The first month of the year has now passed. January 2018 has
come and gone. What have you accomplished so far this year? Did you make any
resolutions? Have you kept any of those commitments?
January was pretty uneventful for me. I intentionally slowed down
last month so that I could spend more time developing spiritually, deepening my
relationship with God. Believe it or not, it was pretty challenging for me to
schedule my days in a way that I could have even more quiet time with God, more
time to read scripture, more time to pray. Now I don’t share this with you so that
you can pat me on the back or applaud my efforts. Rather, I share this to
explain how God revealed to me my “one word” for the year.
Over the past 4 years, I’ve adopted the “one word” challenge or plan for each year. The idea behind the “one word” movement is that individuals would select one word that would be their focus for the year. According to My One Word (www.myoneword.org), folks typically “choose a problematic behavior that has plagued [them] for years and vow to reverse it.” Unfortunately this strategy tends to never work and folks feel even worse than they did before they identified their issue(s) and developed the subsequent resolutions to change their behaviors. My One Word allows individuals “to lose the long list of change…and instead pick one word. This process provides clarity by taking big plans for life change and narrowing them down into a single focus.” My (as in Gina’s) one words have included alignment, transformation, and last year, it was transition. This year, my one word is Order.
Throughout my increased quiet time with God, He continued to
say to me over and over again, the word Order. The first few times (yes – few
times, because I am stubborn and bull headed) I heard the word, I was confused
by why I was being assigned this word. In my mind, I had brought significant
order to my life in various areas including my work, my home, my relationships,
and my marriage. Obviously…I needed to bring order to my life and God was
speaking to me loud and clear. I started to pray about the word and asked God
to reveal more to me so that I could walk out His plan. As I studied and
requested more clarity, chaos broke out. Yep. This is what tends to happen when
you ask for clarity – crazy appears. Slowly, even in the midst of chaos, God
showed me the value of order in my love language of acronyms. Let me share.
O is for Open. When you bring order to your life, you find
more time in your days and thus are more OPEN to opportunities for deeper
spiritual, personal and professional growth. My days are pretty packed with
prayer time with my husband, emails, meetings, drive-by meetings, pastoral care
to my teams and guests in the building where I work, more emails, meetings, a
few more emails, phone calls, cooking, more quiet time with God, and then crash
into my bed. What I just described is a short day. With that schedule or even
worse, my long days schedule, I don’t have much time to be open to what God has
for me. I need some order.
Similarly, because you now have order in your life and
priorities are set, you can now RECLAIM time you once thought was lost. R is
for Reclaim and Refresh. God wants us to have order so that our schedules are
not running us but we are running our schedules. My roles and responsibilities
have been running me for too long. Its time to Reclaim my time and get Refreshed
in the Lord (Acts 13:19-21).
Order also brings DIRECTION. How many of you are list makers?
I think that lists are my other love language. I am sure right now you could
find at least three lists in my purse and maybe a few more in my backpack…and
they probably have the same things on them. Which tells you a few things about
me: One, list making isn’t helping me be more productive and efficient. And
two, my lists are only communicating how much I have not completed. Ugh. Punch
me in the face! Lord, I need order. I need direction.
For me, order will give me more time to serve in my calling
as an ENCOURAGER. When I have competing priorities, miles of incomplete tasks
on my lists, and limited to no time in my day, I miss out on one of the things
I am purposed to do…and that’s to be an encourager. How much does it suck, to
not have time or energy to do the one thing you are supposed to do? I need to
be better. I need order.
And finally, order brings RESTORATION (I Peter 5:10). If I am
Open, Reclaim my time, seek God’s Direction and not my own, Encourage others
(and myself), I will be Restored.
Tomorrow is my birthday and I am so grateful that the Lord
would allow me to see another year of life. Looking back on this year, I didn’t
accomplish everything that I wanted to last year, but I did fulfill a lot of my
goals. Would you consider joining me in the One Word movement? Make it my
birthday present. Identify the person you want to become by outlining the
characteristics you want to hold. Then select one word that will help focus
your time and energy, direct your steps, and help you be the best you in 2018.
Gina Watts is a former resident of Fayette County, now living
in Columbus, Ohio. She serves multiple communities as an advocate, educator,
and leader. Follow Gina on Twitter @professorgmarie.
Originally published in the Herald Standard on February 4, 2018.