My Word: 2012

For 2011, I jumped on some bandwagon somewhere and decided to claim the year with a single word. And when I say I claimed it, what I really mean is that God claimed it, because, let's face it, I fought the word trust each and every day of this past year. But fortunately I serve a God who is much more persistent than I am on my worst day. I can't begin to describe to you how much I grew in trust in the past year.


The Lord continually placed me in situations where the only choice I had was to trust him. He took away all my other options.

In illustration of how much the Lord prepared me to trust him this year, let's look at my last act of 2011. Through a series of strange events (and by events I really just mean one singular event), I have never lived in a town apart from my immediate family. I have also never lived by myself. I have never been a classroom teacher. I have never moved somewhere by myself.

As of 6 days ago, I have now done all of those things. The Lord moved me to Broken Arrow where I am now a choir director for a middle school. I fully believe He carefully orchestrated my year so that my last act of the year would be one of full trust in Him even though I really have no idea what He is doing.

So now let's talk 2012.

I started thinking about my 2012 word around September. The word patience kept coming to mind, but I really really didn't want that to be my word. If I thought trust was a hard word for a year, what in the world would patience be like?

But then in my last wedding of the year, one of my dear friends (the bride) chose a word for each of her bridesmaids. She gave us each a card with our word written on it and a description of why she chose that word for us. I think we can all guess what my word was.

Yep. Patience.

I already knew that was the word the Lord wanted for me in this year, but Amanda's sweet card confirmed it even more. The Spirit's pretty great about reassurance, huh?

So that's my 2012 word. Patience. I will be patient while I wait for the Lord to provide healing and understanding in my life. I will be patient while I learn a new town and a new everything. I will be patient with my students. I will be patient in my relationships.

And when I say "I will be" what I really mean is "the Lord will teach me to be." Because, let's face it, patience is definitely not my strongest suit.