embracereclaim (1)

For the last few years, a word has found me. Just one word to focus on, not a list of resolutions or even goals. (2013, 2014, 2015) But this year I floundered. I didn’t think there was a word that could encompass all that I felt I needed – wanted – to focus on this year. But as He’s done the last four years, He planted a word.

After two babies in two years + a big brother who arrived two years before that, an especially difficult pregnancy, too much convenient food and not enough sleep, my body needs some work. Some tenderness. Some attention. Some fierce devotion.

Our house is a constant state of huge piles being moved from room to room. There is no organization, rhyme or reason to anything and our house does.not.work. for our family in its current state. We can’t list it again quite yet as there are projects to complete and it’s negative a hundred degrees outside. That said, our house needs some work. Some tenderness. Some attention. Some fierce devotion.

Our marriage has the strain of sleepless nights, long work hours, and all that comes with living in an intense season of parenting sitting on it. We can hardly finish a coherent and complete thought, much less a conversation, much MUCH less a night out or time to just hang out and be together. Gone are the days of deep level all-night talks, make-out sessions in the car, late-night appetizers out. This brief and sweet and consuming stage of parenting tiny people takes our all, and it’s time to carve out who we are in the middle of it. Our marriage needs some work. Some tenderness. Some attention. Some fierce devotion.

I am not a morning person. My Bible often sits bedside, gathering dust. I pray in snatched moments of calm between chaos, whispers in the car, moments in the shower. My heart thirsts and my head leans cynical. My faith life needs some work. Some tenderness. Some attention. Some fierce devotion.

There are little things too, shifts in routine that impact the current of my day. Making sure I shower. Applying my five-minute makeup, blowdrying my bangs, getting dressed. And then the big ticket everyday items: regaining even a little control over my emotions. Allowing joy to wash over my words and heart. Recovering the pieces of myself that mothering has buried. These deserve some work. Some tenderness. Some attention. Some fierce devotion.

My body.

My home.

My marriage.

My faith life.

My joy.

Control of my emotions.

The use of things that remind me I am first a woman.

It’s time to reclaim them all. In 2016, I reclaim. I fight to flourish. I lean heavily into those who love me. I work hard and with boundaries. I embrace the woman I am and the woman I want to be. I reclaim her.

Reclaim.

It’s my one word for 2016, wrapping up each resolution into seven letters with less pressure and more grace. He’s done it before and I know He’ll do it again – big things with one little word.

Do you choose a word for your year? Or do you make resolutions, or set goals?
I’d love to hear!

My One Word for 2016

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