Well, it’s been a while since I’ve had time to spend a few minutes writing. With homeschooling and renovating our home, the general upkeep and maintenance of a family of five with chickens, horses, dogs, cats… Not to even mention managing the social media for the rapidly growing Hip Homeschool Moms Facebook Page, moderating the new Community with almost 10,000 homeschool moms and managing the Montessori Materials Group … I stay more than just pretty busy. You might even say life has been C.R.A.Z.Y. the last half of 2014. However, it is time to get back into a routine with sharing about our homeschool and life. After all, that is why I started this website to begin with! To share how we do what we do, to meet like-minded moms and to hopefully inspire others. And speaking of inspiring…
This time of year I see lots of writers posting their resolutions for the new year. I’m not big on resolutions… at all. But one concept I stumbled upon really inspired me. Ironically, the article I read and shared about was on our Hip Homeschool Moms’ website. The concept is this…. Choose one word you would use to prophesy what you want your year to be. One Word. I have really thought about, prayed and pondered this a lot for the last several weeks. At first glance, it seemed it was going to be pretty hard to narrow them down to one word. … with all the possibilities …all the words that inspire me. I had to pick Just One Word.
I started thinking about the priorities I have … those things I don’t want to fail at. Those things that I consider so important they are part of my very identity. Those are the things that need my attention this year.
My Faith.
My Family.
Our Homeschool.
So when choosing THE word, it had to help me sharpen my focus on those three things and inspire me to do better in each and every category.
My Faith.
In order to know Our Father’s will, we have to study His manual…. The Scriptures. We are a Messianic family, so we believe both Testaments are relevant and apply to us. We are believers in Yeshua (Jesus’ Hebrew name) and believe He is our model for how we are to live our lives. We don’t compare our walk to the world… we compare our walk to His example. And I fail. A lot. But 2014 brought lots of reconciliation and forgiveness to our family… Areas that I had really been praying about. Unforgiveness is ugly and can tear a marriage apart. I had to forgive. In order to do that I had to see my husband as a child of God and the father to my children and not as my husband… at least not until I could forgive him. And I prayed for that very thing. I prayed over our marriage and over our family. Daily. And God has answered my prayers. So I literally can’t wait to see what He has in store for us this year!
My Family.
As a family we have been through a pretty rough couple of years. When I decided to homeschool, I chose to downsize our business so I could step away … little did I know how downsized it would be! So saying finances have been tight would be an understatement. A year ago we almost lost our home. We are still working to get out of this mess, but we are making great strides towards stability in our finances and ridding ourselves of this debt. In doing that, some things necessarily have to change because of these decisions. One very important thing is downsizing our lifestyle. Getting our home ready to sale has been a high priority for our family. And it has been the entire family! Renovating our home has taught us so much… not just how to scrap and repair and paint… but how to work together, how to overcome obstacles, how to persevere through hard times and how to continue to see joy in life and our everyday circumstances. To show and express our love with something other than things. It has been a year of Living. Loving. and Laughter… even through these difficult trials. For that I am truly thankful!
Our Homeschool.
Needless to say our homeschool has suffered. Not as much as I thought it would… especially academically. More in routine and discipline. In my record keeping. In their record keeping. Our curriculum is fantastic. And unlike previous years, we are not even switching out curriculum at the beginning of the year. My boys have continued homeschooling through these trials. Through our constant stopping and starting. We’ve spent a lot of time sky watching and thermometer gazing …. seeing if it was an outside work day or an inside work day. Yet they have kept working. Maybe not as much as we had planned…. but they were working. But for 2015 we really have to buckle down and work the homeschool plan that we laid out some time ago.
As you see, all three priorities are all related and intertwined. Like a three stranded cord, so tightly woven together they are no longer distinguishable as individual cords. Inseparable. Dependent on each other for success. When I finally sat down and invested the time to focus on choosing THE word and how it would reflect my priorities, it was not that hard to choose. Before I tell you my word, let me tell you its various definitions….
- to support, confirm, be faithful, uphold, nourish
- to be founded, firm, established, faithful, trustworthy, sure
- to stand firm, to trust, to be certain, to believe in
So what is my one word that embodies all the things I want for me, my faith, my family and our homeschool this year?
Steadfast.
Steadfast in my faith, in trusting Abba to provide everything I need to do all that is in His Will. Steadfast in the knowledge that as long as I am living His Will and doing His work, that my labor will be fruitful. If I remain steadfast with my eyes firmly fixed on Him, then my priorities will always be straight and all the things we strive to do in His name will be blessed. Yes, One word, steadfast, perfectly describes what I desire for my year. For my life.
What one word would you choose to define your year? Your Life? Please share them in the comments!! I am looking forward to reading your One Word.
Until next time… James 1:22-24… be a blessing!
I just “happened” to click on your blog as I was looking through blogs on hiphomeschool moms.. I needed to read this one!! Thanks so much! I have chosen a word also this year, for the first time ever.. Funny how the Lord confirms His word to His children- I cannot tell you how many times I have “happened” to read someone’s blog to find that they have chosen a word for this year. And, I would have to say, Yours was the one that brought tears to my eyes…. Blessings, and thanks so much for sharing part of your story…
Thank you so much for “dropping” in and encouraging me this morning! I don’t get much traffic over on my blog, so it’s nice to know I am not just writing to the wind 🙂 So… did you choose a word for your year? Share!! ~Trish
I know- sometimes it sure feels like we are just wasting time writing doesn’t it??!!! I am starting now to get a little more traffic. Its so slow sometimes!!
My word has been Encumbrances. The Lord is showing me things that I need to deal with that are holding me back. Its so good! I also need to think about the things are just encumbrances and need to fall by the wayside.. Gonna be a great year!!!
Great word! That probably is something I need to start really examining myself. I can get overwhelmed and QUICK! LOL! Thanks for being out there and letting me know I get seen every once in a while 🙂