"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30 2018 was one crazy ride for me. I didn't realize just how much happened this last year until I sat down to do a recap of the past 365 days. What an incredible year I had. Easy? Definitely not. 2018 was hard and in many ways painful, but it was still beautiful. Because all of God's plans are beautiful, no matter how hard they may be. But in the rush of a crazy, full-to-the-brim year, I found myself needing days where I could just catch my breath. And for the last month this six letter word has been impressed on my heart. Breathe. At the beginning of each year I sit down and choose one word that I want to focus on. My word for the year. A word that I want to remember and think about throughout the next 365 days. For 2019, I have chosen this word...breathe...as my word of the year. Because you see, friends, sometimes I can get so caught up in doing for Jesus, that I forget to be with Jesus. To simply be is a beautiful thing, something I often miss. I can find myself to be more like Martha in Luke 10, always finding something else to do for Jesus before making the time to step into time with Him and be. And yet Jesus reminds her that her sister Mary had chosen what truly mattered, just being with Him. There is a time for both. There is a time to serve Him in lavish ways and sometimes it is just time to stop serving and experience His presence. To be with Him and be filled by Him so that you can then go out and serve Him best. And that's what I want my 2019 to look like. To inhale His presence and exhale His love. To take more moments to breathe and be and experience Him. To cherish every moment and to slow time by simply embracing my time. To know what it is to step into the moment and breathe. Maybe you can relate. Won't you join me in taking time this year to be with Him more? To be more present in life? Whatever the cost may be and whatever it may look like. I'm ready. I'm ready to breathe. What about you? Do you have a word for 2019? I'd love to hear it in the comments! <3
Loved this! And the correlation to Luke 10. Mary and Martha can teach us a lot! I had chosen the word "new" for 2019, but I'm not sure if I really want to stick with that since sitting at Jesus' feet was a recent conviction and something I want to focus on a lot more in 2019. But, I can still focus on the word NEW as well as on sitting at Jesus' feet. Or I may change my word to REST. Not sure. :)
Jeanette
1/7/2019 12:08:09 am
Beautiful, Bella - thank you!!!! It reminds me of my old struggle, which came up all through 2018, of being a human BEING instead of a human DOING. I loved reading your thoughts; thank you! <3
Grace L
1/7/2019 12:51:58 am
Oh, this is really good. Thank you so much for sharing, Bella! :)
Thank you for your encouragements, Bella!! Coincidentally, "breathe" has been a precious word to me, as well, lately. Some of my favorite things in life are the little moments many people don't notice, and even I have to consciously slow down and stop to truly see them.
Sophia
1/19/2019 03:09:06 pm
What a great word for this year. It is so easy to get caught up in due dates and deadlines and forget to rest and breathe. In our rest we can find HEALING, which is one of my words for this year. Looking forward to seeing what God does! Thank you for posting! Comments are closed.
|
Archives
October 2019
Categories |