I quit choosing a word. The years I did the choosing met with failure. No, best to let the word choose, to come and abide. It will make itself known. Being seen, heard, catching your attention without effort. Let the word choose and it will bring growth. Growth perhaps unseen to most, but there nonetheless. Never easy and always challenging. Hard but good.
Then there are years when two words come to sit and decide to share the year.
So it is as 2013 begins.
Fall arrived and a word whispered. “Trust,” He told me. “You’ve learned sufficient now continue to trust.”
And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You. (Psalm 9:10 NASB)
In Hebrew, Batavh: to trust, trust in, to have confidence, be confident, to be bold, to be secure.
So much more to a word if we dare study deeper.
Trust, so much an extension of sufficient. Trusting He will continue to work out what He has begun. Trusting He will determine the steps to these dreams He is whispering.
As December arrives another word comes alongside. My heart worn on my sleeve too often. A sensitive soul since childhood, I take offense far too often. My imagination controlling my thoughts bringing worry or fear instead of joy and peace. “Soft heart, tough skin” often my morning prayer, and a word keeps appearing. Unoffended.
What if?
What if I learn, choose, to live unoffended? What if I choose to see their intentions as good instead of allowing my imagination to interpret their actions? And I can choose to not be offended even when an actual offense occurs. I can choose to see each through the eyes of Another instead of my own.
So as 2013 begins I sit with these words, waiting as they reveal all they will teach.
Unoffended and trusting.
