Saying Goodbye to my 2013 Word

Pondering here at the end of the year with my 2013 word of the year GIVE. At the end of the 2012
year I began to pray about my word and Give is what the Lord gave me. Here is just a piece of what I wrote in my first blog post for the year 2012. . .

I want to give

 

of my time

of my possessions,
of my praise,
of my love,

 

of Christ's love

of my energy,
of my words,
of God's words,
of my smiles,
of encouragement
of my. . .whatever God leads me to give

 

At Easter time I did a 40 day giveaway on FB. Each day I gave one thing of mine away. Did I miss any of those items? No

 

I gave of my time and love each Tuesday evening at the Homeless Outreach at the bridge. Did I ever begrudge going? No

 

I gave of my energy to ones who are hard to love. Did I ever mind. Well. . .we'll come back to this one.

 

I gave of my smiles, and words and encouragement. Did I mind this? No

 

And how can I say no to these questions? Because I ponder each day how God has given to me. Oh, He gives so much more than I ever could but because of what He has given me, I want to give back.

 

Back to the question up above I hesitated on. That's just me being human and honest. But after pondering and praying, I can say that yes, I did give of my energy and when I focused on God, the giving of that energy became easy.

 

It wasn't easy for Jesus to hang on the cross, to take the sins of the whole world upon Him, to be mocked, to have His Father turn away for that specific time. I can't even imagine.

 

So when someone difficult comes around, I remember what was given for me and I can look into the other's eyes and give what the Lord leads me to give.

 

And when it came to my wanting to give more of my praise. . .I did. I always wanted to freely praise by raising my hands in church when the spirit would move but being the quiet, reserved person I have always been, I made my hands stay down at my side. This year they raised and I cannot tell you how freeing it is to worship in the true sense of the word, unencumbered, not worrying about the people around you who might stare, just giving praise with all of your being to the One who deserves it.

 

I know many of you out there give in so many ways. Thank you for all you do. This is not about look at what I gave. It was just about me being more intentional myself to look out instead of within and give in whatever ways I felt led to. I didn't want to hang onto things, to money, to myself. I wanted to give to my Father in Heaven however many ways I could because I love Him and because it's my way of saying, 'I love you, to Him.

 

What did I learn? I learned by giving, I can let go. . .of many things. And in the letting go, sometimes God chooses to give back. And whether anything comes back or not. . .there is blessings in the letting go, in the giving. It's not about what you will get back in return, It's all about freeing yourself up and blessing others and pleasing God. There is just no better feeling than that! 

 

God helped me to give in so many ways. Some easy and some not so easy. But as this year comes to a close, I know from now on, no matter what my new words will be, give will always be a part of me. . .because it is a part of Him. . .and I want to be all I can be in Him.

 

So it's not really good-by to the word give. It's hop on word, we've got new ones to pick out and places to go. Come on! 

 

Will you join me?  Pray about a specific word God has just for you. Then do share. It's fun to see how God works in all of our lives.

 

May you all have a wonderful, happy New Year

and may it be full of wonderful words

GIVEN

by the WORD Himself.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1