It’s That Time of Year

Hi friends and happy Wednesday!

I don’t know about you, but I can’t believe Christmas is over. It went so fast. Like a flash. Isn’t it funny how time can do that? It can feel like it’s speeding up or slowing down. Things feel slow as molasses when we’re in the waiting room. And, other times, it feels like we blink, and the day is over. Not just the day, but the year. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we’re just days away from 2023 wrapping up. The end of the year is always a thoughtful time for me. I was looking back at all the ups and downs and how God carried me through both. All the sweet, precious time with loved ones that’s such a gift, and the hard, often painful times that I know only God could get me through. 2023 was a year of both, but I look back and am beyond grateful for God’s provision.

I also look forward. Forward to a new year.  A blank slate, if you will. It’s the time that many of us make goals for the year. Many of us, myself included, buy planners (don’t get my hubby started on how many attempts I’ve made to get organized with just the “right” planner—as if the right planner will suddenly make my chaotic brain organized, but I don’t give up).

We buy goal planners, specifically. My favorite is Cultivates What Matters One-Year Powersheets or Susan May Warren’s My Brilliant Writing Planner. Yes, I own both. Just don’t tell my hubby! Both explore didn’t areas of goals for me—my personal life and my writing life. Writing has a life of its own. But I digress. Making goals is something I do every year and at the end of the year, I look back to see how many I met and often it’s not many. My plans to get in shape, keep my house perfectly tidy, and turn my book in early sometimes happen and sometimes don’t. But I look at my goals and what I’m focused on and this year in particular it hit me. Of all the goals I make, how many center on Christ? Walking a deeper, more dependent walk with Him, spending more time in His Word, cultivating the gift of writing He’s given me, and treating others with the love He calls us to for our neighbors. I sat back and looked at my goals for 2023 and, I’m being brutally transparent here, not one of them involved my walk with or relationship with Christ, I’m very sorry to say. How could I hope for a year of goals and not one of them involving my life with my Savior? The Author of my life. So, this year’s goals are going to look different.

I’ve always admired those who choose a word for the year. I know fellow authors and friends who do. Who often buys a necklace with their word-of-the-year on it, I’ve always thought—how do you focus your entire year on just one word? Maybe they don’t. Maybe it’s part of their list of goals for the year. But I wonder…what if it’s the only goal for the year? What if I chose one word to focus on for the whole year and, if so, what would that be? This year, after prayer, my word is deliverance.

I know, it’s probably an odd word for the year.  But the Lord brought it to mind and I looked up this verse: “You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” Why deliverance? Deliverance from what? Myself, most likely. Again, full transparency here, but I think deliverance from relying or attempting to rely on my strength, deliverance from lack of focus—I’m always doing a million things at once so maybe this year God wants me to still and focus on Him and on the gifts He’s blessed me with. This year it’s hard not to make other goals. I’m dying to use my Powersheets and list a bevy of goals, but I’ll trust that one word is enough.

Question for you:

What are some of your goals for the year? If you could pick one word to focus on, what would it be?

As always, thanks for joining me this week

Best,

Dani