It’s Fearless Friday in our One Word year! Catch up and join us!
You may think you have the best family in the history of the universe, but you don’t.
I do.
I know I don’t deserve it. I don’t recycle enough and I can be petty and selfish and I sometimes pray for things like losing weight when many are starving, and there’s a lot of other bad stuff I’m not going to tell you about.
The only thing I can attribute my family to is grace. Period. But there you have it. Yes, we have our own set of crazy, but I’m still convinced my family is the best.
Anyway, now that we’ve got that straight, I want to introduce you to one of my two wonderful brothers. I like to call him “Baby David” and he calls me “Sweet Sis” and he is one of the kindest, most godly men I know. He’s on the right below, washing dishes at Thanksgiving with John.
Last Friday he wrote me such an encouraging note in response to the One Word post. He, like so many of you, will text or email, or FB message me with these incredibly rich insights that others don’t get to see unless they’re in the comment section here on the blog. So I asked David if I could post some of the words from his email and he graciously said “yes.” Here’s what he wrote:
I’m like you in that I want everything now! Projects done fast, answers fast, results fast..you get it. So I’ve been trying to think about my one word for the year and nothing seems to fit. Last week I realized that I might have to wait for a while before the word came to me and then it was like Charlie Brown in a Charlie Brown Christmas. As Lucy sits at her little makeshift desk out in the snow to give Charlie Brown her psychological advice, she rattles off the all of those phobias finally getting to the phobia of a fear of everything and CB goes, “That’s It!”
My word is “wait”. And as you so appropriately said in your last blog post, Ughh! I wonder how many of your readers really LIKE their word. 🙂 Then I realized how perfect that might be. What’s wrong with waiting all year to find out what your word was?
I sat down on New Years day and read some of your blog about looking for themes for the year. Waiting seems to go hand in hand with listening and since I’m a “visual”, the picture that comes to mind is sitting out in a deer stand in the woods and simply spending the day observing all that God has created. It involves waiting AND listening…waiting to see what creatures will be scurrying about, how the sky will change with clouds and sun and shadows…listening for the wind, the birds, the animals unseen as they honk, snort, whistle.
I can do that.
Ok, I cry every time I read that. It sounds like “Yes, Lord, ok.”
One word, or two words, or three. “I can do that.”
Do you have an update on your One Word experience?
What a great story. It’s so wonderful that you have a family who supports you so fully. It’s nice that your brothers read and participate in your blog. That’s very touching.
My word is “Better”. Odd? I know. It is kind of odd, but here’s why I’m owning it.
http://thedomesticfringe.com/2013/01/04/better/
~FringeGirl
Love it! Thanks for sharing your word! And I love your line about wanting to start the year with a nap more than a resolution 🙂
Right after I read your blog this morning I got my word. TRUST. I want to trust more. Trust God, trust others, trust myself. For my personality it’s easier to depend on myself rather than trusting others. With situations big and small I want to trust more, worry less. Trust. Yep that’s my word!
Every word I hear from others I think “Oh, yes! That should be my word too!” 🙂 Totally relate to the tendency towards self-reliance.
Thank yo for sharing your thoughts and wisdom, really well said. TGIF
Blessings ( that is my one word)!
Moxo
Thank you – David IS wise! 🙂 And thanks for sharing your word!
So, Laura, when you first introduced One Word, I thought, “Cool, I can do that.” Our interim pastor did something similar in worship at Epiphany the last two years: we each selected a paper star from the offering plate. Whatever random word we drew, we were encouraged to look for how God might be speaking to us through it. So this year, you encouraged me to go deeper and self-select my word, based on God’s prompting. But then I got oh-so busy (read “distracted”) and dropped the ball. I thought, “I don’t have time for this. After all, I’m working three part-time jobs (two at church!), I have three grandchildren whose lives I need to invest in, and, on top of that, my mom fell just before Christmas and broke her hip, landing her in a nursing home for two months, and my dad has never been alone in his life and needs me to take care of him ’cause he is completely useless around the house, and …yada, yada, yada…” Then I read “Baby David’s” post and realized that, in spite of myself, God chose a word for me this year. Three times this week I spoke the word “margin” in conversation with friends who are concerned that I am carrying too much just now. Last year, the star-word I got out of the offering plate was “calling” and I was confident of God’s equipping each time I was called to step up to a new task, particularly at church. But in His perfect wisdom and loving-kindness, this year God appears to be leading me to protect a sacred space, to allow “margin” in my days for His rest and refreshment. I am humbled…grateful. Psalm 46:10
Love, Kerri
Kerri, I can’t thank you enough for sharing deeply, and vulnerably, and for modeling such attention to God’s work in your life!
It IS such a balance isn’t it?? – wanting to respond to God’s calling in ways that acknowledge our need to depend on Him (because we’re not adequate in ourselves), but not using “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” as a rationalization to never say “no” to anything! That discernment piece is such a challenge.
I’m so glad you are responding to God’s gentle invitation to “be still” and protect some space for refreshment. Thanks again for joining the conversation today!
The gift of inspiring others in word and deed runs deep in the Johansen family through you, Dave, Cris, Don & Jan! I’m SUPER thankful for you all.