One Word for 2016...
A few years ago, I gave up the notion of making up a list of New Year's resolutions. Like many, I would come up with this exhaustive list and in the end, I would feel overwhelmed and defeated because the list wasn't realistic or attainable. It only made me feel like a failure. I decided that resolutions, unrealized, were pointless. That is when I discovered the One Word movement. The first year I will admit that I stressed entirely too much over "my word". I thought it held some sort of magical power that, in itself, would revolutionize my whole entire life. I quickly learned that it didn't really work that way. You don't choose a word as much as the word chooses you, or more probable is that God chooses your word for you. When I let my word just "happen", it became so much more clear.
The first year my word was intentional. The next year my word was revive. Last year my word was Selah. I never just pick my word without prayer and really listening to the Lord and never has He failed me. The word always is made clear to me and throughout the year, I cannot tell you how many times and in how many different situations the word will continue to come up and reveal itself. That is how I always know it is of the Lord. I know all of that sounds a little strange but if you listen for the Lord to speak, He will and there is peace in knowing you are getting a word from Him, even if it just your "word" for the year. Every time the word comes up throughout the year in those mysterious ways I cannot help but smile and my heart leaps because I feel like it is my God saying, "See, I am still showing you, still teaching you." It brings such comfort to my spirit.
This year my word is ENOUGH. While we live in the days of more, I want to trust that I have enough. I am done with more. When we think we have to have the biggest house, or the newest cell phone that is out, or the nicest computers, or the fanciest cars, or the name brand clothes, I want ENOUGH. When we long for prestige, or recognition, or fame, or more friends than anyone else, I want ENOUGH. When we want our children to act better than the other children, perform better than the other children, look better than the other children, or be more popular than the other children, I want ENOUGH. When we want our marriages to be more romantic than other marriages, or more fulfilling than other marriages or more envied than other marriages, I want ENOUGH. When we want the best jobs, the most money, the most followers/retweets/likes, I want ENOUGH.
I want the comparison game to stop in my life. I don't have the best house, phone, car, husband, or kids.. Sometimes we fight in our family. Sometimes I am sad. Sometimes I am angry. Sometimes I am even jealous. No one has a perfect life and in acting like we do causes others to feel bad about their own lives. I want a life of being real and acknowledging that even when things aren't great, it is ENOUGH. Because truly, no matter what is going on with my marriage or my kids or my friends or my church or any other area of my life, I have God and HE IS ENOUGH. He is El Shaddai, which is the God of more than enough. Because of that and because of Him, I don't have to have everything in my life be better than yours and I don't have to worry about how much better your life is than mine. It just has to be ENOUGH.
One thing I have learned is that chasing more makes me tired. It makes my heart very heavy and it makes me overwhelmed. When I judge my life based on those lives around me, I lose my joy and the life is literally being sucked right out of me. But when I focus on the fact that I am exactly where I am supposed to be and with the people I am supposed to be with and with exactly what I am supposed to have, regardless of what and who others have, it releases me to know that even on the hard days, I have what God intended for my life and it is for a purpose for He is using every single bit of it to make me into who I am supposed to be for Him. And that is ENOUGH...
