The past few years, I have picked a word and a verse for the year. It has been so incredible to see how God uses throughout the year.

In 2015, it was Redeem and that year God redeemed so much from my family to blessing me with awesome community at church in my small group. In 2016, it was Hope and it was crazy year that included graduating from seminary.

I had an idea for what my word was going to be this year but God totally changed it. My mom and I were going through Ann Voskamp’s The Broken Way (which I highly recommend, it’s life-changing good) where grace kept coming up again and again. I felt like God was telling me that was my word for this year along with 2 Corinthians 12:9-10.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 says, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 

These verses are dealing with Paul’s thorn in the flesh which he asked God to remove but he didn’t for whatever reason. Paul said that it helped keep him humble. For me, this year has been about focusing on my health and my walk with the Lord so these were a good choice for me.

I love seeing how God uses the word throughout the year and I’ve had to learn grace for myself, dealing with the five year old I nanny, and adjusting to a new house. I’ll do a full report later this year but for now, I’m still seeing how grace factors into 2017.