One Word

One Word.

One word to describe a whole year, what a crazy thought. I have been seeing different posts on social media about picking a word to focus on for the upcoming year. One word to pray about and ponder on. At first, I thought that this was a crazy idea. How can I choose only ONE word that would represent our upcoming year? There is so much bouncing around in my head, so many things that I foresee in our future and so many things that I could potentially spend a lot of time worrying about.

So, as I am processing this idea and asking God what that one word could be for us in the upcoming year, I can’t help but look back, not forward. You see, as I start to think about it, I also start to look back on what our year had been...and it had been hard! There were so many trials and rough patches that we faced this past year. Some were financial and some were health related. We dealt with loss of people close to us and saw other people we love deal with things that seemed so unfair. We found ourselves wondering why all of this was happening, to us and to the people around us. At times it just seemed too hard to bear, but at the same time I remembered God! I remembered how God always showed up, no matter what, He was always there. He was there to comfort, provide, bring healing and give us an endless amount of hope for our future. We saw how God was always FAITHFUL! He was always on time with His perfect timing, never late and we were never forgotten.

During the last 3 months of the year, we had 4 cars break down, 3 major appliances break, multiple doctor visits, urgent care and ER visits (you know it’s bad when the doctors and nurses at the ER say, “Oh, nice to see you again.” Nope, that is one place that we do not want to hear “It’s nice to see you.” But the thought did cross my mind that maybe I should bring decorations to cheer up the rooms, since we seemed to be there quite a bit. LOL). There was a lot of worry, anxiousness and stress during those last 3 months. So many things had to be put on the back burner (like decorating our Christmas tree and sending out Christmas cards), so many things that we had to do just to manage it all. There was also so much of God showing up!

God created so many small miracles for us. He provided when there didn’t seem to be a way, He healed and brought comfort right when it was needed. He gave us strength to get up every day and face whatever challenge that might come our way and He brought people in our lives to say just the right thing at the most perfect time. He gave us peace, rest, laughter, love and most importantly, He reveled to us His never-ending faithfulness.

So, as I think about our word for the future year and future decade for our family and for Anchor Ministry, I think of the word Faithfulness. Reflecting on how God was so amazingly faithful to us in so many ways last year, I find hope and comfort in the fact that I know He will be faithful to us again, this year and every year ahead. Our job is to draw closer to Him, trust in Him and face each day knowing that whatever the day, week, month or year brings, God will always show up. He will always provide and always be there, no matter what.

I challenge you to reflect on the last year to see how God worked in your life and remember all the ways that He was faithful to you and think of one word that you can focus on. One word that will give you what you need to get through all the challenges that you might have ahead of you. One word that helps you grow closer to God and help you see that you are loved by a mighty, powerful God, who is full of love, grace and mercy.

Jesus says,  “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me….As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now remain in my love.”  John 15:4,9