WORD FOR THE YEAR

    January 2023 was almost gone and I hadn’t chosen my Word of the Year. A few years back, our pastor introduced us to this practice of choosing a word to reflect on all year, and since then we’ve all drawn a word from a basket in early January. Each time my hand would hover over the basket, I would pray that this would be the word God was laying on my heart and that He would reveal how I would use it throughout the year. There were times that I drew from the basket and groaned and there were times that I drew from the basket and grinned.

    A few years ago, I drew the word encouragement. I smiled. It was a good word. My first thought was that I should seek ways to be encouraged through God’s Word so I started looking for scripture that would fulfill that purpose. I felt like I’d found it when I read Isaiah 41:10. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. The prior year had been filled with little worries here and there that became bigger worries when I dwelt upon them. Of course! That was it. I just needed to lean on God for encouragement rather than the word’s antonym, discouragement.

    It was a good word; a good scripture, and a good plan and I found that handing things over to God, which I sometimes did begrudgingly, worked, and slowly my attitude began to change. But, God wasn’t finished with me and that word encouragement yet.

    During that time, our Bible Study group was studying books of the Bible authored by Paul and we had some long discussions about Paul himself and how he went from being a zealot in the persecution of Christians to a Christian convert that began on the road to Damascus when he encountered Jesus. In my quest for more knowledge about Paul, I decided to read all of his letters. It was in reading I Thessalonians, chapter 5 that revealed to me another way to use my word, encouragement. 

    The first reading in Chapter 5 that reached out to me was verse 11. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

    The next was verse 14: And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

    Aha—not only was I meant to be encouraged by God’s Word, but I was also meant to be an encourager to others. So what did I do? I started making a conscious effort, with God’s help, to encourage friends who were struggling with day-to day problems; to encourage those with physical and mental health issues; to encourage fellow authors who were struggling with getting their work published, and to just use an encouraging word here and there to perfect strangers wherever I met them. And then, because I knew that God had called me to write, I asked Him to use my written words to encourage readers who were going through difficulties of their own. From the response of my readers in the reviews they leave, I feel that my prayers have been answered. 

    That one four-syllable word that I chose, or that chose me, whatever the case may be, gave me direction. Keeping it taped on the bookcase above my desk grounded me and kept me focused all year long.  If your church doesn’t do this, I encourage you to find your own word for this year. If you google “church word of the year”, you’ll find some good words to claim as your own. Whether God chooses it for you or you choose it yourself, you’ll find that by keeping it in your heart and written down, it will give you direction as well.

    As I mentioned above, there have been times I didn’t like my word at all. Last year’s word was one of them. Organization. Oh no—this word was meant for someone else. For a fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants person, the thought of organization made me groan. Writers are supposed to be organized. Not me. There are so many areas in my life that are in chaos and I wait until the last minute to get them done. I have a lousy filing system and can never find where I put things. To put it bluntly, I’m a disorganized scatterbrain. How I learned from that word is a story that I’ll share another time.

    And speaking of stories, since I was late choosing my 2023 word, my pastor rushed to her office after church yesterday and came back with word cards splayed out in her hands for me to pick one. It will be interesting to see how the one that chose me plays out. My 2023 word is Story and I’ve already made a good start with the one I’ve just shared with you. Next? The Old and New Testaments are filled with stories. But to keep me focused, I’ve written my word down on a piece of paper and taped it to my chalkboard. Taped, because I can’t find my chalk sticks which brings me back to last year’s word, Organization. It may take me a lifetime to deal with that one.