"The Lord has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to hear as the learned." Isaiah 50:4.(NKJV).
I've stopped making New Year's resolutions. Instead, I found an interesting and exciting way to improve my new year by selecting one word and focusing on that word all year long.
There's a book available about the concept and how to go about selecting just one word to focus on for the year. I've used this concept since 2012 and it works for me.
I chose the word COMMIT for 2023 because I enrolled in two major writing programs - one for fiction and one for nonfiction. If I committed myself to these valuable writing programs for an entire year, would I be successful? I had to be! I wanted it! I invested time, money, energy, and myself into it.
I sat at my desk in the stillness, gathering my thoughts and contemplating what I was embarking on. It was a big deal in my world. I prayed over my decision, listening to God's small, quiet voice in my soul. It came, God approved my choice.
God has given me 2 gifts, one for TEACHING and one for WRITING. As a youngster, I was the teacher playing with my baby dolls, a chalkboard, and Sunday School take-home papers. Years later, I went to college, and God led me to the local Head Start Program, where I took root, grew, and blossomed into an early childhood teacher. I was in "hog heaven" as they say here in the Ozarks.
I committed to my role as a teacher of small children, modeling and helping them and teaching them the things I grew up learning. Because of my commitment to the children in my classroom, I was wildly successful. Through God's help, I made a difference in their little lives.
And then, I retired.
My love of reading grew into an interest in learning to WRITE. My husband encouraged me to take a creative writing course early in my marriage. I committed myself to reading and studying the craft of writing. My husband knew I would succeed, and he cheered me on. We watched TV shows together and he commented, "You can write a story like this." Westerns, historicals, comedies, holiday movies, the list goes on. He was committed to my writing as much as I was.
It paid off when that first acceptance letter from an editor in Springfield, MO, and a $5.00 check for my article about the George Washington Carver National Monument in Diamond, MO, drove me to continue. I succeeded in selling freelance magazine articles and wrote a weekly newspaper column for my hometown newspaper, all while working my teaching job.
Retirement came, and I was eager to get started doing the one thing most important to me: writing. However, grief plagued me. My husband passed in 2018, but at that time, I was still working, which kept me busy and tired; there wasn't a lot of time to ponder what I was going through. But in retirement, grief gripped me in its cruel grasp every day and every night.
Finally, after five years, I've healed somewhat and grown into my new life. Commit was the perfect One Word for my New Year! I am today, December 29, 2023, a published author of my first book-length nonfiction. This is a photo of my God-given book that was just published a few days ago, and the link for it:
Commitment works. But I had to persevere and keep the faith through this year when the hard times came. My health was a huge issue that left me weak and unhappy for a time. God held me up and I took one day at a time until I completed what I set out to do: write a book for 2023 while under the leadership of the writing courses I was in.
While thinking about my 2024 One Word, I've chosen LEARN. But I'm keeping COMMIT, too. Because I published a nonfiction book under the guidance of the nonfiction writer's program. But, I couldn't finish the fiction manuscript I was working on through the fiction course. Can you guess what I'm committed to now? I will finish the manuscript and write "the end."
Yes, the Lord teaches me and gives me an instructed tongue to know His Word, which helps those who are weary and in need of encouraging words. Every morning, God awakens me so that I hear and listen because He is teaching me. I am the Lord's scribe!
I will succeed this new year, 2024.
What's your My One Word for the new year?
Here's a photo of MY ONE WORD by Mike Ashcroft and Rachel Olsen. Please note: I'm not affiliated with the book or its authors, and I'm not getting any compensation for recommending it. I enjoyed reading the book and seeing the results of choosing one word!
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