Do you pick a word of the year? I have in the past, but it’s never really stuck. I never think about it early enough to put meaningful thought into deciding on my word, so I tend to go for the random word generators (like this one), and then if a word doesn’t “speak to me” immediately, it feels silly and shallow, and I either nix the whole idea of a word of the year that year, or I put it on the back shelf of my mind and eventually forget about it altogether.
Recently, however, I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, and the women who host it together were discussing their new Words of the Year. The three of them each take the subject to prayer in November or December, ponder it for a while, and then settle on next year’s word before New Year’s Eve. As they were revealing their new words for 2021 to each other, and to the podcast listeners, they were adding the backstory of last year’s word, how last year went, and their expectations about what the new year and new word might bring for them this year. It sounded so meaningful to reflect on the years in succession. I thought, “Okay, maybe a word of the year could be meaningful or even fruitful for me, too.”
I had already visited the word generator site, and I’d clicked the button several times, because none of them seemed to “fit” right away. I screenshotted a couple of them that seemed to have potential, and then left the screenshots sitting in my camera roll. That was a few weeks ago already. So, after listening to the podcast episode, I opened them up and took another look at each one. This time, the first word decided to “speak to me.”
“Reliable.”
My first impression had been that maybe I would need to work on being more reliable myself, and I didn’t know how that would look. Maybe it will still come into play, we’ll see. But when I looked at it the second time, I felt that I needn’t work on my own reliability so much as I need to notice and trust in God’s reliability.
I have almost always found it easy to accept God’s plan for me. I suspect that He has given me a supernatural gift of Faith. When Justin was unemployed for a stretch, I never doubted that God had a great job waiting for him, but it just wasn’t the right time yet. When offers we made on homes were rejected or fell through, I never doubted that the right house was out there waiting for us to find it soon. I admit that sometimes my initial reaction to things may be disappointment, but it’s almost always just a few days until I’m back to trusting and deeply believing that God’s plan for me is good–whatever that plan is.
Then 2020 happened.
Pandemic aside, it was a year of uncertainties for my family. Here we were in a flourishing community of church friends, moms group friends, wonderful neighbors….people who really had our backs. I worked hard to build friendships and a community there, and it was paying off. And then Justin’s company offered him a promotion, which would involve moving back to Houston; and then they retracted the offer because of an HR technicality; and then Justin started looking for other jobs just in case; and we considered moving to west Texas, and we considered moving to Oklahoma, but none of those things panned out; and finally his current company made him a new offer and you know we ended up moving a few more hours south after all. It sounds all dandy.
But our last move was supposed to have been for “at least five years.” It turned out to be only two years, almost to the day. I’d been hoping to reap the rewards of my community-building labors for 3 more years or longer. Goodbye, instead. It just didn’t feel fair. And I know, “Life’s not fair;” I say so to my children at least once a week as they lament some pint-sized injustice or another. But…again?? I found myself in the midst of a wonderful community again and now we are uprooting again? There was a flicker of doubt. I really, really like my friends here. Of course I can see now that that last move was for the best, because I met these people (even though I miss the other people, still). How can it get better than this, though? Here, it’s not just “my friends and their husbands,” it’s “our friends,” “Justin’s friends whose wives are my friends too and whose children are my children’s friends.” Community is really important to me; I was feeling like we were at the TOP of the mountain of potential for amazing friends and neighbors all together, not to mention we were still within reasonable driving distance from family: God, what good can You possibly have in store for our family that’s better than what we have here??
I was seriously doubting that God knew better than I what was best for us. And now, sitting around in our new place with very few local contacts and a pandemic preventing events from happening where we would typically make new contacts, I’m still kinda wondering how this was the best plan.
BUT
I’m adopting this word of the year — RELIABLE — to remind myself that He is reliable, even when I don’t have a clue what the end goal of this step in the plan is. I’m sure there’s a reason for us to be here, now. I hope I will get to see/know that reason sometime soonish.
The promise of the Lord is fire-tried. 2 Samuel 22:31
Wait for the Lord, take courage. Psalm 27:14
Tell me your Word of the Year in the comments below!
Saint of the Year
From the same creator of the word of the Year generator I linked to above, there is a patron saint of the year generator website here. Two years ago, I got St. Catherine of Siena, who is, among other things, a patron against miscarriage. I’d had two of those the previous year, and was pregnant with Cecily at the turn of the new year, so I gladly accepted her patronage and asked for her intercession frequently that year. Last year, I got some Spanish king, a Fernando-something I think, and while I hope he prayed for me anyway, I honestly didn’t give him too much thought. This year, I got St. Jude Thaddeus, exactly the saint after whom we named our recently miscarried baby, so I’m excited to get to know him better. As he is a patron of both desperate situations and hospital workers, I’m certainly going to be imploring his help for an end to the pandemic-level craziness of covid in our lives, too, this year.
Share with me in the comments who your patron saint of the year is, if you choose one!
I never really choose a word of the year. It always seemed so arbitrary and artificial to me – choosing what I need to work on at random can’t possibly be the most efficient approach for personal growth, can it? But you definitely describe it as a more rational process, not holding yourself to the first word generated, but looking for the right word. So I have been thinking about it more. In light of recent events, the word “maternal” is what stands out to me. I tried the word generator, but nothing resonated as much as that. I don’t know how official to make it, though.
I also tried the saint generator, and got St. Peter. Not sure where to go with that! Haha.
Yes, that’s just how I’d felt about it before listening to the podcast / before this year. It’s certainly still a trendy type thing and who knows if I’ll still be trying to do it in ten more years. If you stick with “maternal” I’d love to hear later where it takes you this year! And St Peter is awesome, so hopefully he’ll send you some special blessings, whether you make it a “thing” or not 😂
I hope I will get to know the reason sometime soonish of why God has me in our current situation. Timely to read this. <3
Me too! You’re in a crazy spot right now!