My One Word for 2016: Poem

I’ve picked a word again this year.

Embrace came to mean so very much to me. The word came to perfectly describe 365 days. Now for the new year’s word…but first:

The History

Seven years in a row now, I’ve asked God for a word. I write no resolutions. Just one word.

The way He’s given each word is a story in itself, really. Read the stories here:

• 2010 // o p p o r t u n i t y — that year no one knew how to say when we were (is it oh-ten or ‘ten or twenty-ten?), I hardly knew where I was, new grad that I was. I started writing.
• 2011 // r a d i c a l — because it’s synonymous with Daring (my favorite word of them all).
• 2012 // p r a y e r — failed me. Or I failed it. And I learned therein lies its greatest beauty
• 2013 // r e n e w i n g —  plopped me on a dusty path where the sunlight shimmers
• 2014 // r i s e — it became my battle cry
• 2015 // e m b r a c e — it came to mean so much more than I could have known on this day a year ago

From Embrace…

I’ve said this for years in a row: I think this year’s word may be the bravest of them all.

I think this year may be the bravest of them all.

In 2015, I edited three books over and over again and held two of them in print. I did not see 2015 coming when I first saw the word Embrace settle into a token-ring I wore all year long. In 2016, though, the series comes to an end.

And a whole lot of other things I may share about soon may see their beginning…

To Poem

Now here’s my hope and my promise to this New Year…

Do you choose One Word? I talk more about the process in this recent post on Kindred Grace.