Rooted in 2021

For the last 7 years, I have had a "Word of the Year" that God has put on my heart in some form or another before the new year begins. Some years, it feels like I'm going in to the 11th hour with no word in mind, and other years it feels like it's dropped in my life just moments into a new year with an already brand new, fresh word just starting. And that's what happened for 2021...God basically flashed it up in neon lights in the early days of 2020!

Every where I looked, I saw and heard the word ROOTED.  Since this is my 8th year doing this, God doesn't have to yell them too loudly at me anymore, but a little repetition does help me know just what the Lord is up to!

On a recent podcast with She Reads Truth, Amanda Bible Williams said, "You can't live by the book you don't know." If that's not the truth, I don't know what is! To live it, we must read it, study it, and know it. We must be ROOTED in God's word to be able to live by God's word. When we are ROOTED in Him, the things going on around us cannot uproot us. My prayer is to be ROOTED in God's word this year spending time with Him daily by reading and meditating on His word, listening to His words in music, and talking to others about what He is teaching us.

I'm planning ahead for the year to come and how I can be ROOTED in God's word -- I will be following the She Reads Truth plans throughout the year, starting with Faith in Practice on January 4th, and I will also be following a plan to read the Bible through this year with a group of ladies as we hold each other accountable and share what God is teaching us. I have a new journal that Brad got me for my birthday from Well Watered Women that will allow me to journal my prayers and all that I'm learning as I read. And one of my personal favorites - I love creating playlists with music that God is using to speak to me at any point in time. These are songs that are based off of God's word and allow me to continue to be ROOTED in Him throughout the day.

A few other things I have planned and in place include a bible study basket that will hold all of my supplies for bible study - my bible, pens and highlighters, journals, and a favorite candle. This is set up next to a chair in our room, and I'll have my new cozy blanket ready to grab for my quiet time.  I'm not quite ready to put the time in my daily planner because toddler life/mom of 3 life tends to make our schedules a little crazy! My hope is to have an early morning quiet time before any of the kids wake up, but most days it ends up being during Carson's nap time! Because of this, I'll start my day in prayer, reading a verse of the day and listen to a worship song (or 10), so that God has the first moments of my day! (I'm nowhere near perfect at this, but it is a goal worth striving for!!)

Another idea if you are doing a word of the year is to display it in various ways so you see it on a regular basis. This could be with home decor, creating a special art projected using the word, or doing something that represents your word.  For example, I think it would be fun to plant something this year as a symbol of being rooted. My favorite idea on this part is JEWELRY!! There is a beautiful "Rooted" necklace I have my eye on, but there are also giving keys and other ways you could "wear" your word - shirts, bracelets, etc.

Her roots were deep in His radiant truth. She knew that her journey was always through Him. And was always for Him.

A special thing I will be doing this year is reading through the Bible in a new one I purchased for Bryleigh. I plan on taking notes as I always do and leaving notes, stories, and advice to her throughout my reading. Then, over the next several years, I will continue to add notes for her and then gift it to her at a special time - high school graduation, 16th or 18th birthday...or more likely just when the Lord prompts me to pass it on to her. I am so excited to do this for her!

REST to CULTIVATE

Sometime at the end of 2018, I clearly heard the Lord telling me that my word for 2019 would be REST.  This was almost comical to me seeing as we were finishing up the last trimester of a pregnancy (NO rest), then adding a newborn (even LESS rest), and then sending our big little off to kindergarten (did I mention no rest!?).

But here we are at the end of 2019, and I can see it.  I can see why He was nudging me (not so gently) to this word.  Sometime I look at these words as something God has spoken over me and then He'll just sprinkle that over my life for the next year.  What I've learned this year, and what I'm so clearly hearing him tell me right here in the busiest month we've seemed to have all year with some of the least amount of sleep we've gotten...you have to FIGHT for the rest.

Here's the thing, what God has been impressing on me over the last few months, RESTING is a command from the Lord.  In one of my bible studies this semester, I overheard someone say, "Why as Christians do we follow 9 commands as LAW, but look at the 10th as a good suggestion?"  It was like a dagger to the heart.  In that moment, I got it, and nothing has been the same sense.  (Also, have you noticed those commands... A whole lot of "DON'T do that" and very little "DO this..." and the fact that the majority of them are quick snippets but keeping the Sabbath holy is three lengthy, detailed verses long.)

I think I was fighting for rest in my own hands most of the year, and then avoiding rest when I felt like I had too much on my plate for the other part of the year, but as we close out this year and jump in to the next, I'll be focusing on submitting to the Father in this area, following Him in obedience to make rest a normal rhythm of my life.

I felt like I was going to take REST with me in to 2020 as my word for the year again, but then I noticed how God was building on this concept in my life.  I will definitely continue to focus on this area and be attentive to how God is calling me to rest, and I have a few resources I'm going to be studying on this spiritual discipline, but I'm adding another layer as well.

In my time of resting, I took a break from social media. (It was glorious, by the way!) During that time, I made an effort to clean up my social media accounts, phone notifications, and email subscriptions so that I wasn't WASTING so much time on my phone.  This idea of WASTE kept coming to mind and I could sense God was at work in my life again.  As I became more aware of his tugging on my heart in this area, I could see so many ways that I was wasting time in my every day life.  Corrie ten Boom said "if the devil can't make you sin, he'll make you busy." SIN and BUSYNESS have the same effect on us, they cut us off from our connection to God, other people, even ourselves.

I knew this was an area I wanted to focus on for 2020, but I couldn't use WASTE as my "word".  That's sort of the opposite of the point of having a word for the year.  As I began to research and look into the word, I decided to take a look at the OPPOSITE of waste, and that's when I heard God speak CULTIVATE over my life.

Waste: to consume, spend, or employ uselessly or without adequate return; use to no avail or profit; squander; to fail or neglect to use; to expend carelessly, extravagantly, or to no purpose

Opposites of waste: conserve, flourish (which I also love!), useful, cultivated

Cultivate: to nurture and help grow

Rather than wasting my time this year, my prayer is that I will grow in christ-likeness through cultivation (and rest...), cultivating spiritual growth and maturity.

Rest, My Friend.

Let's talk about New Years.  I know, I know. It's not even Christmas yet, but before you send out a witch hunt and go all "No Christmas before Halloween = No New Years before Christmas" on me, let me share my thoughts.

Normally, as we are wrapping up Christmas (the holiday, not the presents), I start to look toward the new year and pray over what the year might look like, what God has for me and my family, and what can I do to improve on the last year.  (I also REALLY like to look back on all God has done in our family over the past year, but that's for another post... really in the new year!)  Sometime in those final weeks/days, I'll pray and ask God to give me a certain word. In years past, He's given it to me at many different times in different ways and for different reasons, sometimes when I wasn't even really asking Him for it yet.  (This is my 5th year to share about my word/verse for the year here on my blog. You can read the other ones HERE.)

I honestly thought this year was going to be a little different. God has put PRAYER on my heart, heavily.  If you've talked with me in any sort of accountability form over the last 2 years or so, you know this is an area I feel like I've really struggled.  Not that I can't/don't pray, but that I am not INTENTIONAL in my prayer time.  As a momma to two, some days being totally on my own, I do my best to get up as the littlest wakes up, and the time after they go to sleep is spent furiously getting things done that are easier done with 2 hands than 6.  This leaves little time for Jesus. I (I, me, in all the bold, italics, underlined, and capital letters) leave little time for Jesus.  I have spent time in God's word studying for two different bible studies and following an unknown number of She Reads Truth studies.  I spend time in prayer, praying for friends and our families' requests, as well as our own, but when you are talking "go deeper, dig harder, listen to the Father intimately" kind of prayer... I "just don't have the time," or at least I don't make the time that I know He deserves.

I've studied prayer and practiced prayer and journaled prayers over the years, even in the last two, but if I'm being honest, I've not given God the time He deserves.  It's something I've prayed about and asked others to pray about as well.  Although I'm still not "there" yet, He's been gracious in giving me some ideas about how to be intentional in 2019 with prayer, and I'm excited to implement those things.  I'm also excited about the desire He has given me in my heart to make this an area of great discipline in my life.  The fact that the God of the universe PURSUES us is just astounding! Praise God, He does!!

So back to the whole "word" thing.  Like I said, I was really feeling like He was pulling me away from a specific word this year and calling me more to focus on the specific spiritual discipline of prayer.  But over the last week, He might as well have put it in flashing lights (and if I could in this blog, I would...) But it would have read: REST.  I've had people SPEAK this over me, I have had people text this to me, and then I had a wedding photographer I follow EMAIL it to me.  If I am being honest, she emailed it to all, however-many-thousand email subscribers she has, but she might as well have sent it straight to me, becuase there in the subject of her email read: Rest, my friend.  I honestly can't even tell you how many times those words have been given to me (in some fashion) over the last few weeks.

So here I am, gearing up for 2019... a year that starts with a wedding, adds a newborn baby to our family in Spring, another wedding over the Summer, and who knows what else is to come... but God knows, and HE is the one that is calling me to rest.  I don't know what that looks like exactly (with a 5 year old, 2 year old, and newborn baby... and a husband gone, a lot), but I know that He will show me.

And here's the thing, I'm really good at making plans.  I'm good at taking time and writing it all out and coming up with all these steps and ideas, and even listening as God gives me those ideas, but I'm not good at the next part, STARTING.  So rather than waiting to start with this resting and intentional prayer in 2019, I'm starting today, right now.  So like I said, I have no idea what this looks like, but I know that God will direct each step (or let me know when to not take those steps).

Serve is the Word in 2018

Okay guys.  I seriously dropped the ball, or should I say...entire basket of fruit on my 2017 word of the year.  I had every intention of being SUPER intentional and focusing on a different fruit of the spirit each month, diving in deep and learning what God had to say about each one...but I didn't.  (I still hope to do this at some point because it really is one of my favorite passages of scripture, and I know it is filled with so many truths, pointing to many different passages and themes in the bible.)  I went a little to crazy on that one, so I will be dialing it back this year and focusing on one single word...one single truth: SERVE. (Just kidding...I had been working on this before God spoke to me about adding another word...but I'll get to that)

I've mentioned before that some years, I have had to really search out what God is speaking over me where these words are involved (like this year's 2017 word coming in at the 11th hour), and other times it is as clear as can be for weeks (even months) ahead.

But this year, this word is different.  God has been speaking this word over me and to my heart for almost an entire year.  We were barely into 2017 when I began to hear Him nudging me to this years word: SERVE.  As we studied through John last year in BSF, one of the lessons about how Jesus SERVED stuck with me.  Over the past year, I have repeatedly seen Him highlighting this area in my life.

**I fully anticipated having one single word to focus on this year, but when God speaks...you listen! ;) So December 30, during the course of a conversation, someone quickly mentioned the word SURRENDER.  It didn't strike me too much at the time, but the idea behind what she was discussing stuck out to me and was something I knew I needed more of in my life (as in surrendering to my husband in marriage the way we should surrender our life to God).  And then...December 31...final hours of the year, I heard it again.  This time it was in a song, "I Surrender All," that was playing on the radio while I was driving.  I have felt as the Lord has led me before, and I knew he was doing so again.

So this year, while there are two words, I feel like they definitely work hand in hand, and as I learn to surrender to the Lord and His will for my life, I will serve Him out of the overflow of my love for Him. Surrender + Serve.

Here's the song I was listening to as I clearly heard the Lord telling me to just SURRENDER to Him in 2018.  So here I am, at the beginning of this year with my hands open, held out to Him, expectant of what is to come, knowing that He will cover it all.

A Fruitful 2017

I have chosen a word and a verse to think on, pray about, and live out each year for the past several years - 2014 was endurance, 2015 was joy, and 2016 was intentional.

And let me correct myself quickly, I haven't exactly chosen it as much as I've felt called by God to claim it (or work on it) in my life.

I thought endurance would be great in 2014 because I was starting the year with delivering a baby (talk about the need for endurance!?) and then raising that sweet little newborn, but what I did not know was all the endurance I would need for all that God had planned for us that year (Brad's 3 surgeries, 20 weeks of home health, and the beginning of his weekly travel to North Carolina).

My word for 2015 was one God repeatedly showed me I needed to work on - JOY.  I had very little of it in my life, and I just felt extremely negative all of the time.  I chose to claim that word and study it throughout the year, including reading "The Greatest Gift" by Ann Voskamp, where I began to track my #1000gifts.  It was a game changer for me, and although I still need work in that area, I know God did a great work in my life because of that word.

Some years I fall flat on my face.  I didn't FORGET about my word for 2016, and certainly did not forget my verse - {And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Colossians 3:17} - but I certainly didn't make any of the efforts I intended to in order to live intentionally.  Although 2016 is behind us, my goal for 2017 is to be a little more intentional with all that God has given me and called me to - as a wife, a mother, a friend, and a daughter of the King.

Those three words came to me over the course of months leading up to the end of the prior year, and I really expected it to always go that way.  I figured God would always put something on my heart to work on or claim for the upcoming year, but lately, all I've heard is radio silence!! I've prayed and prayed, and here we are, 4 days before year end (as I type this...) and I didn't have a specific word as of 8:00 this morning.  I'd been thinking about a few and praying for some direction, but nothing was really standing out to me the way it normally does.

That was until I was standing in my bathroom, ticked off at my husband for something that Satan was turning in to a much bigger deal than it actually was, and I thought, "Boy do I need some patience.  Maybe THAT should be my 2017 word?!"

But have you ever prayed for patience?!  I'm pretty sure I did as a 6th grader and I'm still getting the lessons thrown my way, 18 years later...I could give you a laundry list of the things I've "waited on" or "waited out" or "patiently endured."

Over the past week, I've also considered a few others, like LOVE, and JOY, and PEACE...and then it hit me...FRUIT.  I need each of those areas to improve in my life. I WANT each of those areas to improve in my life.  I want my life to bear the FRUIT of Christ, showing love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control.  (The irony is not lost on me that my word for the year is a word that - in different context - has rocked our world a bit over the last 2 years...)

Over the years, I have loved studying the passage in Galatians chapter 5 that discusses this very topic and plan on studying it over the next 12 months - and each month I'll focus on one of the words.  So here's to a LOVING January, a JOYFUL February, a PEACEFUL March, a PATIENT April, a KIND May, a GOOD June, a FAITHFUL July, a GENTLE August, and a SELF-CONTROLLED September.  And I'll swing back around for a second round of those words for the last quarter of the year...you know, the Holidays when you could use a little more of each area! ;)  Here's to a year of FRUIT in 2017!

Live Intentional in 2016

Each year, I spend a little time looking at the year ahead and setting some goals for myself to shoot for in the new year.  Over the past few years, I've honestly been able to achieve more of those goals than I imagined I could as I let go of being "perfect" at each goal and just strived for progress in each area.  Those goals have looked a lot like this:

The thing I have loved more than setting these goals for myself is choosing a word to focus on in the upcoming year because they've always ended up being the perfect word for that year.  Some years, they've come in at the last second, and other years they're as obvious as if God lit up a neon billboard with blinking lights and a large arrow saying, "This is your word, Carrie." (FYI: That's pretty much what happened this year.)

One thing I have learned in claiming these words (I would have said "choosing" them, but I feel like God has declared the words for me) is that you have to be very careful.  It's like praying for patience and you end up feeling a little more like Job than you ever expected, like every day is a new test more difficult than the one before.

Two years ago, my word was endurance - I ended up being 4 days overdue, in labor for over 18 hours and in delivery for about 2 more hours, had a newborn baby with the obvious lack of sleep and daily life lessons, and we rounded out the year with 3 surgeries and 100+ days of home health.  This past year, my word was joy - and although most days were fairly easy to find joy in some way or another, I never dreamed I'd be challenged so much in such a short amount of time when a very wanted pregnancy became a very unwanted miscarriage.  I fought to find joy in the days and months that followed.

As 2015 is coming to a close, I have had NO trouble knowing what my 2016 word should be.  God has been making it obvious for a few months now, and He has continually confirmed and reaffirmed it in various ways.

I remember at the end of my first year in BSF (May 2015), my summer-long prayer request was to be INTENTIONAL with my time.  That one word has continually come to mind time and time again since then.  I'm not sure when exactly God put it on my heart, but I know it is right where He is really working in my life right now.

...And there it is, right there at the bottom of that screenshot above - BEING INTENTIONAL.  So apparently my 2016 word came all the way at the beginning of 2015, and I'm just now realizing it at the end of 2015.  Sometimes God just works like that ;)

So for 2016, I'm not focusing on a whole list of goals in different areas of my life, I'm just focusing on one thing: LIVING INTENTIONALLY - with our finances, with my health, with relationships, with parenting and my time with Bryleigh, with my prayer life, with my relationship with Christ, and every area of my life in between.  And of course, I will continue to find JOY and give thanks in each and every moment, of each and every day the Lord gives me.

Goals - Continuing on in 2015

I wrote a post to kick off 2014 with a whole lot of goals I had set for myself, why I was doing goals vs. resolutions, and a life verse for 2014.  Well you know what happened TEN days later?? I had a baby.  That newborn baby came home with me, and all those goals and the big ideas I had went out the window.  I was in survival mode, and the last thing on my mind was how I was doing in regards to my goals for the year.

But as I look back on those goals now, I see just how much they meant to me, because even without focusing on them and working at them the way I planned...I still came pretty close to reaching a lot of them, and for some...I was actually successful!  And that verse that I picked to focus on in 2014...it's still the first picture on my camera roll and it was the first thing I recalled continuously throughout the year.  

Most of those goals are still things I'm passionate about, so my list will look pretty similar this year.  Here are my 15 goals for 2015:

#PhysicallyFit

#DrinkIt128 (Goal of 128 ounces/1 gallon of water each day)

#EatIt (Goal of making sticking with my Herbalife meal plan)

#WorkIt530 (Goal of working out at least 5 days a week, 30 minutes a day)

#RunIt (Goal of training for and running in 5k's with my mom)

*I'm also shooting to complete the #Run100 challenge where you run 100 miles in 2015...never skip a Monday, never go 3 days without running, run at least 3 days a week, and never give up!

#FinanciallyFit

#EliminateIt (Goal of cutting our current debt in half by the end of this year)

#AvoidIt (Goal of not using our credit cards to make purchases, #Swipeless2015)

#BudgetIt (Goal of creating our monthly budget and sticking to it, complete FPU)

#BuildIt (Goal of building personal businesses this year, it's truly a dream)

#SpirituallyFit

#StudyIt (Goal of reading through the bible by my 30th birthday)

#RememberIt (Goal of memorizing scripture)

#PrayIt (Goal of keeping a prayer journal for 2015)

#ShareIt (Goal of sharing the gospel with those that I meet)

Along with those goals, here are three additional to round out my 15 in 2015:

#GrowIt (Goal of nourishing and growing my relationship with my husband)

#ReadIt (Goal of reading at least one book each month from various types/genres)

#TeachIt (Goal of being intentional with teaching Bryleigh new things - both spiritually and intellectually)

I loved having a life verse in 2014 with a word to really focus on, so I chose to do the same thing this year.  Over the past year, I've been praying for God to be at work in my heart and life, teaching me how to love others like He loves, and one of the things He's been speaking to me about is JOY.  So my 2015 word is JOY and my verse is 1 Peter 1:6, NLT - "Be truly glad.  There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while." (I really liked Romans 12:12, also - "Be JOYFUL in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.")

My #Verse2015 - 1 Peter 1:6 and my #Word2015 - JOY

Goals vs. Resolutions in 2014

As we start off 2014, everyone is busy proclaiming their 2014 New Year's Resolutions...and hoping that this year is different than those in the past.  Will I be able to make it out of January with my resolutions still in tact?  What about 3 or 6 months from now?  If you've ever been to the gym in December AND January, then you know exactly what I'm talking about!

But have you ever actually looked at the definition of a resolution?  What is it exactly that you are doing?

Resolution: a firm decision to do or not do something

Resolve: settle or find a solution to (a problem, dispute, or contentious matter)

Resolutions don't give you much to go on.  They only give you a pass/fail outcome where you either succeed or don't succeed, and let's face it - most "Resolutions" end up in the fail column by the end of March.  Just because you made that "firm decision" to do something doesn't mean you have the support system or framework set to be successful at that resolution.

Also, based on the definition for resolve (another form of the word "Resolution"), you are looking at all of the negative in your life and resolving to make changes to those specific things.  As you focus on the negative and all of the things you want to change, you overlook the positives and all the good you're capable of.  Sometimes this could even lead to those positives slipping into future resolutions.  (For example - if you already exercise 30 minutes a day out of desire/habit, but you lose sight and set your focus on changing all those negatives...you could start to slip on that exercise habit and eventually, it could fall in to that "needs work" area of your life.)

Now take a look at a different option...GOALS

Goal: the object of a person's ambition or effort; an aim or desired result

I'm not saying that it's not a good idea to take a look at those areas in your life that could use some improvement (or "resolve"), but you want to be sure and have a balance looking at the good and the not so good.  When you set goals for yourself, you aren't necessarily looking to "fix" something, you are shooting for desired results.

If you have ever done any type of professional development, you've probably learned the SMART Goals system.  Your goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.  As I mentioned early, resolutions don't give you a framework.  They simply say, "This is what I'm going to do," and then you go after them.  Your goals, using the SMART system give you a very specific framework, allowing you to be prepared for what lies ahead.


So in 2014, I have 14 goals I've set for myself pertaining to "Getting Fit" in 2014 - financially, physically, and spiritually.  I will continually work to improve my "health" in each of these areas throughout the year, and these goals give me things to focus on.

#PhysicallyFit

#DrinkIt128 (Goal of 128 ounces/1 gallon of water each day)

#WorkIt530 (Goal of working out at least 5 days a week, 30 minutes a day)

#RunIt3.1 (Goal of training for and running in the 5k Turkey Trot with my mom)

#EatIt (Goal of making our meal plan and sticking to it)

#FinanciallyFit

#EliminateIt (Goal of cutting our current debt in half by the end of this year)

#AvoidIt (Goal of not using our credit cards to make purchases, #Swipeless2014)

#PlanItDoIt (Goal of creating our monthly budget and sticking to it, complete FPU)

#BuildIt (Goal of building personal businesses this year)

#SpirituallyFit

#StudyIt (Goal of reading through the bible this year)

#RememberIt (Goal of memorizing one verse per week)

#PrayIt (Goal of keeping a prayer journal for 2014)

#ShareIt (Goal of sharing the gospel with those that I meet)

Along with those goals, here are two additional to get us to the 14:

#GrowIt (Goal of nourishing and growing my relationship with my husband)

#ReadIt (Goal of reading at least one book each month from various types/genres)

Along with those goals, I have chosen a verse for 2014 after getting an email from YouVersion that encouraged selecting a life verse for the year.  I searched for verses that talked about endurance because that is what I hope to have this year as I go after my goals.  I loved Colossians 1:11-12 as soon as I read through it, but loved it even more when I read it in the Message version.

My #Verse2014 - Colossians 1:11-12 and My #Word2014 - Endurance