Word of the year

A new year is a time for new beginnings. It's a time to make a change - for many- it's a time for new year's resolutions. I am  a fan of resolutions, but I'm not really great at follow through. So far,  I am doing better by establishing my monthly goals. A couple of years ago, Erik and I started picking a word that we wanted to be the theme of our new year. It serves as a priority or a goal for the year. In 2013 that word was peace, in 2014 it was contentment, in 2015 it was adventure... We joined the foreign service, after all! This year, I feel like adventure will continue, but I'm looking at other words. Here are some I've  come up with and why I'm considering them. Of course, this isn't just me... I'll share them with the family and we will decide what our 2016 "word" will be.

1. Grow- growth is important in every aspect of our life. We need to grow spiritually, we need to grow as a family, we need to grow more into our individual roles that we will play as a part of this foreign service family. 

2. Serve-this word is fresh on my mind after hosting various family for the past ten days. I would love to grow in the spiritual gift of hospitality and teach that to my family as well. And as Christians, we are called to serve.  This word is so all-encompassing, that it may just be the word needed for every year!

3. Intentionality- I've mentioned this before but one of the gifts of this life in the foreign service is this time constraint. You are only where you are for a short time then you move on. It puts my whole life in perspective and I want to be intentional! I already think I'm better than I was a few months ago, but I could be so much better.

4. Trust- this just ties right in with adventure. This word is in the forefront of my mind as we begin to explore this world of bidding. There is one part of me that feels that the choice of which posts you bid on are so important, it will affect every aspect of your life, but another part of me feels like just screaming "just pray over it, give it to God and move forward- don't look back, don't second guess, don't hesitate... Do your job and let God do his!" 

5. Learn- this year we are homeschooling. I am learning so much! I hope my kids are too! And as I have mentioned before, we live in DC! So much information at your finger tips! Between the learning we are doing through our excellent home school curriculum, and the learning we are doing while researching posts...not to mention the learning we are doing about this adventure we are on -  I feel this word fits our family.

Like I said earlier, we will think on these, discuss them as a family, and decide which word will best be our word for 2016.  It will be the word we use to help keep our focus as we make decisions about posts, about how to spend our time in D.C. about how to spend our money, about how to spend the precious time we have with family and friends. We will keep you posted ;)