Archives for May 2014

Remember the theme words many of us adopted at the beginning of the year? Now that a third of 2014 has come and gone, maybe we should each revisit our words and the focus we adopted for the year and see how we’re doing. Anyone game for a little evaluation and renewal of good intentions?

My theme word for 2014 is guard. I admit I don’t think of it as often as I should, but the Lord has brought it to mind several times to help steer me in the right direction when I’ve needed wisdom for certain decisions or situations. Since one of the purposes of a theme word is to help guide us through the year, my word guard is fulfilling that role.

I’ve done fairly well applying the word guard to some areas of my life so far this year, but in other areas, I haven’t let it play much of a role. And that’s not because of a refusal to let it impact those areas, but instead because of a lack of awareness. I forget to apply my theme word. And even in the areas where I’m doing pretty well, I could benefit from an even deeper ongoing remembrance of it. How about you? Are you thinking of specific areas of strength and weakness in regard to your theme word the way I am?

Also, at the beginning of the year, I predicted that areas I hadn’t yet thought of where being on guard would be needed would come to light as the year went on, and that’s proven to be true. Recently, as I read the “My Identity” chapter in Prayers for a Woman’s Soul by Julie Gillies, I saw that Satan, the enemy of our souls, is ready and waiting for opportunities to steal our identities in Christ from us. That old deceiver wants to snatch the truth of who we are as children of God and replace it with his lies. And oh how often I’ve let him do that! I need to not only be on guard against his tactics, but I also need to proactively guard my identity by planting the Word firmly in my mind and heart and by recalling it often.

As we’ve revisited our theme words today, I hope each of us has been encouraged by our successes, prodded to action in areas of weakness, and made aware of new areas of application. Refresher courses are a good thing, aren’t they? What do you say—let’s renew our focus. Let’s allow our theme words to do their jobs!

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” 1 Corinthians 9:24

*Do you have a theme word for 2014? Have you seen benefits yet?

*My photo

*The new issue of Life Notes, my quarterly inspirational newsletter, comes out today. It’s not too late to receive it. Sign-up is free and to the right!

*Don’t miss out on the Going Natural Giveaway! Deadline to enter is 6 p.m. Wednesday. See post for details.