For every season I have a word...

Seek

Free

Pray

Hope

I got the idea of meditating on a word from my MOPS* group a couple of years ago. We made a vision board and chose a word to be our focus for the year. This idea helped to ground me more than I thought it would. Suddenly, I started seeing the word in more and more places. In verses, in the encouragement friends would send, sometimes even on billboards. Everywhere.

Focusing on only one word helped me to dive into different aspects of the word and the meaning and the meaning for me as a Christian. It also helped me search the Bible and other books more diligently for mentions of the word and stories with the theme of that word.

It started with “seek”. What does it mean to seek God?

That is the question I always ask first with the word.

What does it mean… to be free in Christ?

What does it mean… to pray?

And today:

What does it mean… to always have hope?

And so I am diving into a new season of hope. The reasons this word stood out to  me may seem silly to anyone not in the same season as me. This word stood out to me because I'm hoping that my kids will be potty trained soon and I'm hoping they will stop waking up at 5am and I'm hoping this season of them destroying books and everything they lay their chubby little hands on will be over soon. I'm hoping I will be able to have a quiet time without falling asleep or having to stop my child from killing themselves because they are standing on the counter trying to scale the cupboards to get candy. I'm hoping that the day will come soon when I won't dash away from two whining toddlers as soon as my husband offers to watch them so I can drink coffee in peace. I'm hoping there will come a day when I won't be so happy for a lock to keep my kids out and maintain emotional sanity (if you're reading this at an older age, kids, I love you but you were crazy as toddlers).

The point of choosing a word isn't to find the word that sounds holiest. Because I don't think wishing my kids were a little older is the best reason for choosing this word. It's not how I choose a word that matters, it is what God has taught me at the end of the season that matters.

The point of choosing a word is becoming humble to the point that I can say, God, I am willing to learn all I can about this word and this subject. Please speak to me in the months to come. I want to know how to have unwavering hope in each trial of my life that will come. And still more, I want to know how to show others that there is hope and have empathy without being condescending and bible thumping and quite frankly, annoying.

So in this season my word is hope.

What is your word?

*A group of women who meet a couple of times a months to refresh and encourage you as you try to mom.