Word for the Year

It's that time again, time to ask God for your word for the year. A group of my friends do this each year and it really is amazing how that word weaves in and out of your life throughout the year. So, I encourage you to ask God for your word. Jot it down in your journal somewhere and go back to it throughout the year to see how it fits. You will be amazed. Sometimes it's a lot more obvious than other times. We'll be sharing our words with each other on New Year's Day. I think I have mine. I'm waiting for confirmation. The cool thing is, I know I'll get it because I've asked and God is faithful.

My word this past year was "Trust". I've had to do a lot of that as God has stretched me way out of my comfort zone over the last 12 months. In April I spoke to a group of 1200 students at one of our local universities telling them the story of the abortion I had when I was 19, about their age, and how different my life was from theirs and yet how strangely similar. I know they struggle with the same things I did. I hope they're winning that battle. I hope speaking my truth to them shed some light on any darkness they are experiencing. In August I led a Girl's Chrysalis. Planning and pulling that off was definitely an act of trust. That is a big job. To think God has trusted you with a team of 42 women, young and old to lead a weekend that will impact a group of 36 young women on their walk with Him is staggering. Then in October my friend, Lynette and I led a women's retreat for a church in Winchester, VA. This, too, was an act of trust on my part, in more ways than one. I not only had to trust God but I had to trust Lynette with her part. Not that I thought she couldn't do it, it's just that we're so different. I am more organized and particular, where she has this trust issue down to a fine art and can show up and follow His lead. I'm learning to do that more and more. But knowing that's how she's going to do it was a challenge I tell ya. I have learned to trust the dance this year, too. Let me rephrase that - I've learned to trust my dance partner, not just the dance. It doesn't matter how well I dance as long as my partner is the Master. Now that feels good. There has been so much healing this year in so many ways. As I look back from the accident in January thru brain surgery a friend has endured, cancer threats and treatments in many lives, a miraculous healing in a teenager, the loss of another teenager and living through that, finding freedom from the past through forgiveness of myself and others and grasping it wholeheartedly...the dance goes on and on.

So, as I look forward to a new year I am asking God for my new word. I hope you will, too. I certainly learned a lot about trust this year. I wonder what I'll learn next year.