I read several bloggers who have adopted one word that they hope will characterize their lives in 2013, and that got me thinking about my own “one word.”  Like any good English major, trying to come up with just ONE word was torture.  (Side note – I started writing for a missions magazine not long after graduating college, and going from writing 25 page papers with a thesaurus in hand to writing 500 word articles where every word must count nearly killed me.  But, I digress.)

After several days of thinking, praying, thinking some more, praying some more, I finally came up with my one word…

More.

Last year felt strange and difficult.  I lost my mother after a nearly three-year fight with cancer.  Some of our closest friends moved away the next month.  Other friendships seemed to fall by the wayside, and some dried up altogether.  I wrote less, read less, and felt like some of my purpose had disappeared.

And then, God prompted us to serve more, give more, live for Him more.  And my attitude toward my circumstances began to change.

That is what I hope will continue into this fresh, new year.  I want more…

  • Jesus – more of His compassion, grace, gospel, mission
  • my husband and son – more romance, more patience, more quality time together, more memories
  • books – I want to read more.  Good fiction takes me somewhere else for a while, good nonfiction inspires me to be better and strive for more.  (Another side note – I used to read almost 50 books a year.  Last year I read 12.  No wonder my brain feels like mush.)
  • healthy living.  I enjoyed the holiday fare ever so much.  It is now time to exercise and drink water.
  • dreaming – hoping, planning, praying for the future.
  • connecting.  Reaching out to community – both for my sake and theirs.
  • risk.  This is a hard one for me.  I like to play it safe.  I want to challenge myself to do one scary thing every day.

Here’s what this list does NOT include – more perfectionism (I am a type A, perfectionist control freak with a problem) or more stuff (excess, things, trinkets).  In fact, I want to strive for LESS of these.

Yes, they are lofty goals.  Feel free to hold me accountable and ask me how I am doing.

How about you?  Do you have any goals (or maybe one word) for 2013?