Discovering Delight-One Word 2017

Happy New Year Friends! I hope 2017 is off to a great start for all of you.

For me this is the fifth year I have decided to focus on a word for the year rather than set a resolution. I have found it really helpful in the past to prayerfully consider what God might be trying to reveal to me through a word or theme for the year. Past words have included; Rest, Grace, Testimony, and last year’s was Build.

Each year and each word has changed me in powerful (often uncomfortable) ways and I expect the same to be true this year.

My word for 2017 is delight.

There were a few words I thought might be “it” but toward the end of the year it became clear that this was the one.

You see I have been a bit of a grump for about the last year and a half. Part of it has to do with grief over losing two dear friends within a year but I think there’s also been more of a spiritual attack to it. Given the state of the world, and the pain and suffering all around there were times I felt desperate for hope but felt little.

Though I’m mostly a glass half-full kind of girl, it has become increasingly more difficult at times to focus on the positives.

So I felt the Lord speak to my heart and say “it’s time”. It’s time to re-discover joy, it’s time to let go of the past and time to discover delight in my actual life. Because it is good.

Definition of Delight:

noun

1.a high degree of pleasure or enjoyment; joy; rapture:

2.something that gives great pleasure:

verb

3.to give great pleasure, satisfaction, or enjoyment to; please highly:

4. have great pleasure; take pleasure

So this year I’ll be delighting in:

My life: my family, friends, my community, the world God created.

I’ll be searching for beauty in nature; I’ll be going to museums and looking at the beautiful creations of others. And I’ll be looking to create beauty myself in my life and in my home.

And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. Genesis 1:31

My God: He is good. Always. And I know that in my head but again my heart has been more stubborn lately. It’s time to return to my first LOVE and delight in Him first. So as I’m in need of a refresh, a new way of diving deeper into my faith, I’ll be studying and practicing the classical Spiritual Disciplines. I’ll be digging into scripture but also using Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline as a guide.

Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

God delighting in ME: This is a truth I forget. While I’m confident of my place as a beloved child of God, again this truth tend to sit more on my brain that my heart. I think sure, God loves me. He loves all of us right?

But to imagine that He “delights” in me is a whole other thing.

This quote from my friend Dolly Lee’s book 7 Days of Soul Care gripped my heart a few weeks ago and I had to write it down as a reminder.

God may not always delight in how I act but he always looks at the real me with delight. -Dolly M. Lee

I’m settling in with this truth this year. And I’ll be sharing more about my journey with delight and hopefully also encouraging all of us who need to be reminded of how He delights in us.

How about you friends, do you have a word for the year or are you more of a resolution or goals kind of person? Fill me in, leave me a comment below.

 

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