For the past 2 years, I’ve come up with a word of the year to focus on as many of you have. Last year was the first year that it was the only thing I focused on. I had resolutions the year before, but last year I just had the word. This year I’ve decided to do the same because it worked so well for me last year.

There was one big change that I didn’t expect when I started 2015, and it affected all my long term goals – a move to Florida. At the time, we knew moving for my husbands job was possible and most likely coming within a year or two. But on January 1st we had no idea that 26 days later we’d be in Florida interviewing for a job that he’d take 30 days later. So the 3 things I wanted to focus on – finances, acne, church – all had to get a new game plan. And that’s continuing on into this year. Scott will get a new job within the next year to year and a half – we might have another big move- we might stay here,  we’re selling a house in a state we don’t live in, and so many other things that are all up in the air – and out of my control. So 2016’s word of the year is . . . grace.

I expect things and I work hard for things to go a certain way. If they don’t go that way it can be frustrating, and I don’t handle it well – a lot of times I take it out on myself – sometimes my husband. But since the big things for 2016 are out of my control I want to remember to give myself and others grace. I hesitated to use the word grace because I didn’t want to stop pushing myself. I don’t want to give myself too much grace, and there are areas where I specifically want to push myself. The blog, keeping our finances together, and staying up on my health are some of those areas. I talked it through with a friend. After telling her my struggles with the word, she said ‘ Grace is giving yourself a little with certain things, but it can also be about honoring the grace He has given you with other things.’

So 2016 is going to be a year of giving myself grace in things I can’t control. Grace when things don’t go my way, grace when things don’t go perfectly that it’s not my fault (or my husbands). 2016 will also be about honoring His grace that he has given to me by working my ass off in areas I can control. By the end of 2016 I will have transformed into a whole new woman 🙂

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. II Corinthians 3:18