This week has been messing with me.

Once Christmas is over, I’m so ready to regroup and start the New Year with new intentions. It’s hard for me to sit in this week of waiting. On top of that, the littlest is super sick again and I think others seem to be catching this awful cold too. The doctor ordered rest. More sitting. More waiting.

Interestingly, my She Reads Truth advent study continues for this week after Christmas with an emphasis on how we, as a spiritual people, are still in an advent of waiting for the return of Christ. Only, I don’t like waiting. I don’t like unfinished business. I don’t like stopping in my tracks. I always want to jump to the beginning of the next thing. And if I can’t do that, then I want to fill life with idle busyness (hello, social media!) because sitting is uncomfortable and waiting is hard.

I’m quick to recommend rest for others, but not myself. It’s not because I don’t need it. It’s just that rest is uncomfortable. Rest and waiting don’t feed my appetite for the validation that comes from accomplishment. Rest and waiting give me time to see where I don’t measure up to my own expectations in life.

And yet, while being forced to sit and wait in this in-between week with sick kiddos was not my plan, it has served a purpose…

• I get to be their safe place.
• I get time to set goals for the new year with intention.
• I get to have stillness and quiet to think and pray and meditate on the Word.
• I get to be reminded that my worth and identity are as a child of God.

This week has highlighted how I’ve been spending (wasting) my time and resources each and every day instead of learning the self discipline of rest, stillness, and waiting. It has made me consider how I can do things differently. My phone and online habits have become unbalanced and I am not the mom, wife, friend I am called to be because of that. Something has to change. What better time than now?

While I am still formulating the specific and measurable goals for this and many other categories of my life, I am choosing a word for 2023 – something I don’t think I’ve done before.

The word I’m choosing is:

I N T E N T I O N

I’ve let too many other things dictate how I spend my time and energies. I feel the tug of the Holy Spirit urging me to take back this territory of my life. I am not a victim to my whims or the approval of men. By God’s grace, I want to live with intention in this new year of 2023.

I hope to update this blog with my specific goals and strategies soon – after all, the new year is just a few short hours away! But for now, I wanted to share this word of the year and the why behind it.

If you choose a word of the year, will you share it below in the comments? I’d love to hear it!

xo Alex