New Year, New Word

Well hello there, and Merry Christmas!

One of my very favorite things about being Catholic is the fact that Christmas isn’t just a day — it’s an entire Season — definitely a huge perk, if you ask me.

To be honest, it can be a bit confusing as to exactly how many days of Christmas there are.

Some say we have 12 days of Christmas, ending on Epiphany January 6th. Then there’s the “old-schoolers” that celebrate Christmas until February 2nd, with the feast of the Presentation.

The Church currently celebrates Christmas until the Baptism of Jesus, which happens to be on January 12th this year — but that date changes every year.

Like I said, it can be confusing — but I don’t mind the confusion, as long as it means we get to celebrate Christmas for days and days.

We’re still celebrating over here, and I hope that you are too!

We’re also looking forward to beginning a new year and a new decade and it’s a great time to prayerfully consider where God might be leading you.

Last year, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and began the tradition of coming up with a “word of the year”.

I can’t take credit for it. It’s all over social media and fellow redhead, Jen Fulwiler, has even created a “Word of the Year” Generator for those who want some help with coming up with a word.

Yes, coming up with a “Word of the Year” could be a bit cliché if you just post it on social media and call it a day.

Yes, it could even be a bit superstitious if you somehow give this “word” power over the way you live your life for the next 365 days of the year.

But it can also become a prayerful exercise if you include God in the process — which is what I decided to do last year.

Last year, I tried the Word of the Year generator and the word just didn’t seem to resonate with me. So I prayerfully began to ask God to give me a word to concentrate on.

The word I felt God putting on my heart was “Surprise me”. Okay, technically that’s two words — but I can bend the rules if I feel so inclined — so that became my “word of the year”.

Of course, I was pretty sure that meant I’d end up pregnant with triplets — my wouldn’t that be a surprise! Ha, ha!

Let me tell you, it was sort of a terrifying prayer to pray. “Lord, surprise me!”. Yikes! Do we really want God to surprise us?

In may ways I know I don’t. I would rather try to control everything and make everything just the way I like it.

In many ways I don’t trust that God is a good and loving Father — I hate to say it, but it’s true — because if I did, why would I be scared to ask my Good Father to surprise me?

What would I have to be afraid of?

But because I know that God is a Good and Loving Father — I decided I had to face my fears and pray from the depths of my terrified heart, “Lord, Surprise Me”.

Eek!

It was so good for me to pray that simple prayer. It was good, because from the beginning of time, Satan’s #1 plan has been to make us distrust God’s goodness.

Satan wants to make us lose trust in God and therefore start taking matters into our own hands — and making a royal mess of things in the process, I might add.

Knowing this is Satan’s #1 plan, I knew I needed to combat that plan with TRUST. Despite my fears, I decided to pray that simple prayer and trust.

So what came of last year’s Word of the Year?

Well, I didn’t end up pregnant with triplets.

I also didn’t have something horrific happen to me — which was probably my biggest fear in praying that prayer.

I did get a few surprises along the way.

I discovered we had enough sky miles to get our whole family to Croatia and Medjugorje this summer. It was a huge blessing for our family.

We also discovered that our daughter was accepted at her first choice school and got the scholarship dollars and loans necessary to be able to go — without signing her life away in back-breaking debt.

Also a nice surprise.

We also had moments of struggle, where we weren’t quite sure how we were going to get through them — and with a lot of prayer and waiting on God to carry us through, we managed to walk through “fire”, relatively unscathed.

I guess one of the best surprises, really, was how important and efficacious prayer is — it’s no joke, people!

Prayer really does change things — and perhaps that has been the biggest surprise of last year.

When things seemed dark or overwhelming, and prayer and the sacraments were all we had — we discovered it was more than enough.

What I discovered with those two simple words, “Surprise me” is that I haven’t trusted God enough all these years.

I discovered that learning to trust in God is one of the biggest journeys of our life — a journey with twists and turns and take-backs because we’re afraid.

I discovered that if we aren’t praying, the devil will work on us until he warps our vision of God. The devil is relentless — which is why our dedication to prayer must also be relentless.

Learning to trust God must be rooted in prayer — because that is how we can actually get to know God and His Goodness.

I am grateful to have been convicted of the power of prayer and trust in God with last year’s “word” pushing me forward in those areas.

So now, we turn to a New Year and a New Word.

I am actually going to use the word that I got from the Word of the Year Generator. The word is “Bless”.

The second I got it, I knew it would be a great word to contemplate and pray over and see what God has in mind for me in this year.

I’ve already jumped into scripture and Catholic commentaries on the Word. I will share some thoughts along the way.

Only God knows what this year will bring — but I know that He has only my welfare in mind — so I’m excited to see what this year holds.

For now, I will wish you a Happy New Year, a Happy New Decade and the merriest of Christmas Seasons.

May the rest of your Christmas Season be Merry and Bright!