Moments to Ponder

Episode 129: Finding Your Spiritual Anchor: Choosing a Word of the Year for 2025

• Betsy Marvin • Season 15 • Episode 129

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Ever wondered how a single word could transform your year and deepen your spiritual connection? Join me, Betsy Marvin, as we unravel the profound practice of choosing a "word of the year" to inspire and guide us through 2025. By reflecting on my own journey with past words like gratitude, humility, and conduit, I demonstrate how a thoughtfully selected word can act as a spiritual anchor, grounding us in God’s Word and enhancing our personal growth. Whether you’re familiar with this practice or exploring it for the first time, I'll help you uncover a word that resonates deeply with your spirit, aligning your aspirations and actions with your faith.

Together, we embark on a reflective process to identify a word that encapsulates your intentions for the coming year. We’ll reflect on the past, evaluate what worked, and pinpoint areas for growth, leading you to discover words that evoke emotion and excitement. I'll walk you through refining your choices, lifting them up in prayer, and ensuring they align with your values and goals. This episode invites you to find a word that offers renewed direction and passion, while sharing my ongoing journey as I trust in God’s faithfulness to reveal my word for 2025. Let’s embark on this spiritual journey together, discovering the unique word God has in store for each of us.

(for word lists - just google 'word of the year lists' and  you'll discover many)

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Speaker 1:

Hi friends, welcome to Moments to Ponder. This is a podcast designed to help you spend a few moments in God's Word, gain fresh perspectives and find meaningful takeaways to ponder throughout your week. I'm Betsy Marvin and this is Episode 129. Happy New Year. It's the first Monday in January 2025. It's the first Monday in January 2025.

Speaker 1:

Today, we're going to deviate a bit from our regular study of the Gospel of John. We'll come back to John 8 next week, but I wanted to explore with you a spiritual practice that I've been doing for the past few years. It's called having a word of the year. Now, I know that if you're on social media, you've seen a buzz around this lately, but I have found this a profoundly helpful and centering thing to do as I go into a new year, so please hang with me. I know this isn't our usual Bible pondering, but no matter your age or stage, season or position, asking God direction for the year ahead can be an amazing thing. It's a spiritual practice that can help us stay connected to Him throughout the year to come. If you've never heard of it, the word of the year is simply choosing an intentional word that has personal meaning and resonates with you. This word can become inspiration, motivation, give hope or help us go after a goal in the year to come. But this isn't a resolution thing. It's a way to focus in on positive change in your spiritual journey. Well, in your life, I have found it amazing to discover what just having one word can do to help guide me in my daily actions and help me remember to focus on growth, either mentally, physically, spiritually or all of the above. Have you ever chosen a word of the year? It can be any word, but it should be a word that reminds you of something that God has shown you, maybe a promise, maybe an area of growth, maybe something in the reassurance area or inspiration area. For me, the word of the year challenge has become a spiritual practice, but I do realize that this is something that you don't have to follow Christ to do.

Speaker 1:

A lot of people have a word of the year and they don't know Jesus at all. For example, oxford has a word for the year For 2025, their word is brain rot, which, okay, I find that a little scary. They define this as the supposed deterioration of a person's mental and intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material, now particularly online content. Now. I totally understand what brain rot is, but I don't want that to be the defining word for me in 2025. I want to have a word that God has given me.

Speaker 1:

As I look at the wall in my office. As I look at the wall in my office, I can see all of my words hanging there From when I began this practice in 2015,. Might have been 2014, and the word was gratitude. It was a game changer. It was then followed by the word humility for 2016, and then givenness in 2017. Then brave, speak, leap, steadfast, faithful, lean in. Now, if you've listened to my podcast before, you know that being grounded in God's word is key. So whatever word I feel God has led me toward, I seek out corresponding verses to help me stay rooted. As I focus in on that word for the year, and as I look at my wall right now, I can see so many lessons and guidance and even some preparation for things that were to come that I wasn't even aware of at the time.

Speaker 1:

At the time this past year, my word was conduit. I know interesting word. I was just simply reading a book and that word just hit me and I couldn't stop thinking about it Conduit. I went through the steps of determining my word last January and this word kept coming back to me. Terminating my word last January, and this word kept coming back to me. I felt like God was calling me to be a conduit of His love and grace.

Speaker 1:

As I researched scripture, I discovered that Galatians 5 says let us remain watchful so that we, as God's free-flowing conduits, do not get bogged down or clogged up by our selfish desires, but instead we are led by the Spirit. I don't remember which version this is from, but the language resonated deep within me. I can get so bogged down or clogged up with my own stuff, and I knew that I wanted this past year to be one that allows the Spirit to freely flow, to not let my stuff get in the way of His work. In John 7, 38, jesus says believe in me so that rivers of living water will burst forth from your innermost being, just like the scripture says. That's the image of a free-flowing conduit. That was my dream of this past year. If I could just burst forth with his spirit.

Speaker 1:

As a visual person, I drew an image of what I felt like this looked like for me. I wrote the scripture under the image and I hung it on my office wall at my home office so that I could see it almost every day. Okay, this doesn't mean that I came even close to perfectly doing this by any stretch of the imagination, but it has kept it at the forefront of my mind. For example, I found myself asking mind. For example, I found myself asking is there anything clogging up the spirit in me, blocking the flow of who he is? Am I allowing God to move through me or is he getting stuck because of my stuff?

Speaker 1:

As I prepared for the podcast today, I have a completely written podcast for the beginning of John 8, but this just kept coming back to me, so I felt like it was something that needed to be shared with you. It's so foundational. So today I'm just going to walk you through the process of answering this question what would God have you focus on in the year ahead? Maybe this is a practice you've done before and you already know God's word for you, but maybe not. So I encourage you to take these next few minutes and walk through these steps with me. If you already have a word, then may God give you confirmation of that as we walk through this, but if not, I pray that God stirs you to discover what he would have for you in the year ahead. Now, I realize that this is a process and we're going to walk through these steps fairly quickly, so you may need to pause now and then. If you're gonna do this right now, or you may need to come back and listen, or you can always download the transcript and use it as a guide. There's no pressure to do this quickly to find a word and go forward as fast as you can. This could take some time, but as we begin, we want God to direct our thoughts. So, in that vein, let's pray Lord, help us to hear your voice and guide us to what you would have for us in the coming year. What do you want us to know? Help us to listen, amen, amen.

Speaker 1:

Step one in this process is to reflect, taking some time to review the last year by asking yourself some questions, some time to review the last year by asking yourself some questions. Questions like what worked, what didn't? What important events happened? Were there breakthroughs physically, emotionally, spiritually? What did you struggle with and what did you celebrate? Where did you experience God's presence? When you think of the past year, what word comes to mind? I know those are questions that need some thought, so feel free to pause or rewind or look at the transcript. The goal of these questions is to help you reflect, to see if there are places where you need to lean in, or if there are any patterns or words that stand out as you answer them, because they could lead to your word for this year.

Speaker 1:

After a time of reflection, now it's time to process. In this step, we look forward. Process In this step, we look forward. What comes to mind as you think of 2025? Any specific area that needs attention or focus? Is there a character trait or a fruit of the spirit that rises to the top when you think of something that needs attention? Rise is the top when you think of something that needs attention. What do you hope for in the coming year? What goal or aspiration has been on your mind that now it's time to put a word to? You may have a word that has come to the forefront. Hold on to it, ruminate on it, because our next step is the word discovery phase. In step three, it's time for words.

Speaker 1:

We often need to physically see the words to let them resonate for us. There are a few ways to do this. You can create a list, write down every word that comes to mind about the coming year and you and growth and all of the things, and don't edit it, just get it down. Sometimes it's helpful for someone else to give us a list, and if you were to go online and just Google word of the year lists, they would give you so many and I'll have some links to a few of those in the show notes.

Speaker 1:

Once you have a list of words, read it over and pay attention. What words jump out at you. Do any of them make you feel excited or nervous, scared, uncomfortable or at ease? Sometimes, the words that scare us most can mean we're on the right track, because change isn't always easy. Yet at the same time, I think finding your word can bring you peace and empowerment. What you're looking for is at least two to four words that have jumped out to you or have made you feel an emotion. So, to give you a bit of an example, I'm going to read a list of words. As I read this list slowly, do any of these connect with you in some way? If so, pay attention to it.

Speaker 1:

Transform, Courage, resilience, amplify, dream, joy, empower, inspire, awaken, resolve. There's no right or wrong word, and the beauty of this is it's yours. Whatever word comes to you, that's the word you want to walk with. Maybe already there's a word that you're like. That's it. That's my one word. But if you have two or three, maybe four words circled, then it's time to move to step four.

Speaker 1:

Step four is to refine. When you look at the word or the words that you have circled, try them on, see what resonates, lift them up to God in prayer. Yet try not to overanalyze them. Don't judge it or compare it or disqualify it. Just allow the Spirit to guide you gently as you narrow down your choices. Our final step is to decide, choose a word and then ask yourself do I just like this word or is it something that I can own and commit to? We need to be really honest with ourselves, because this is just for us. So I need to ask myself, and you can ask yourself is this something I would just like? Because if that's it, it won't go the distance. But if it's something you can own and that you feel the connection to it, then step in and sit in it for a while. Don't worry, your word might change.

Speaker 1:

When you land on the right word for you. You'll know there isn't a rush. It could take days or weeks to really feel connected to the word that God has for you. For me, honestly, this process usually takes me about two weeks. I have found that I need to rest in the word and ponder it. I look up its definition to know exactly what the word means as a noun, as a verb, as an adjective, and I use my Bible app or a concordance to discover what God's word says in connection to the word that I feel he's given me. I want to understand it, but I also want to know that it has a spiritual foundation under it.

Speaker 1:

Then, once that word feels subtle, find a way to make it visual, print it, draw it, find an image, whatever you need to do so that you can put it where it will be a constant reminder for you that you will see it.

Speaker 1:

And if you would take a minute and share it with me, I would love to know how God is working in you for the year to come. I will lift that in prayer for you, dear one. I know this is a bit of a different podcast, but as you enter the year ahead, my prayer is that you will discover all that God has waiting for you. I encourage you to seek out what he has in store for you in your journey with him through finding a word to help you focus your year ahead. Journey with him through finding a word to help you focus your year ahead. May that word give you a sense of renewed direction and passion as you lean into it. Whatever that is for you, know that it is uniquely for you and no one else. I don't have my word yet. I don't have my word yet, but I know it will come. It always does. He's faithful like that, no matter where you are in your world right now. May you know you are loved, amen.