What’s your word for the New Year?

Back before it was “cool”, my pastor discussed choosing a word to focus on each year, rather than New Years’ resolutions. Because I am terrible at keeping resolutions, I decided on Brave for that year.
It was an appropriate one for that season. My oldest was heading away to college, my middle was heading into high school, and we were changing schools after thirteen years in one place. I’ve mentioned before that that was the year that I took a photography class online and a writing class nearby. I rocked it!
The next year’s was Intentional. Yeah, that one didn’t go so well. When life gets nuts, it’s tough to be intentional. Intentionality takes work. It takes creativity and discipline. It also takes boys who are up for your intentional plans with them. Ha!
Be careful what you wish for, as they say! My year of Trust gave me lots of reasons to trust God in His timing, His plans, and His purposes.
Now that I have crossed the half-a-century mark, I find time sailing away like a feather caught in a windstorm. Wasn’t it just New Years, 2019 yesterday?!
This one may go the way of intentional, we shall see. I have chosen Notice for my word this year. It isn’t always the big things we remember about each day, is it? My favorite memories are tiny – my wee baby boy curled into me as he nursed at 3 in the morning, the grin my husband gives me during a sermon the pastor preaches on an issue we just had a “discussion” about, the laughter of my toddler son as he tries to catch bubbles, the smell of my grandma’s orange cake as I enter her house, watching our first dog Ginger as she cared so sweetly for her breed of 12 puppies, the moment of satisfaction after an emergency c/section proceeds calmly and you hear the screams of a newborn baby…
Each year’s word builds on the other, I’ve found. My decision to be brave has continued into other years – my intentional plans may not have all worked out, but it does remind me to not just let life pass by. I am trusting God to work even difficult things out for a good purpose (see my instagram post about that at https://www.instagram.com/p/B6-hgb1gs-d/ )
So, what would be your word this year, if you chose one?

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