As you may remember, I created a journal to accompany my talk on choosing and living with a WOTY (Word of the Year).*

In the journal, I included monthly activities to help participants engage with their WOTY in a variety of ways.

JANUARY – Spend time in prayer asking God to show you how to interact with your word.

Encourage One Another

FEBRUARY – Write a poem or a few paragraphs about how focusing on your word has impacted your life.

Time for
Encouragement
Lifting up, Building up
Others to demonstrate God’s love
Always

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E – Everyone
N – Needs
C – Confidence
O – Optimism
U – Understanding
R – Reassurance
A – Advocacy
G – Gratitude
M – Mentoring or
E – Encouragement
N – Now and
T – Then

MARCH – Create a Word Map (a visual organizer that promotes vocabulary development and understanding of alternate meanings of a word).

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APRIL – Share your journey with a close friend or family member.

In An Assignment from Lisa, I shared some of these conversations.

MAY – Make, repurpose or buy a physical representation of your word.

JUNE – How has focusing on your word impacted your life? Your relationship with God? Your relationships with others?

The purpose of encouraging others is to offer support, confidence, and hope. I have learned that the more I offer this type of stability to others, the less likely I am to harbor malice or resentment toward those that hurt me. Said another way, when we plant the seeds of encouragement in the lives of others, God sends people to do the same for us.

Wherever you go, endeavor to sow seeds of love, kindness and compassion that will encourage others to do the same.  – Samuel Zulu

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JULY – Find a way to involve others in the pursuit of your word.

One more than one occasion I have enlisted the help of my husband in loving-on and encouraging others anonymously. It has been so much fun witnessing the looks on their faces or hearing from others how a random surprise has brightened someone’s day.

AUGUST – Do you know anyone else with a WOTY? Meet for coffee and discuss your journeys.

Each day Lisa Burgess highlights a blog post from one of our fellow one-worders and asks a question to get us talking. It is wonderful to see how each of us has grown not only through our own one-word journey but through watching the journeys of others.

And then there are the friends who are not members of the online group who have been sharing with me what God is doing in their families through this practice.

I love this picture of two different varieties of tree that have are so intertwined that they cannot be separated with harming them both. Relationships that stand the test of time are built in the same way.

SEPTEMBER – Is there a hymn or worship song that helps you focus on your word?

Some may consider this a Christmas song but it energizes me in ways that I cannot fully explain. I can never listen to it just once, I play it at least two or three times in a row and let the blessings wash over me.

I put myself in Mary’s place and wonder what her life was like. Then I think about my own children and all the things they have accomplished with God on their side.

Mary Did You Know (Mark Lowry)

Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy would one day walk on water?
Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know
that your Baby Boy has come to make you new?
This Child that you delivered will soon deliver you.

Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy will calm the storm with His hand?
Did you know
that your Baby Boy has walked where angels trod?
When you kiss your little Baby you kissed the face of God?

Mary did you know. Ooo Ooo Ooo

The blind will see.
The deaf will hear.
The dead will live again.
The lame will leap.
The dumb will speak
The praises of The Lamb.

Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy would one day rule the nations?
Did you know
that your Baby Boy is heaven’s perfect Lamb?
The sleeping Child you’re holding is the Great, I Am.

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To join an online community of other one-worders CLICK HERE to request membership in the Private Facebook Group

I will continue to update this post on a quarterly basis.

OCTOBER – Spend extended time in prayer asking God to expand your experience with your word. Are there new lessons you need to learn?

NOVEMBER – How has God blessed you through actively pursuing your word?

DECEMBER – Congratulations on completing your WOTY journey. How was the experience different than you expected? Was it worthwhile? Will you choose a WOTY for 2023?

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*If you would like a PDF of the journal, send me a message HERE.