Tips on Tuesday: One Little Word 2009 Recap

It's time to do a little recap on my One Little Word from 2009. If you aren't familiar with my "One Little Word", click here to see the previous posts.



The idea of having One Little Word started as a concept for scrapbooking. However, the original author expanded it to be a life thought. What happens if we take One Little Word and focus on that word all year long? Can we grow ourselves in an area? Can God work through our word to bring us closer to Him? I decided to give it a try for last year, 2009. The word that came to me was Cherish. I've let that word roll around in my mind for the past year and have tried to incorporate it into my life and my actions and my choices.



Now that we're in 2010, I want to put my thoughts from the year together and share them with you. Looking at the two main questions: Can we grow ourselves in an area and Can God work through our word to bring us closer to Him; here's what I found for me in my own life. The year 2009 was a rough year in a lot of ways for me and our family. We went after things to help Nathan overcome the autism portion of his Twice Exceptional self while encouraging the gifted side to flourish. We've covered a lot of ground in one short year. The upside is--we're seeing tremendous gains in one short year. And by getting Andrew into some support classes, he has also come to better terms with his brother and we learned a lot from Andrew.



We really did work on Cherishing each other more as a family. I've seen a real growth in the loving nature my kids show to each other...most of the time. Sean & I have seen over the past few years that our marriage often comes under attack when we're really moving forward in other areas. We continue to work on improving our marriage to avoid any trouble before it gets started. I can honestly say that I do love Sean more today than the day I married him. I might not have said it emphatically a year ago.



I believe I did grow myself in an area. I try to take less for granted and try to really spend time with family and friends living in the moment. Trying not to look ahead or behind, just being with them (cherishing them) for that moment of time.



Then comes the question, "Can God work through our word to bring us closer to Him?" This was an interesting question. I have been working all year on growing in my walk with the Lord. I'd been reading scriptures regularly again and had been increasing my prayer time. But, by the time December rolled around, I really hadn't thought about my word in quite a while. I dropped off some of the intentionality of the exercise. Then Sean & I took a Wednesday night (AWANA night) to go to dinner together while the kids were at AWANAs.


We had Chinese and great conversation during dinner. We were able to talk through some issues we'd been having and just really spent some time laughing and enjoying each other. The end of the meal comes and I open my fortune cookie. Frankly, I can't remember the fortune...it wasn't anything of meaning. When I flipped the paper over to learn my Chinese word for that day, this is what I found.













Can God work through our word? You bet He can. He can bring us a reminder in a small fortune cookie that in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, He is still thinking of us. Even when I wasn't hooked into my One Little Word, the Lord sent me a precious reminder. I had just been commenting to Sean how it seems that December continues to gang up on me, even when I want to spend the time reflecting in the reason for the season. We had just talked about ways we can continue to keep out of the hustle and focused on the reason. Then I got my word, Cherish. (And yes, I do carry the camera in my purse for occasions needing photos...just like this one. Sean even helped me make sure my plate was arranged to show off my food and my word.)

Now the question is where do I go from here? I don't think I have the answer just yet. I'm going to meditate on 2010 and figure out what my One Little Word will be this year. I hope that this post helps close the 2009 Cherish year so I can usher in something new...or stay with the word I have for another year. I'll let you know where I'm being led.

If you had One Little Word last year, please let me know what you discovered. And I heartily encourage you to consider finding your One Little Word for 2010.