2018 Word of the Year

I’ve done a word of the year for as long as I can remember.  About the last week of December I started thinking and praying what my word of the year should be. This year, the word “perseverance” kept coming to mind. At first, I was ignoring the fact that this should be my word for the year, because I was thinking it was more negative than positive.  I was thinking to myself, “I want ‘brave,’ ‘peace’ or something more uplifting.” After sitting with the word perseverance for a few days, I decided to look up the definition.

PERSEVERANCE: Steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.

Once I read this definition I realized why this should be my word for the year. It’s exactly where I am right now in my life, and I need to be steadfast even in the difficulty or delay that life brings.

What do you need perseverance in or maybe is there something you are currently persevering through? This might sound silly, but right now potty training is one thing I’m persevering through with our 2-year-old. He has shown interest here and there, but for the most part there hasn’t been much success in the process. It can feel like there is something I’m doing wrong and then take this on like a personal failure in that he isn’t interested or getting it.

Another area that I’ve been persevering through is feeling behind in life — career, everyday tasks and just feeling like I can’t ever get caught up. There is always one load of laundry I didn’t get to or an email that didn’t get answered. I’ve been needing to redo my web site for more than a year! There has been this block for me in getting it done. Mostly, it’s because of the fact that I’m very insecure when it comes to doing tech stuff. I’m a person that thrives off of goals and I just really have been feeling like I’ve fallen short in many of those that I’ve set for myself.

So whatever you might be personally persevering through, I want to encourage you. Despite the difficulty or delay we will achieve success! It might not be in our timeline, but there will be success. Through that success we can see how persevering even in the challenging times brings great growth and understanding in our lives.

Happy New Year!