Why You Should Pick One Word This Year

Why You Should Pick One Word This Year 

Something about a new calendar year feels like a fresh start. No matter how you ended the previous year, you have a clean slate to make a new beginning and start healthy habits. For most, this means crafting long lists of resolutions that will make them better. But by the end of the year, these lists are often long forgotten.

This year, instead of setting impossible expectations, Spring Hill Baptist Church encourages you to find just one word to study, follow, and implement into your life. 

 

Here, we discuss why choosing one word will have a bigger impact than following a list of resolutions: 

 

Resolutions Don’t Work

 

The problem with long lists of lofty resolutions is that a.) we often try to change too much at once, and b.) we look to the world for guidance instead of God. 

If the previous year didn’t go your way, it’s easy to make sweeping promises about how to “fix” the new year. If you spend more time on your phone instead of your family, you might determine,  “I’m going to spend less time scrolling my phone,” so you delete all your social apps. Or If you fell behind on exercise last year, you may resolve to spend more time at the gym to achieve “fitness”. 

 

While proper exercise and time management are important, many of these goals come from what the world tells us we should achieve. God encourages change and new beginnings. When we try to change to meet the world’s expectations, we lose sight of Him and how he wants us to orient our lives. Rather than making big changes for the sake of the world, God encourages us to changes that bring us closer to Him.  

 

Where to Start 

 

One of the easiest ways to draw closer to God and witness change in your life is by focusing on one word. Ditch impossible resolutions, pick one word to use as a lens to focus on your everyday, ordinary life, and let God make a change. Romans 12:1-2 says, “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life- your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life- and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.”

 

One Word can help you make changes from the inside out. Changes that last past January! The first place to go is Scripture. God’s living word is a trove of wisdom.  If you need a good place to start, check out a word bank found in scripture.  In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul writes, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”

 

Discovering Your One Word 

 

At Spring Hill Baptist Church, we challenge you to choose one word to focus on, pray over, and learn from this year. By choosing one word, we can pay attention to what God is doing in our lives. For more help coming up with your One Word and support in following it, visit our website to join a small group