Several years back, my son and I both opted to designate a word of the year instead of making New Year’s Resolutions. For me, it’s bathed in prayer. I don’t necessarily want to select a word that I think is best. I want a word from God.

Some years I don’t get around to devoting time in prayer for my word until after the year has started, which was true this year. Because God has been leading me to learn about spiritual warfare the past few months, I thought my word might be STAND. As in, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to STAND firm against the schemes of the devil…and having done everything, to STAND firm…STAND firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth…” (Ephesians 6:11, 13, 14)

I wasn’t certain this was the word God had chosen, though, so I continued to pray about it. A week ago last Sunday, I was reading in preparation for our Sunday class discussion at church.  We were just finishing the book, The Women of Christmas, by Liz Curtis Higgs, and we were reading about Anna the prophetess who saw the baby Jesus at the temple when Joseph and Mary had gone to offer the sacrifice.

“Anna got the memo too: open mouth, praise God.
If we did this one thing – this one thing – it would change our lives and the lives of those around us forever. If we blessed God openly and regularly, if we gave Him credit instead of taking it for ourselves, if the first thing that came to mind and mouth was glorifying His name, we too might catch a glimpse of the Christ, as Anna did when she ‘broke into an anthem of praise to God’ (Luke 2:38, MSG).”

The Women of Christmas by Liz Curtis Higgs, p. 176

Yes, yes – a million times yes, was the cry of my heart. And I don’t say this just because the Bible teaches it. I say it from personal experience. Even as recently as two months ago.

Right before my husband surrendered his life to Jesus, we had a fight. And not just any fight. One like we haven’t had in years. One I was sure our relationship couldn’t recover from. Which was exactly what I shared with God in prayer as I wept.

As I poured my heart out to God, I told Him that there was nothing I could do to fix it. He was the only one who could fix it, because it would take a miracle.

As I continued to grieve and pray over the next couple of days, God kept giving me one word.

Praise.

Just praise Me, was the message. So, I did. It was not easy, but I praised Him that He was sovereign and that what we were going through was no surprise to Him. I praised Him that He loved Rick and me way more than we could fathom and wanted the best for us. And I praised Him that He alone had the power to change what we were going through.

As I praised Him, He revealed some of the key timing of the whole dispute. It happened within a few days of Rick first asking me about how to get saved. As we were hashing out our differences and sharing our pain, Rick had said at one point that he wasn’t even sure why he brought up the issue in the first place. I assured him that we do have an enemy, and that Satan whispers in our ears – lies intended to destroy relationships.

During my times of praise, I understood the enemy was trying to stop Rick from making the decision to surrender to Jesus, even as he was trying to destroy our marriage. But as I continued to praise God, I could easily recognize the schemes and trust God to heal us. And oh, how He did. I was able to completely forgive him, and that was nothing short of a miracle.

That Sunday morning, as I read Liz Curtis Higgs’s words about how our lives would be changed if we would just praise God in whatever our situation, I knew I finally found my word for the year.

Praise.

Does anyone else out there get into the habit of choosing a word for the year?