Welcoming the New Year-2018!

oneword365.com

I've been purposefully quiet on my blog over the past week. It felt so good to just relax and enjoy the time with family and friends. Today I want to catch up with you and write a bit about my word for the new year as well as post my gratitude list for the past week and a half.

Since 2011 I've been using a single word to be my focus for the new year.  Every year, some time before the old year ended, I would notice that God would begin to speak to me through the Bible in an obvious way, leading me to the word He wanted to emphasize to me.  In 2011 it was HOPE, 2012 was DELIGHT, 2013 was TRUST, 2014 was JOY, 2015 was ENDURANCE, 2016 was LISTEN and 2017 was ABIDE.  This year nothing like that happened.  The day before New Year's Eve I was still asking God if there was a word He wanted to show me. The only thing I sensed was a longing for this sometimes too willful, stubborn, selfish, me focused self to be totally yielded to God's will and ways.  On December 30th I looked up the word "yield" in the dictionary, and I felt a confirmation that yield was to be my word to focus on this year. Each definition in the dictionary brought to my mind a related scripture.

YIELD-

-go give up possession of-

"For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s." 1 Corinthians 6:20

-to give up, die-

 "I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains [just one grain; it never becomes more but lives] by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces many others and yields a rich harvest." John 12:24

-to be or bring forth-

-to be fruitful and productive-

"You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you." John 15:16

-to produce a return on an investment-

see the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-29

-to give up and cease resistance or contention-

"I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship." Romans 12:1

-to give place or precedence-acknowledging the superiority of someone else-

"And you shall love the Lord your God out of and with your whole heart and out of and with all your soul (your life) and out of and with all your mind (with your faculty of thought and your moral understanding) and out of and with all your strength. This is the first and principal commandment." Mark 12:30

And now onto my gratitude journal for the past week and half-

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Since 2009 I've been counting my blessings thanks to the prompting of Ann Voskamp.

 I continue to count my thanks

piling up gratitude day by day

in my journal.

(and capturing some of my blessings via my camera or iPhone)

#10,577-#10,612

12-23-17-

-youngest grandson in his bowtie

-a sweet time of prayer on my walk today

-going to Hope City's Christmas Eve Eve service 

12-24-17-

-Christmas Eve breakfast and service at our church

-Christmas Eve snow!

-a fun evening at our daughter's house-

(a snowy walk, games, too much good food, watching a movie together)

12-25-17-

-thank You, God, for sending Jesus!

-a white Christmas!

-a safe drive from Vancouver to Portland to spend time at our youngest daughter's

-a great Christmas dinner at our middle daughter's

12-26-17-

-putting away the Christmas decor and decluttering the house

-a safe drive to Lincoln City

-our beautiful, moody ocean

12-27-17-

-a sweet quiet time with coffee, devotions and an ocean view

-a rainy beach walk and a good time of talking to Jesus while I walked

-after Christmas sales on sweaters

-Mo's clam chowder

-God's blessing on our oldest grandkids' flight to Kansas City for the One Thing conference

12-28-17-

-my hub's bringing me breakfast and coffee

-a true day of catching up on rest

-photos via text of our youngest grandson enjoying Hawaii

12-29-17-

-a safe drive home from the beach

-more decluttering and donating excess

-happy to be home!

12-30-17-

-God confirming my word for 2018 to me

-spending the day with a friend

-texts from my two oldest grands from the One Thing conference

12-31-17-

-a wonderful New Year's Eve service at church

-my hub's feeling better after the stomach flu he had yesterday

-watching the new season of Doc Martin together

-more great texts from our grandkids about what God is speaking to them

1-1-18-

-a New Year!  And remembering God's faithfulness in the last year

-our grandkids safely home from Kansas City

-facetiming with our youngest daughter and grandson

-a sweet first day of the year with my husband-

(we went to the movie about Winston Churchill, "Darkest Hour", and out to dinner)

still following,