One Word

Each year I select a word to be my emphasis for the coming year. It’s a great alternative to resolutions because it can be a broader concept that applies to various aspects of life, and a single word is easy to come back to throughout the year.

My word for 2015? Focus.

This means several things for me:

 

Focus on faith. Day in and day out, in everything I do, I want the way I act and treat others to be rooted in Christ as my example. Hebrews 12:2 is the scripture that I’ve chosen to go along with my word.

Focus on family. The past few days we’ve had icy weather, and in Texas that means you just hole up in your house because no one knows how to drive on ice-covered roads. Spending three solid days stuck in the house with Brian and the kids just cemented how much I love spending time with them. It’s easy to get pulled in a thousand different directions, but I want to work at continuing to prioritize family time each week.

Focus on others. I want our kids to grow up knowing the value of serving and giving to others, and I want to make sure we’re not so caught up in our own little world that we neglect to see problems around us that we can work toward solving.

Focus on health – physical and fiscal. Stereotypical areas for New Year’s Resolutions, right? But rather than something specific, I want us to make a concerted effort toward healthiness and smart spending.

Focus on creativity. Brian and I are both creative-minded, and we’ve had ideas in the past that have stayed just that – ideas. In 2015, I want to make sure we’re taking action toward projects and goals, because just thinking about them gets us nowhere. And even if our ideas don’t pan out, we’ll have fun working on something together.

Focus on the positive. This is part of my overall life view; I’m definitely a glass-half-full kind of girl. While I’ve definitely had my fair share of gripes, I want to always choose to see the silver lining. For example, our house is almost always cluttered. If you’ve been over and are wondering what I’m talking about, congratulations: you’re one of the lucky ones we straighten up for. But seriously, day-to-day style around our house includes a toy explosion, a trail of pajamas and socks from wherever children got dressed that day, clean laundry in a stack just waiting to be hung, and dishes in the sink that should really have been washed yesterday.

It’s totally against my love of organization. I’m happiest in an organized space… clutter drives me bonkers. But somehow the chaos of clutter in our house has become something I cherish. Maybe it’s out of necessity, to save my sanity. But I also know those toys mean lots of happy playing has taken place; the pajamas remind me of our sweet head-in-the clouds C, who frequently gets distracted mid-task and leaves discarded clothes and socks all over the house; the clean laundry is a) actually clean – amazing! and b) plentiful; and the dirty dishes are there because we chose to fit in family time instead of cleaning the kitchen.

So, there’s my word for the year: focus. What’s yours?