Tag: My One Word

Reflecting on My One Word

The My One Word campaign encourages people to choose a word that reflects what God has shown them He wants them to focus on in the coming year.  It is time to prayerfully consider your word for 2023.  My One Word for 2022 was Praise.  I have focused on praising God for who He is, what He is doing and has done, and the promise of what He will do.

Praise is the theme of many psalms. So, I spent much time in the book of Psalms. A friend gave me a copy of the two-volume work Thou Art with Me by Abie Kulynych. It is a reflection on God’s heart and nature as revealed by the the psalms. These daily devotions helped me to meditate on the depth of God’s love for us. I highly recommend these volumes. https://smile.amazon.com/Thou-Art-Me-Revealed-through/dp/1735592609/ref=sr_1_1?crid=N7122RM4VYYU&keywords=thou+art+with+me+abie+kulynych&qid=1672503951&sprefix=thou+art+with+me%2C%2Caps%2C1132&sr=8-1

cover of book, Thou Art with Me, by Abie Kulynych.

For 2023, my One Word is Reflect.  Reflect can mean to give back or show an image of; as a Christian, I want my words and deeds to reflect Christ.  Reflect can also mean to ponder or meditate, as in meditating on God’s Word.  The verse I have chosen for the year that embodies these combined ideas is Psalm 77:12. “I will also meditate on all Your work and talk of Your deeds.”

I encourage each of you to select a word that God has put on your heart to be your focus for 2023,. Great resources to help you find your word and grow through your word are available from My One Word (myoneword.org)

Logo for My One Word campaing. Tag line, Change Your Life with Just One Word.

Prayerfully consider the word God is putting on your heart and then please share your word and why you chose it.

What is your One Word for 2023?

New Year’s Resolution or My One Word

We are seven days into 2022, and, if you made a New Year’s resolution, you may have already broken it or you likely will soon. Studies show that most people throw in the towel by the end of January, and 68% don’t last a full month.

My One Word is an alternative to making New Year’s Resolutions. The concept was conceived Mike Ashcraft, senior pastor of Port City Community Church in Wilmington, NC, in 2010.  Mike realized that resolutions are often focused on overcoming past failures–I resolve to lose weight gained or to get out of debt that I have accumulated. He recognized that a better approach is to focus on what God wants to do in your life.

Mike challenged his congregation and blog readers to pray about where God wants to lead them in the coming year.  What is God speaking into your life?  What does God want you to become?  How does God want to use you? What does He want you to learn?

MyOneWord.org
myoneword.org


As you pray and focus on God’s will for you, you will feel God impressing a word into your spirit. This is your One Word for the coming year.  Your Word will be unique to you and where God is leading you. 

I chose my first One Word in 2011; it was Delight.  I also chose a theme Scripture for the year that went along with my word, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4  At that time, my husband had been unemployed for two years, with no end in sight. Yet, the Lord promised that if we delighted in Him, He would bless us. I meditated on Psalm 37:4, and God lifted my spirits and increased my faith. And, despite my husband’s continued lack of employment income, God provided for us to celebrate our 30th anniversary that spring with a cruise to Alaska. And, by the end of the year, my husband was back at work with the company that had laid him off nearly three years earlier. Praise the Lord!

Some of my other One Words have been Commitment, Intentional, Rest, and Stewardship.  My year of focusing on stewardship lead me to write a book and start a newsletter. The book and newsletter are designed to help others become responsible stewards of the financial resources God has entrusted to them.

My One Word for 2022 is Praise. I look forward to focusing my energy on praising the Lord throughout each day.  Rather than a single verse, I have selected Psalm 150 as my theme Scripture passage. I am considering choosing a new Psalm of praise for each month, or maybe every week.

I encourage you to pray about God’s desire for your focus in 2022 and to select a word that represents your focus.  To learn more about the My One Word experiment, go to myoneworld.org.

If you have questions about faithful stewardship of your financial resources, please feel free to email me at susan.ball5@aol.com or write your question in the Comment section.  Those who email me will be signed up to receive my free quarterly newsletter with money management tips, encouraging stories, and Scripture inspirations. You may also sign up for the newsletter on the Contact page of this site.

For those desiring a better understanding of Biblical principles of money management, I have written a book Honoring God with Your Money. It is available on Amazon and from Barnes and Noble.

My One Word for 2019–Commitment

“Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.” Proverbs 16:3 (NRSV)

My sister-in-law posted this verse on her Facebook page recently, and it spoke to my spirit instantly. I felt that this would be my verse to focus on for the year, and Commitment would be my One Word for 2019.

For this purpose, I am using as the definition of Commit, “to give in trust or charge.” I will ‘give in trust’ all my works to the Lord, and He, in return, will permit those works to come to fruition, so long as my works are in harmony with His word.

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This principle applies regardless of whether the work involves (1) doing my job, (2) improving my health, (3) taking control of my finances, (4) learning new skills, (5) building new relationships, or (6) stepping out into new areas of service and/or ministry.

The One Word concept is that one should focus on one word for the year, rather than making a bunch of resolutions that will be quickly broken. So for this year, I will focus on committing to the Lord whatever work I feel led to pursue. And, I will be certain that He will bless the efforts I commit to Him.

What word will you choose to reflect on in 2019?

My One Word for 2016–Rest

As 2015 was drawing to an end, I frequently heard people comment something along the lines of, “I am so glad for this year to be over.  It was not a good one.”  Many of them had experienced great losses and difficult trials during 2015.  That was not true for me, yet I was very glad for the year to end, as it had been challenging and exhausting.

2015 began with the anticipation of two new granddaughters.  Their arrivals in the early part of the year filled us with joy, and we are truly blessed to welcome these new additions into our family.  Babies, however, are a lot of work.  As grandparents, we have tried to help our children during this busy time, primarily by taking care of the  three older siblings who are all preschoolers.

We moved forward with a long awaited plan to build-out our unfinished basment.  It was a great idea and it turned out as we had hoped.  However, it required that the basement be emptied of all the things we had been storing in it.  We spent a few weeks sorting through everything and determining what to keep, what to take to Goodwill, and what to throw away before we could begin the actual work of finishing the space.

My already busy workload increased when a co-worker left but was not immediately replaced.  To keep up, I worked through lunch most days and stayed late.  I had to keep reminding myself to slow down a bit and breathe as I hurried from one meeting to the next.

Added into the mix were health challenges faced by our three parents who are in their 80’s. We helped out as much as we could in getting them to doctors’ appointment, including six weeks of daily radiation treatments for my mother-in-law during the holiday season.

So when it came time to think about One Word to focus on during 2016, I choose REST. This was confirmed when I read that our women’s ministries had chosen ‘Selah–Rest in the Lord’ as our annual theme.  The theme verse is “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30, NIV)

Resting in the Lord doesn’t mean that I drop out of life and do nothing.  It doesn’t require me to ignore responsibilities and the challenges of life.  It does mean, however, that I lay my burdens on Jesus Christ.  I need to look to him as my source of strength each day.  He will never bring more demands into my life than I can handle with Him carrying the burden.

I look forward to a joyfully busy and productive year as I start each day with time in God’s Word and lean on Jesus to help me accomplish the tasks He sets before me.

Embed from Getty Images

 

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