I’ve shared on the blog in the past my words of the year and how I uncover them. To do a quick recap, I started using Power Sheets in 2015 and began the rhythm of reflecting on my year, planning for the next, and choosing a word or theme for that year in the process.
- 2015 – Persistence
- 2016 – Persevere
- 2017 – Intentional
- 2018 – Wonder
- 2019 – Bold
- 2020 – Empty
- 2021 – Tension
- 2022 – Rooted
While I started choosing a word of the year in 2015, I have become more intentional in the process each year. I had to look up my 2015 and 2016 words of the year because they didn’t resonate like the others. But then in 2017, I can remember exact choices and goals I made so I could live out that word well. In the last 2 years, I’ve become very intentional with what my goals are and how they align with the words. In 2022, my word of the year was rooted and I was focused on being Rooted in Relationships, Rooted in Faith, Rooted in Legacy, and Rooted in Rhythms. I was able to complete 78% of all my goals for the year. I believe it was because of how intentionally they were created.
For 2023, I plan to do the same thing. In October/November I started a list on my phone of potential words for 2023 like I always do. I had written transformation, foundation, inconvenient, magnify, and space. I was really convinced it was going to be foundation. But as it began to be more clear in December, I realized foundation would not be my word, but instead something else.
I had been reading a free Advent devotional from Hannah Brencher that I look forward to each year. I was reading one of the devotionals and it said this –
“Today’s message is simple but challenging to put into action: We must transform our hearts into little stables. We must prepare room for him. We must create a space inside of ourselves to behold the wonder. If there is no space for Jesus in our lives, how can we expect to feel anything but parched? If we refuse to create a margin for the living waters to flow in our lives, we will only ever be thirsty and tired…”
As I read it, I knew. Space would be my word the following year. Space for Jesus in my heart and in my life. Space for relationships. Space in my home. Space in the way I live. I would enter into new spaces in 2023 with an open mind. This is what I wanted for the upcoming year.
So my word for 2023 is space. And I have three goals for the year –
- Space for Love
- Space for Living
- Space for Legacy
What is crazy to me is that after I determined my goals for the year, I’d come across a book I hadn’t read before at the bookstore. It was a follow up to the book I’m reading right now, called the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This other book is called the 8th Habit. I didn’t know exactly what it was about but flipped through the book and found the image below. The 8th habit is about leaving a legacy. And the three areas that lead to that are to learn, to live, and to love.
Mind blown.
Going back to my goals for the year, I combined learning + legacy into one goal. But I have a focus on space for learning, space for loving, space for living and space for legacy. This was all written well before I had ever heard or even looked at this book. These are the moments that I think “hey God, I see you, thank you for reaffirming this for me”.
Today, I’m going to close with something I wrote in a post in 2020 but with a new take. Here’s my prayer for 2023 –
God please help me create space and use it well. I know you are all I need. Help me listen to your instruction and prepare space for you. Help me create margin in my schedule, my home, my thoughts, and my heart just for you. I pray that you meets me in the moments of my every day because I’ve created space for you to do just that. Help me continue to make you room so you I can continue to abide in you. Amen.
