The NEW YEAR and NEW DECADE are off to a start! Everyone is posting their goals and “WORD” for the year. Every year I seem to struggle choosing a word! I find myself frantically searching thru a WORD SEARCH in my brain, for something to pop out and stick. I don’t know why it's so hard for me, but inevitably I never seem to choose one. Maybe it’s because I’m non-committal. Maybe it’s because I can’t settle on just one. Regardless, the struggle is real! Sometimes to the point that I have questioned my lack of drive or insight. Or maybe it’s just because I sometimes tend to do things backwards.
Last year, like every year, I struggled for the “WORD”. I never came up with one so I proceeded through the year without it. Finally, it came to me on December 24th! I know you're thinking "a little late sister!" It all came into perfect focus with a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law!
This beautiful bracelet revealed my word! JOY!
Backing up, it all started on January 1, 2019, with my daughter Grace waking from a horrific nightmare. You may be thinking... JOY?...how did you find JOY in that? Just to unfold the story a bit... we were on an annual family ski trip when Grace awakened at about 6:30am, from a horrible dream that her grandfather, my father-in-law, had passed away. I comforted her and snuggled her back to sleep only to be awakened by a phone call about 45 minutes later to tell us that he had indeed gone to be with the Lord at just the time she had awakened. While we were extremely saddened by this great loss, I found a moment of JOY in the pain. First, JOY in the thought that the Lord was preparing Grace's sweet heart for such a deep loss of a precious grandfather that she loved so much. And secondly, the JOY I could imagine on Paw Paw's face as he met eyes with Jesus, his Heavenly Father. As we traveled home that day, experiencing the loss of such a precious man, I couldn't help but feel JOY. Maybe that sounds funny, but in every thought and every memory of Paw Paw I felt JOY! In almost twenty years of knowing him, I can never remember seeing him without a smile on his face. It was not for lack of heartache. In his life, he experienced many things that could have robbed him of his JOY. Major health issues, the loss of his first wife, the early death of his first three children and the loss of his adult son. Most of us would have lost our JOY with one of those causes, but Paw Paw remained JOYful until his homegoing. I asked myself on many occasions, how...how does he remain JOYful? And one answer echoed loud and clear. His JOY came from the Lord. When my mother-in-law asked me to give his eulogy, I only had to ponder a split second to know how to start, and that was with the word JOY! To see Paul Gladney was to experience JOY! It was written all over his face regardless of what he was walking through, good times or bad. So that day, when I sat down from giving his eulogy, I decided I wanted to carry on that legacy, his legacy of JOYFULNESS! I didn't know at the time it was my "WORD", but God did!
Throughout 2019, the word JOY kept presenting itself. Opportunities to choose JOY! I myself was put to the test in several situations. The biggest being a cancer diagnosis. Not something to be JOYful about, however, I chose to find JOY! I found JOY that in a stage 3 diagnosis that was 1 mm from being in my renal vein, which would have carried it all over my body! JOY for the 1mm. I still thank God for that big, small miracle every day! A five month road to recovery brought lots of challenges, but I still found JOY because it brought me closer to HIM and reunited me with many old friends and brought many new friends as well. It made me JOYful to be alive! It made me JOYful that the Lord had chosen to let me continue on this earthly journey and had given me a "test"imony to share where my JOY and strength came from. It truly brought new meaning to "finding JOY in the journey!"
I reflected on 2019 and as I received the bracelet, entitled JOY, I realized how GOD had chosen that word and consistently made it a part of my year through losses, trials, blog posts and words from friends. JOY was definitely my "WORD" for 2019. No, I didn't choose it with great forethought and ambition. It chose me. Actually, it was chosen by GOD for me. He knew the word I was going to need for 2019 because He had plans... plans for me. Plans to grow and prosper me. Plans for my future! (Jeremiah 29:11) Plans for JOY! He knew I was going to need JOY in the storm that was coming. And like the on-time God that He is, He gave it to me early in the morning on January 1st in the midst of a nightmare. I just didn't realize it until December, when He revealed the gift of JOY through the gift of a meaning filled bracelet.
So again this year, on Day 7, I am still struggling for my "WORD". I came up with a few, threw them against the wall, but none have stuck like spaghetti. So today, I am choosing to WORD UP! That is, I am gonna look to the Lord throughout 2020 and let Him reveal my word for the year. Maybe I'm just wired backwards, lol, but I know who did the wiring and I'm OK with it! I am choosing to let go and LET GOD choose my word. The pressure is off! Whew! Makes total sense since He knows the plan!
So I challenge you to WORD UP with me! Look to the Lord for HIS WORD and thru HIS WORD you will find your WORD! #wordup
His Blessed Girl,
Leslee
Find more posts from Leslee on her blog, His Blessed Girl.