2023: A Word for the Year

 2023: A Word for the Year

 

Last year, I chose "RESET" as my word for the year. The word challenged me to change, adapt, adjust, and revise. 

It meant I needed to start over and charge forward.

 

The onus was on me. 

 

After struggling to apply the word in every area of my life, I finally decided the task was too daunting. Instead I decided to hone in on my writing. I attended a wonderful writing conference and wrote a split-time short story now published in an anthology called Ohio Trail Mix. In addition, I  completed three other projects  in a pile I have called “unfinished business” for the last two years

I ended the year feeling that although I hadn’t hit the RESET button in all areas of my life, I had made great strides in understanding myself as a writer.

 

December was on me. I knew I needed to consider a word for 2023.  It was a struggle.

 

Then at church on January 1, 2023, the word “reNEWal” popped up on the screen with the word NEW in capital letters. I thought I had found my word for the year. 

 

I hadn’t. I prayed over the possibilities. I hesitated to choose another word for the year that began with “RE-“ For some reason, it seemed we could all benefit from any of those “R-E” words:

 

Renew, Rethink, Revise, Revisit…you get the idea.

 

I started typing the list of words beginning with the letters R-E. As I worked through the list I could see the benefit of claiming any of these, yet I resisted. And in case you wondered…RESIST could be defined as my word. Quite often.

 

I tend to resist change. For example, I balk at learning new technology. I refrain from shopping for a new phone. I don’t even subscribe to cable television.  

 

Sunday evening, after church, I started drafting the list of areas where I falter or balk. It is those places where I  try to do things my way and resist what God has planned for me.  Only as I started to look at those areas  where I resist most did I discover my word for 2023.

 

YIELD

 

I grew up in a farm community. “Yield” for farmers often references the amount of produce the land can give.

 

Most of us think of “yield” as to “give in” or “relent.”  Or perhaps to “submit” or “give way to.” It is similar to when we come to a YIELD sign while driving. 

 

But for me, YIELD means something more. It means trusting God with my life. Fully. Completely. It means giving up what I want for what He intends for me.

I have a verse from the Bible I wrote out last year and placed on my kitchen counter. 

 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.

Proverbs 3:5

 

Trust. Yield. I'm giving up “my way” for  “His way.”

So YIELD is my word for the year. What is yours?