So what’s the one word you should think about before setting your goals for the year? I don’t know; you tell me.
How tricky…
The past couple of years I have heard a lot about choosing a word to guide your year. Money Saving Mom has raved about the benefits, and there’s even a book called My One Word. (Their post will also help you choose your word.) The idea is that you spend the year focusing on just one word, something you feel God calling you to embrace or become.
I wasn’t actively looking for a word, but God has been reminding me of the word “grace” for the past several months. Intellectually, I know what God’s grace is. How about these often-quoted responses:
- God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense
- Unmerited favor from God
- Grace is getting what I don’t deserve. Mercy is not getting what I do deserve.
So I get it, but I don’t get it. Meaning, I haven’t really internalized the concept so that it becomes a part of who I am.
And my spiritual life isn’t the only area in which I struggle with grace. My Type A friends can probably identify with this: I’m never good enough or doing enough to please me. I am my harshest critic. In other words, I have little grace for myself.
When it comes to my relationships with others, my outpouring of grace varies. It seems I have more grace for those outside my family than those inside my family.
In his book Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine, Max Lucado says, “God’s grace has a drenching about it. A wildness about it. A white-water, riptide, turn-you-upside-downness about it. Grace comes after you. It rewires you. From insecure to God secure. From regret-riddled to better-because-of-it. From afraid-to-die to ready-to-fly. Grace is the voice that calls us to change and then gives us the power to pull it off.”
Wow. I want to know the transformation that comes with the knowledge of grace, and it seeping into my bones. So my word for 2017 is grace.
What about you? Have you heard of this “one word” idea before? What’s your word for the New Year?
Stay tuned for the next post in this series where I’ll talk about how my one word is influencing my goals for 2017.