My Year of Being Brave

A couple of years ago, the enthusiasm a friend of mine showed for picking a word for the year lead me to think “maybe I will give that a try”. And I did.

After reading a book about the concept and doing some soul searching, I decided my word for the year would be “brave”.

I was ready to up my gave of standing up for myself and speaking out for injustice and preaching the gospel. So, I spoke to God about supporting the idea of helping me to become more brave.

Turns out that God was more than willing to do that. Great! Right?

Well, it also turns out that the places and situations where God wanted to help me increase my bravery were not sticking up for myself, speaking out for injustice, or preaching the gospel. At least those did not seem to be His top priority.

Instead, what I found over the course of that year is that I had many opportunities to bravely accept criticism (constructive or not, kindly offered or not) and examine myself to see if it was valid – rejecting the methodology in favor of the opportunity to grow. I found myself in many situations where I had to bravely admit to being at fault, or to needing to improve in areas like communication and especially listening skills.

It was a big year of change and growth for me. Internally. Not sure others noticed my new bravery – certainly not in the way I had hope it would happen. What I came to see is that I was called to be both humble and brave – at the very same time – in these situations.

I have not selected a word of the year since. 😊

Not because I fear what God will do with it. Rather, because I’m asking God to choose the direction of my growth each year instead. That is what is going to happen anyway. That is what happened with my year of focusing on the word “brave”. So, why not just give Him the control of it all?

Proverbs 3:5 [NKJV] Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;

God is faithful, my sweet sisters. It is great to pick a word of the year. It’s also valid to ask God to pick it. Either way, the main thing is to give Him the reigns of your growth – to trust in Him to know our hearts and what we really need in the form of growth, development, and change.

Again, I am not saying it is wrong to pick a word to focus on for the year. I’m just saying, either way, the main thing is to trust in the Lord for how it goes.

Psalm 115:10 says, Oh Israel, trust in the Lord: He is their help and their shield.

He is our help and shield too.

I encourage you to be brave and humble, sweet sisters – whether you choose a word of the year or not.

I welcome your comments and questions. You can write in the comments section or email me at Nancy@DynamicChristianMinistries.org