Normally I make New Year’s Resolutions. A lot of them. And they are usually a long list of big accomplishments and dreams I hope to achieve throughout the next 365 days.  They start out well and somewhere around April or May, I completely abandon them only to return to them somewhere around November to realize I either a) failed or b) unknowingly accomplished the goal.  The new year is a wonderful time to try to kick off old habits or start some new ones and I am not knocking that, but I decided this year I was not going to make a single resolution.  Since I am a chronic overachiever, I have zero trouble adding more things to my to-do list than hours in oh, all eternity.  And I will admit, I like lists. They are neat and orderly and enable you to cross things off them.

But.. not this year. This year I decided I was going to pick a word and operate from said word.  As I make decisions and move forward throughout this year, everything comes back to a single word.  So for this year, the word I chose was..

Patience

I like this definition I found- quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence. To me, patience is about being in the moment. It is about allowing myself the space to relax, to be, to mess up, to sleep in, to stay up late, to say no, to love, and to move slow.  It is about having patience with my husband, my friends, my family, and those I encounter each and every day.  It is the quiet, steady breathing in and out of life which allows you to put aside the high goals of achievement and instead embrace the joys of the moment.

My prayer is at the end of this year, I can look back and see not a long list of accomplishments, but moments in which I loved those around me better, enjoyed life more, took time to relax, and invested in Kingdom building.   I may not be able to say I kicked a bad habit or crossed things off a bucket list or succeeded at such and such, but I hope I can say I grew in the art of patience.

If you already set resolutions, continue on, but if you are searching for something different, perhaps it starts with a single word.