MY ONE WORD FOR THE YEAR: STRENGTH

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Several years ago, I began a quest for a healthier and more joyful lifestyle. That quest involves selecting one word each year and embracing that word. How do I go about doing that? What criteria do I use to select that word?

My Journey to Selecting One Word:

Each new year we (humans) make resolutions to do certain things or to avoid certain things. And each year we fail at so much. Several years ago, in an attempt to eat healthier meals, I started to change one thing about my cooking/eating.

For example, one year I replaced all the oils in my house with olive, coconut, or butter. I eliminated all highly processed corn or vegetable oils. Another year I switched my salt to pink Himalayan sea salt and Redmond salts. Two years ago I began to buy mostly organic fruits and vegetables. Last year I started making all my salad dressings from scratch.

By focusing on only one seemingly small change per year, I have radically changed my family’s eating habits. I drink more water and only randomly drink Coca-Cola. I also have decreased the amount of sugar consumed in my household.

So for this year, I will continue to work on improving my eating habits, but instead of just focusing on eating I have selected a word to focus on. My one word for this year that I have selected will be STRENGTH.

You see, in the past several years, I have grown weary. Homeschooling for 22 years can really “give you a crick in the neck.” Raising an autistic son, running a household, helping my husband to run a business, graduations, weddings, granddaughters, and watching your husband “die and come back to life” takes its toll on a human.

My One Word – Strength and Raising Strong Kids:

Not only is it important for my one word to develop me as a person, but it is also very important to me for my one word to help my children be better versions of themselves. Raising strong kids that can use their strength to resist the temptations out in the world is more and more important as the world encroaches on our Christian lifestyle. Being able to resist sin, drugs, alcohol, pornography and more is paramount to my children’s success in adult life.

 

My Commitment to Becoming Stronger, Plus a Bible Verse: 

Sometimes strength is not doing everything yourself. Sometimes strength is removing negative voices from your life. So starting today there are things I will do differently:

Starting today I seek the Lord and find joy; I will laugh more and worry less. Nehemiah 8:10 The joy of the Lord is my strength.

Additionally, starting today I will buy the clothes that make me happy and wear colors that make me smile.

Starting today I will listen to the voices of the strong women that God has placed in my life.

Today, and everyday, I will love more.

Starting today I will learn to accept help from people who offer.

Starting today, when I am weary, I will call upon the Lord to lift me to high places. Habakkuk 3:19 God, the Lord, is my strength; He makes my feet like the deer’s; He makes me tread on my high places.

Starting today I will find my strength in Christ alone. Isaiah 40:31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will be strong like eagles soaring upward on wings; they will walk and run without getting tired.

UPDATE ON MY WORD – STRENGTH:

It has been several years since I selected Strength as my one word. Carefully assessing this word and how it has impacted my life is key to growing as a person. Did my One Word help me? Absolutely, it did. Selecting Strength kept me focused on that quality, and looking back over the verses and the statements I made about becoming a stronger version of myself, I am proud of where I currently am in this journey of life, and where I am headed.

Have you selected your One Word for 2020? What will it be and why? Please share below.