One Little Word

One of my favourite blogs is written by Ali Edwards {AE}  She posts everyday and so I check everyday.  She takes lots of photographs and tells such fun stories about her family and things that happen everyday.   Ordinary things are the stuff of life.   She has a personal blog and a project blog. One project she undertakes every year is called "One Little Word".It involves choosing a word and making it a theme that you take note of throughout the year. It can be linked to something you want to be deliberate about like “change” or “renew”. It can be something you want to focus on like “trust” or “family”. A theme that weaves its way into the fabric of your everyday life. You can do as much or as little with it as you like.

Our pastor, in one of his sermons, talked about one little word too. He explained how each of the four gospels could be characterized by one little word, a keyword, like a theme that runs throughout; Each gospel focusing on different aspects of Jesus and His ministry. The gospel of John could be “summed up” by the keyword “light”. Each author, while Divinely inspired to pen their eye witness accounts, was still a unique individual with interesting and unique points of view, occupations, etc.

To the world, each of us is a "gospel", an open book, a testimony to God’s work in our lives. We exhibit God’s thumbprint on us in different ways, according to the unique way He created us. Each of our “gospels” is evidence and gives witness to God’s presence in our lives.  Some days my story doesn’t sound very beautiful. There are days I hope that no one is reading or that they will skip this particular chapter. Just knowing that I am an open book that people read makes me much more aware of how, as one of God’s people, I should carry myself. The beauty of it is that God carries me.

I didn’t plan on choosing a word. Like many of the 1300 people who left comments on Ali’s blog about their word, the word chose me. I didn’t plan to be deliberate about it either….but it keeps popping up. My one little word is SONG. Last month I wrote about the sound of music. I’m interested to see how this theme weaves its way throughout my story this year. How do you share something as personal as your relationship with God and make it relevant to an average reader (except you of course…you are above average!)? Is it even interesting to someone who prefers tractor pulls, canoeing, cross word puzzles, bird watching, or gardening? I’m thinking that it’s going to have a whole lot more to do with God than with me.

The other day the word “sing” popped up. Psalm 63:6&7 “On my bed I remember You, I think of You through the watches of the night. Because You are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings”. When I have a big project coming up, I wake up at odd hours. It’s a natural inclination for me to obsess and worry. I try not to go there! I try instead to focus on what I know is true. That God is there with me every step of the way, and that He invites me to be a part of these awesome adventures and would never abandon me. I recognize my smallness and His greatness. His love for me, the quiet SONG that my heart hears, and when I hear that song... I want to sing along.

One little word….

If you had to pick one little word...what would it be?