Tag: adventure

3 Suggestions to Have “One Word” Make a Difference

February 4, 2023 /

Yep, I’m a little late to the “One Word” game this year. Maybe you too?

No worries! It’s not like it’s a magic potion that transforms your life!

“The will is transformed by experiences not information.”

Dallas Willard

Choosing One Word over the past 5 or so years has proven to have varied degrees of success in my experience.

First, it might be good to define what I mean by “success”.

I want any practice in my life to lead me to a greater resemblance to Jesus. There are years when I’ve chosen a word and then basically forgotten about it for most of the year.🤷‍♀️ Not successful!

Choosing one word for the year just means you want to pay attention to the ways God might want to use that word to form you. You want it to make a positive difference in your spiritual formation.

This year I’ve chosen two words (Call me a rebel. Whatever.). They are “Adventure” and “With”.

If you have chosen a word for 2023, or if you want to today, here’s what you might consider doing to be intentional:

1. Record your insights throughout the year.

I bought a special One Word journal. I have one section titled, “Adventure”, and one titled “With”.

In these different sections I’m recording verses or quotes I come across that help my understanding of how God is using them in my life. I want to study the impact of adventures with God in the Bible.

2. Set some goals.

As well as being attentive to the adventures the Lord might invite me into, I’ve set a goal of choosing one specific “adventure” a month to do. It might be dramatic or very ordinary, but it’s something new to me. My January “adventure” was doing Whole30. Boring, I know, but I learned a lot about myself!

I have an ongoing list of ideas for this that I keep brainstorming.

For your word there might be a different type of monthly goal.

3. Invest resources.

Also, as much as I know many of my adventures with Jesus will not be dramatic, I’d also like some exciting bigger ones, so I have started a special savings account labeled “Adventures”!

Is there an investment you could make (like purchasing a book or an online course) that would help?

Paying attention (as with all of spiritual formation) may be key! The other day I heard this song that encouraged my “with”! I hope it encourages you, whatever your word is!

You are always with me.

Have you chosen “One Word”? Is there anything you are doing to make it meaningful? Pop your thoughts in the comments!

Choose Your Own Adventure??

March 1, 2016 /

Remember those Choose Your Own Adventure books maybe you read as a kid ?

In each story, you, the reader, get to make choices that determine the main character’s actions in response to the plot and its outcome.

We like Choose Your Own Adventures because we have control, right?

But real-life God capers aren’t necessarily like that.

ADVENTUROUSLY EXPECTANT is my One Word for this year.

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” Romans 8:15

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Recently I received an invitation to participate in a trip and project with World Vision. It was totally unexpected. I was grateful for the invitation, but I wasn’t sure I was the right person for the project, and it is at a very inconvenient time when I’ll have to miss out on some meaningful events at home.

This isn’t just about me. Our two daughters recently had new job opportunities to consider. A young friend of mine is trying to discern where to go to college, and another started her own business.

When an invitation comes or a new opportunity presents itself (think new job, new project, new challenge), consider these steps:

  1. Ask friends to pray and give feedback.
  2. Ask questions:
    • What are the expectations of me before, during and after? (Every time we say “yes” to something, it means saying “no” to other things)
    • Are my gifts in line with this opportunity? Will I potentially add value by saying yes?
    • Is this opportunity or move likely to draw me closer to Jesus, or distract me from following Him?

3.  Pay attention to the promptings of the Holy Spirit (not your ego).

This recent invitation made me think of the story in the Bible of Paul and the man from Macedonia. Take a look, and try not to get bogged down in all the weird names.

Acts 16:6-10

6-8 They went to Phrygia, and then on through the region of Galatia. Their plan was to turn west into Asia province, but the Holy Spirit blocked that route. So they went to Mysia and tried to go north to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus wouldn’t let them go there either. Proceeding on through Mysia, they went down to the seaport Troas.

9-10 That night Paul had a dream: A Macedonian stood on the far shore and called across the sea, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” The dream gave Paul his map. We went to work at once getting things ready to cross over to Macedonia. 

It’s not wrong to make plans as long as we’re paying attention to the ways the Holy Spirit may want to tweak, refine, or change them.

Like I wrote at the beginning of the year, I’m trying to learn more about my “One Word”, so I read this and I reflect…What can I learn about God and myself?

  • God’s adventures are sometimes often inconvenient. I like convenience.
  • God’s adventures require open hands. I like control.
  • God’s adventures need us to pay attention. I am spiritually ADHD.

Sometimes the adventure lies in saying “no”, sometimes in saying “yes”. After prayer and counsel, I said “yes” to this opportunity. What about you? Where are you in the process of being adventurously expectant?

Mamas in Pajamas Who Wannabe Wave-Walkers

February 2, 2016 /

“Adventurously expectant”  is my “one” word for 2016. As I sit here in my pajamas I don’t look or feel it.

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I wrote earlier that this year I am going putting some practices into my life to help me pay better attention to what God might want to teach me through this “one word”.

One practice is looking at places in Scripture where these words are fleshed out. Peter is certainly one I think of as “adventurously expectant”. i can’t picture him sitting around in his pajamas, so I decided to look at one of his “moments”.

When I look at a passage, I always try to look for (at least) 2 things: Continue reading

Changing the To Do List to Choose Life

May 9, 2014 /

The other morning I was up early, before husband John (as usual), but no worries.  Did I wake him?  No, that would be sooooo inconsiderate!  Instead I left him a note in the bathroom.  It read something like this:

Sweet Baboo (NOTE: I did not say “baboon”),

I woke up remembering…

And could you please…

And while you’re at it…

And don’t forget to buy….

love,

your adoring, romantic, AWAKE wife

Upon reflection, I write a lot of these notes which reinforce the business of marriage much more than the delight.  I’m trying to turn over a new leaf.  So these were my notes this morning: Continue reading

The Other “F Word”

September 14, 2012 /

One afternoon when Katy was in kindergarten she got off the bus and informed me that she had learned “the f-word.”

“Fart.”

She later told us she had also learned the “sh-word”

“Shut up.”

Honestly, in our family the real “f-word” isn’t fart.  And it isn’t another word that might come to mind.

It’s “fine”.

To my mind, “fine” may be the most terrible word in the english language.  And words matter as my friend Sharon always reminds me.

Continue reading

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