Blessing #206 - Word of the Year

Hello friends that happen to read this blog....

Wait! Before I go any further, I have to stop right there.  

My Aunt Ruthie got internet and reads the blog now! So I must stop and say, "Hey Aunt Ruthie! Love you!"

Okay, I'm back. It's been a month since I blogged last.  We live in the boonies, and while I love the peace and quiet there is one thing that I hate about the boonies...the internet.

There is no high speed internet available in our area so we use a mobile hot spot.  Over the past month, that hotspot has been terrible! We didn't have a signal at all! My phone internet would work, but not this hot spot!

After Shad had many phone conversations with Verizon, it seems like we have internet....for now.  I really don't trust it though.  If the wind blows a certain way, a solar flare explodes, or construction starts up near our house again there's a good chance we will lose our internet again.

As frustrating as it is, if bad internet is the cost for being surrounded by beautiful fields, I'll take that deal any day!

Last week, I celebrated my 31st birthday! For the past three years around my birthday, I pick a word of the year.

Most people pick a word of the year at the start of the year.  If you've never heard about it, you can check it out here. 

When I pick a word of the year, it's kind of my motto for that year.  For my 29th year, my first ever word of the year was "shine," and this word is really my life motto.  Shine will always be a special word for me.

The Bible verse that represented this word for me was, Matthew 5:16, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." 

For my 30th year, my word was "abundant." The Bible verse that represented this word for me was the last part of John 10:10, "I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly."

For my 31st year, my word came to me shortly after Collin's accident, grace.  Grace has just seemed to echo in my thoughts over the past few months.

The verse that represents this word for me is 2 Corinthians 12:9, "And he said unto me, 'My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.  Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

I think in the past, I have only focused on one aspect of grace. Saving grace, that amazing grace the hour I first believed, but since Collin's accident I have seen how much grace is in the everyday. How much I need grace and how much I need to give grace.

Ann Voskamp said, "Grace isn't some soft ethereal, notion. Grace is a noun, it's a verb, it's concrete, it's like air. Just try living without it.

Later, I hope to share more about what this word means to me, but today I just wanted to share my word for the year.

Do you pick a word for the year, or have a word that means a lot to you? I'd love to hear it.