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Greetings!
In 2019, an idea was born about a New Year’s Resolution. It began when our church was designing a new communication venue, The Leaf magazine. The Leaf was the first tabletop magazine for the church as we continued to explore new and relevant ways to provide interest for our members and beyond. I asked our senior pastor to write an article for the magazine. I asked that it be something uplifting and provide hope and excitement about the New Year.
He sent me the article and his focus was to ask the reader to think of one word that would be what they would “want more of” in 2019. He referenced myoneword.org that provides this concept and a word cloud of inspirational examples that one may select. I really liked this idea and began to explore the one word for me. I would review the list of words again and again, and think deeply about each one. I asked the Lord to help me select the word that would be mine.
Weeks went by and while I thought of several words, nothing stuck. I felt I was running out of time, and the New Year would arrive, and I would not have a word. I should know better. Sunday morning we had a guest speaker deliver the sermon and he talked about the rest of the Christmas story in Luke. He spoke of the first born son and how parents would need to bring the child to be committed to God. He commented that “you become what you are committed to”; for example, if you are a doctor, you are committed to taking a few more years of schooling and learning about math, science and the body. Or if you are a professional football player, you would be committed to working out, training, and conditioning, etc.
As I was sitting in church it hit me that was my word, committed. I want to be more committed to the Lord, committed to how he wants me to live my life, committed to my wonderful husband Tim and our family, committed to my health, committed to spending quality time reflecting and enjoying all the beautiful things around me. So, I was ready to begin the New Year with my word of commitment.
This coming year of 2024, my one word is “Explore”. I want to explore God’s word and his love in more depth so I have listed everyday of the first quarter of the new year with a “Bible Hour” or a “Prayer Hour”. As we all know, putting a time for a topic in your calendar helps to make it happen. I also want to explore places and things of interest in my own community and beyond Sarasota. We have been here for five years now and there are still places we have not visited or experienced. This will also be expanded to include other areas of Florida and the United States. This will provide time for my husband Tim and me to be together and enjoying our lives. For my clients and future clients, I will try and explore ways to work more effectively for them from an image and brand perspective. And for my friends and family, I want to have more one on one time with each person and get to know them better. I want to focus my efforts on listening and asking questions, and less about me talking. And of course, I want to explore exercising and what I need to focus on as I age. My health is extremely important to me because without it, life is very difficult.
What about such a New Year’s “resolution” for you? Or maybe you have something else in mind. No matter what the resolution or even If you decide to try a single word, let me know your results. I will circle back in the summer and we will see how things are progressing.
Happy New Year and may the Lord bless and keep you healthy in 2024!
Nyda
