The Compassion Advocate Network has encouraged advocates this year to exchange New Year's Resolutions for a word. Not just any word, but a word that will be a word that the Holy Spirit uses to guide your choices and your thoughts for the year.
There is a better description of this concept on the Compassion Blog here in 2010 and an update here in 2011.
I am not big on New Year's Resolution. It makes me feel like it is just setting me up for failure and if I need to do something, I shouldn't wait for the new year to come, but I should just do it immediately.
So, I never chose a word in the past and honestly was not necessarily jumping right into it this year either. But as I was thinking about it, the word FOCUS kept popping into my mind. I brushed it off the first few times, not really giving it much focus (hardy-har-har). But it would not stop slipping into my mind.
Focus is something that I am always trying to obtain, but it seems always evasive.
I am the queen of mulit-tasking. And even when I am not physically trying to accomplish many tasks (which is very rare), my mind is often working double time. I have left after spending an evening with someone and came home and feeling like I never really saw or spent time with them at all.
I constantly spread myself so thin that nothing can really get my full attention. It reminds me of how a camera focuses. If a lens is going to able to get a crisp, clear picture of something in the foreground, everything around it must be out of focus. The crisper the focused item is, the more out of focus everything around it becomes. Sure, a picture can be taken where everything in the foreground and background are all in focus, but all details are missed.
I want to be able to focus on what is important. That will require me to not focus on things that may be important, but not quite so much. I have started doing this already in December and it has been such a dramatic change from my norm and I do not regret it.
If I continue to hone my focus, it will cause me to disappoint others and sometimes even myself, but it is necessary. I feel like I have really lived the month of December, instead of letting it live me. I have appreciated my good health, my family and home even more than I do on a regular basis.
So my word for 2012 is FOCUS. You have permission to check to see if I am keeping my focus throughout the coming year.
Can you think of a word that could take the place of or be an addition to your New Year's Resolution?
3 comments:
I'm glad you are jumping on this bandwagon. Any bandwagon that involves lessons from the Holy Spirit is a good one to be on.
I love New Year's resolutions as they give me focus and help me be intentional about my year. For me it's more like a bucket list and I try to have attainable goals in each area of my life - goals that hold me accountable and help me be the person I want to be.
I do the one word thing too - this will be my third year. This year my word is LISTEN.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!! And I'm excited for you in this new year, to continue on keeping your focus on what is really good in your life. So often I have done a lot of "good" things, but not the "best" things that I needed to do. It's exciting to fully be where God wants you to be, even if that is just lounging with the family and declining to help out in some good work. I'll be praying for the Holy Spirit to show me a word too...what an awesome concept!
Before I even read this I had chosen grace as the word for this year. I have spend the last year stuck on freedom and have found that the only way I can continue to walk in the victory of freedom is to walk daily by the grace of God and the Holy Spirit leading me. Glad to hear about your word. It is a great one.
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