Each new year our family chooses a word to guide us through the year. Then we walk down to our ravine and find rocks to write our words on. We carry our rocks home and put them on our fireplace mantel to remind us of what we want God to help us with in the coming months.

Sometimes I know my word by December. Other years, on New Year’s Day in the ravine my word solidifies. Usually, two or three words hover in my thoughts for a while. Last year my word–well two words, really– was dream big. And a big dream did come true. I became an Amazon bestselling author. This certainly isn’t like being a New York Times bestselling author but it’s better than being an unknown author.

I’m writing hard to finish novel number six and I’m at the point I always get to when creating a story, wrestling with self-doubt, convinced the characters aren’t any good, certain I’m not going to make it as an author. And yet, I’ve learned I do this with every book so I tell myself to PUSH THROUGH, that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength, Philippians 4:13.

Do you have self-doubts holding you back? Deep seeded fears that steal your breath? Bad habits you need to face this coming year? What you really need is a word to guide you and a Bible verse to back you up as you climb that mountain ahead.

Life can be hard. 2019 held more funerals than I’ve ever attended in a single year. We buried too many dear friends and our family’s beloved English lab Buck. Scott and I cried like babies putting Buck down just a few days ago so I’m still pretty raw.

This new year is starting out rough. Here is Buck and baby Christian in 2013 and the next photo is Christian playing in the ravine without our faithful Buck today.

My heart still hurts and I don’t think I’ve ever been this uncertain about choosing my word. Maybe this is the year my word has chosen me. After taking a quiz online trying to find my word, I was awarded “Bloom.”

That completely surprised me. “Do you think they know I am a farmer?” I asked Scott, joking but not really. I know the quiz didn’t know I was a farmer, but God knows I’m a farmer and bloom is a big word. “I think it’s a perfect word for you,” Scott said.

“Really? I don’t think so. I’m not seeing bloom at all right now. Maybe plowed is a better word for me.” But when I told my daughters I thought my word might be bloom, Cami said, “The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.” Guess all those years of watching Disney films with my girls has paid off.

Mulan is loyal, brave, and true, one of my favorite Disney characters. In March 2020, the live-action Mulan arrives in theatres. That’s something to look forward to. Here is the trailer for the movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK8FHdFluOQ

I really need some of Mulan’s courage right now. I’m not sure when I began to enter the new year with trepidation. Maybe it was 2013 when I was diagnosed with melanoma and didn’t know if I would survive that year.

That was the first year we went to our ravine and gathered rocks to write words on. I wrote fear on one rock and threw it away. On another rock that I kept, I wrote joy. “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence, there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore,” Psalm 16:11, was the scripture that fueled the word joy for me that year.

Or maybe it was 2015 when I chose “rejoice” for my word and then Anna died and the scripture that carried me through was, “But we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character and character produces hope,” Romans 5:3-8. My word for 2016 was “hope”.

I’m beginning to realize that these words I choose each new year are like walking sticks. A staff to lean on when the road gets hard. I always select a Bible verse to go with my word. It’s really the scripture that keeps me going. If I didn’t have God’s promises to lean on I’d be lost.

This is why I love the Bible. The word of God rebuts my hard drive. Something I desperately need with all the trials and tribulations we face on this earth. I want to be happy, and sometimes I am, but plenty of days I’m not. Yet the Bible says, “Happy indeed are those whose God is the Lord.” Psalm 144:15. I remind myself the root of happiness is a relationship with God.

The Bible verse I have chosen to go with my word “bloom” is “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” John 15:5. 

I hope you bear much fruit this year because you remain connected to the vine that is Christ. May the Lord bless and keep you. May he shine his face on you and give you peace and 2020 vision.

Happy New Year dear friends!