Wow…we made it through 2020. Congratulations! Haha, okay but really looking back on 2020 it wasn’t that bad of a year for me. Honestly, it may have been one of the best years I’ve had in a loooooong time. Why? Because it forced me to do some of the things I’ve been needing to do for a while…

If you’re new to the blog then you should know I don’t set RESOLUTIONS. Several years ago, I heard a church service where they talked about how resolutions are usually always a let down and never accomplished. It’s almost too much pressure on yourself to try and “fix” all of these things. So, instead they encouraged you to choose ONE WORD to live by for the entire year. You choose a word and apply it to all areas of your life throughout the year. It’s been the absolute BEST thing I’ve done over the last 3 years.

2021 GOAL = GRATITUDE

What is my ONE WORD for 2021? It’s something we all struggle with…GRATITUDE.

Why do I say we all struggle with GRATITUDE? Because we are all human, and we all have wants. I just read my morning devotional which talked about GRATITUDE, and how we tend to be more aware of what we don’t have than of the many wonderful things we have been given.

Have you ever been fully satisfied or content with everything you have? I know I haven’t… I constantly want more. It’s something that has really bothered me about myself over the last few years. I have been blessed with so many wonderful things in my life, but I have not been GRATEFUL for them.

The main reason I haven’t felt GRATEFUL for a lot of the things I’ve had in my life is because I haven’t had someone to share them with… I’ve said more times than I can remember, “I would give up all of the things I have to have a loving husband and happy marriage.” Every time I say it or think it I know it’s dumb to wish something like that… My life is good so why can’t I just have GRATITUDE?

Over the last 3 years, I feel like each ONE WORD has built on the other:

2018 = TRUST

I needed to TURST the Lord first before anything else.

2019 = PATIENCE

Once I had TRUST in Him, I needed to learn to have PATIENCE with His timing.

2020 = HOPE

After learning to TRUST and have PATIENCE with his timing I needed to have HOPE again for good things to come.

2021 = GRATITUDE

Now that I can TRUST Him, be PATIENT with His timing, and have HOPE for the future I need to have GRATITUDE for the life I have right now.

I always wonder how the Lord will reveal my ONE WORD to me each year? Because 2020 forced me (and a lot of us) to slow down and really focus on the important things around us it allowed me to realize what does make me happy. We all go a million miles an hour each day with “stuff” that happens. Let’s be real that’s just life. But, when something bad happens in your day we tend to focus on that negative thing.

Last year, I started a “10 Good Things” list I tried to write down each night. It can be anything good, big or small, that happened in your day. It really forces you to find even the smallest pieces of good from the day no matter how bad your day could’ve been…

I wasn’t very consistent with writing the list each night throughout the year, but at the end of December it was weighing really heavy on my heart.

I knew I needed to start doing it again. On New Year’s Eve, I was telling a friend about how I’d looked back on 2020 and the “10 Good Things” list was probably the best thing I did last year.

About 2 hours later, we were at dinner and there was a fortune teller at the NYE event. Her fortune telling skills were based off you finishing a drink and her flipping the cup over on a napkin. Whatever drink spot was left on the napkin apparently told her your fortune.

Look, I don’t believe in that stuff at all but what she said next was CRAZY…

At the very end of my “fortune” she said I needed to start my GRATITUDE journal again. My heart dropped and I just knew that was my ONE WORD.