My Word For The Year

   

         Last year, I got on the bandwagon with everyone else about choosing a “word for the year.”  I think I randomly chose ‘thrive’ because I wanted that to be my ‘theme’ for the year and even now, I don’t know for sure that word was the right one, but that’s fine.  It’s another year and another chance to choose another word!

            A friend recently posted on Facebook that she’s heard for the last few years about those who chose their ‘word’ and she wondered if she had any.  She admits to being frustrated because, well, ---she just didn’t have one.  She said she didn’t even pray and ask God to reveal her word to her, since she’d never had one before.

            As she was going home from work one night, she was reflecting on the year that had passed and recalled it had been a tough year, like a ‘tornado.’  I get that!  It’s been that way in my life, as well.  But she had an epiphany; in the form of a small whisper.  The word ‘steadfast’ fixed on her spirit, and she was overwhelmed to tears since the most recent months had finally been calm.  The word ‘steadfast’ totally resonated.  She found it necessary to actually pull off the road because of her emotions and within this collection of thoughts, thanked the God she’d leaned on all year for HIS steadfastness!  

            I love the story.  Sometimes life causes us to feel like we’re in a terrible storm- (mine felt like a hurricane), but a friend reminded me that if we can stay in the center of that ‘hurricane’ we will find peace. The “eye” of a hurricane, after all, is the calmest part. I was grateful for my friend’s perspective because even while I felt whipped about, there were days when peace poured out like rain!  It was on those days I found myself more focused on Him, than on my problems.

            My word this year is going to be ‘courage.’  I was led to Esther 4:14. ^“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”  I, like my friend, was overwhelmed to tears, as I considered the risk Esther faced and courage she had to muster, to face the King with her petition.  

            Everyone has problems.  It’s the nature of being human.  We all make mistakes, take risks and deal with circumstances that requires courage every day. Sometimes the circumstances aren’t from mistakes made, anymore than Esther was responsible for her people’s difficulty.  The ‘problem’ occurred long before she was even born, yet, it would be she who would bring about the changes that would save the Jews.

            Sometimes we are scared, almost too fearful to move; the heights seem too great, the obstacles overwhelming.  But when quitting isn’t an option, we continue, even when we are afraid.  We can draw on the courage from a God who knows all, and created each of us for a particular service.  Perhaps, even, ‘for such a time as this!’