“You crown the year with Your good blessings, and You leave abundance in Your wake.”

Psalm 65:11 (NET)

Isn’t it wonderful to know we have a God who is in charge of our new year?  Who will keep His promises, who will never leave us and who will keep us under the shadow of His wings?

For me, knowing that God is with me every second of every day gives me great peace.

However, I still need to keep changing and growing and living my life the best way I possibly can.  Which is why nearly two-thirds of us make New Year’s resolutions – and I’ve been one of the 90 million who do.  Making a promise to ourselves is a good thing but research confirms what really happens: before January ends, most of us abandon our list of ways we intended to improve.

So what can we do to make these resolutions stick?  I read an article by Rachel Olsen in Proverbs 31 Magazine and her idea, which I think is excellent, is to just choose one word to focus on.  Here is what she said:

“Change is possible, but focus is required.  The problem is our attention is divided with our fast-paced and demanding lives. That’s why six years ago I ditched New Year’s resolutions in favor of choosing one word to be my focus for the year.  Just one word that represented what I most hoped God would do in and through me in the 12 months to come.

“I stayed focused on that one word for 365 days.  I thought about it, talked about it, journaled with it and prayed about it.  I let it shape my choices.  And I saw change.  In looking through the lens of a single word, chosen in tandem with God, I found a new approach to personal change and spiritual formation.”

Personally, this idea has stayed with me so much that I wrote to you about it today.  And I plan on using this plan – choosing one word to focus on, to change with, through the year.

To help you with some ideas, her word last year was CREATE.  Her husband’s was COMPASS.  Her teenage daughter’s was PAUSE.  Her son’s was POSITIVE.

I’m thinking other words such as HEALTH, for those of us trying to lose weight and be healthy; ORDER, for those of us wanting our lives to be more organized, TIME for those of us needing to use time more wisely.  I also like these words:  NON-COMPLAINING, LOVING, KINDNESS, JOYFUL, UNSELFISH, LISTEN, FINANCES.

I pray that you, with God’s help, will find the one word that will help you become more Christ-like. 

“The Lord – who is the Spirit – makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”  2 Corinthians 3:18