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Happy New Year 2020
In 2019, an idea was born about a New Year’s Resolution. It began when our church was designing a new communication venue, The Leaf magazine. The Leaf was the first tabletop magazine for the church as we continued to explore new and relevant ways to provide interest for our members and beyond. I asked our senior pastor to write an article for the magazine. I asked that it be something uplifting and provide hope and excitement about the New Year.
He sent me the article and his focus was to ask the reader to think of one word that would be what they would “want more of” in 2019. He referenced myoneword.org that provides this concept and a word cloud of inspirational examples that one may select. I really liked this idea and began to explore the one word for me. I would review the list of words again and again, and think deeply about each one. I asked the Lord to help me select the word that would be mine.
Weeks went by and while I thought of several words, nothing stuck. I felt I was running out of time, and the New Year would arrive, and I would not have a word. I should know better. Sunday morning we had a guest speaker deliver the sermon and he talked about the rest of the Christmas story in Luke. He spoke of the first born son and how parents would need to bring the child to be committed to God. He commented that “you become what you are committed to”; for example, if you are a doctor, you are committed to taking a few more years of schooling and learning about math, science and the body. Or if you are a professional football player, you would be committed to working out, training, and conditioning, etc.
As I was sitting in church it hit me that was my word, committed. I want to be more committed to the Lord, committed to how he wants me to live my life, committed to my wonderful husband Tim and our family, committed to my health, committed to spending quality time reflecting and enjoying all the beautiful things around me. So, I was ready to begin the New Year with my word of commitment.
This year, my one word is “Presence”. I find today that folks are not present but always trying to think of what they are going to say in response to someone rather than listening to the other person, while walking or running, they are not looking at all the beautiful landscape, flowers etc., and while with friends or family, they have their heads down glued to their electronic device; missing out on the personal interaction. So, I am going to focus on being presence, especially being open for God’s callings of me and providing me with guidance and direction on how he wants me to live my life.
What about such a New Year’s “resolution” for you? Or maybe you have something else in mind. No matter what the resolution or even If you decide to try a single word, let me know your results. I will circle back in the summer and we will see how things are progressing.
Happy New Year and may the Lord bless and keep you healthy in 2020!
Nyda
