Abundance.
I almost have to laugh as I type that.
Every year, I choose a word to represent the upcoming year. Something that I will be focusing on, something that represents the current events surrounding our lives. Every year around November I start thinking about where we are and what is coming up in our lives. I start to reflect and pray and really think about this specific word. I don’t think I ever shared my word of 2018 because it didn’t make any sense to me before the year rolled around. I truly believe that through the Holy Spirit, God whispered “sacrifice” to my heart. Well, I don’t know about you…but I didn’t want to have a year of sacrifice. That sounds downright terrible. I didn’t do much with that word throughout the year, because I was honestly running from it. But now that I look back, I realize how accurate it was. We disrupted our foster placement, we endured the 10 months of a very difficult pregnancy and we began to adjust to our children’s various needs/ages as well as the police lifestyle. Don’t get me wrong…2018 wasn’t all horrible. But it was a challenging year.
The day after Ezra was born, I felt the Lord whisper the next seasons word to me: Abundance.
I was delighted. YAY! Finally God is giving me great abundance. I can get on board with that!
I knew this abundance would be just for a season. I knew that I would soak it up and love it and prepare for the next season.
And as I spent New Years Eve in the PICU with my newborn son, simultaneously waiting for a phone call marking the passing of my Grandmother. I watched the clock hit midnight and told myself I must have heard wrong.
This didn’t feel like abundance. This felt a little bit more like suffering. Or punishment? Or anything besides abundance.
Abundance simply means a very large quantity of something, but we tend to use the word to mean a large quantity of something good.
And these past five days have taught me that 2019 actually is all about abundance. But that does not mean it will be easy, or even that it will appear abundant from the outside looking in. But it’s still all about abundance. The abundance of finding and seeing God’s blessings in our lives. The abundance of three wild and crazy children. The abundance of spending more time with those children, less time looking at screens.. The abundance of the blessing of a marriage that takes work, but is worth it. The abundance of being intentional about friendship and involvement in the community. The abundance of my writing.
What is your word for the year? Or what is a word representing your current season?
P.S. Don’t you love my word of the year shirt? I got it from my friend and fellow Dayton Mom who runs a shop! You can check it out at Mama in Overalls. Not sponsored at all, I paid for this and love to support a fellow local Mama, and highly recommend that you also shop from her!