the Messiah, said, “I am the Lord’s servant! Let it happen as you have said” (Luke 1:38). Or the woman with the issue of blood who knew if she could just touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, she would be healed. What about Hannah? The woman who prayed so fervently, God gave her Samuel, who became a G-POT: greatest prophet of all time (yes I made that up). These women, although they lived a completely different day and age, dealt with so many issues we still do today as women; infertility, health issues, you name it!
It got me thinking, if I could just have even an ounce of the faith they did, how different my life would be. Just even a drop, I could see God do things this year that you only hear about in the Bible times. So I’m challenging myself this year to take God at His word. Whatever he says, big, small, scary, I want to say “I am the Lord’s servant! Let it happen as you have said.” You with me?
What’s your word of the year?