I have found, though, that as I go through the year, I invariably come upon material relating to my word or encouraging me in my focus on it. So what I've done the past few years is to make a Pinterest board for my word of the year. It's great when I come upon a blog post or other online material to be able to just pin it to a specific board to refer to later. Just as an example, here is the link to my Settled Pinterest board.
(Please read: As mentioned earlier, I'm very much aware and sensitive to the fact that there is nothing magical, more spiritual or even necessarily desirable about choosing a word to focus on for a new year. Barbara H. wrote a bit about this last year, and this year she has expanded upon the theme with this post: You don’t have to choose a word for the year. She's right; you don't. I don't have to, and the time may come when I don't feel led to.
But this year, and the seven preceding it, I have found that having a word to focus on has helped me greatly. For example, the year that I chose "stewardship", I found it so encouraging anytime I felt like giving up to just think about my responsibilities to God to steward my life well for His glory.
So please, don't choose a word for the year just because I or others do, and don't ever feel less spiritual for not choosing one. It's just not necessary. It's something I do because I have found it helpful in my Christian walk -- and you might too -- but then again it may well not be for you.)
Not for me, though it makes all the difference if The Lord chooses the word or if the individual does it. I think. Fun way to document your words of the year.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely. In every year I've chosen a word, He has made it very clear what word it should be. If I ever feel unclear about that I probably wouldn't choose a word at all.
DeleteBut yes -- making the Pinterest boards has been a big help because I can refer back to them. Often I come up against the topic again -- in preparing a Sunday School lesson, for example -- and it's been so helpful to know where I put that information I had read on the subject! Much better than trying to rely on my memory.
I like the idea and have chosen a word many times. I didn't really didn't this year, but determined could have been it, but it was more of an idea that I am just determined to do better in some areas. So maybe that has turned out to be my word, but I do love your Pinterest board idea. You know I still like Pinterest for cataloging so many things for me to refer back to, but I miss the day when you chose people to follow and only there content showed up in your feed. You could still surf to find new things you were interested in but it was more a follow thing. I will say my determination has been in full gear this week and I have made some real progress in a few places. It feels so good.
ReplyDeleteGood for you with your determination in full gear! I wish I could say the same about my diligence.
ReplyDeleteThere is a way that you can take all of the unwanted content out of your Pinterest feed, but I believe it can only be done in Firefox. I did it once but it seems to have stopped working, so ... I don't surf there much at all; just use it as you said as a place to catalog things to refer back to.