My Word of the Year for 2023

This year instead of a word of the year I picked the Word of the year- capital w. I wanted to try this out because in all of the newness of motherhood, I have found it hard to remain grounded in the Word of God. I am hoping this will help me spend the year in a season of dwelling on the promises and commands of scripture specific to the theme I have chosen: to be filled with God’s peace.

I chose PEACE because I have been craving it. In the past year and a half I’ve gotten married, bought a house, become a mother, quit a job, and I’m sure there’s more…but those are the highlights. I want to be a person of peace. That is, a person filled with the peace of God, so that I can face life’s challenges without worry and anxiety.

Isaiah 26:3 says, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”

So far in 2023, I have already had two big chances to trust in God and let him keep me in this perfect peace that is promised. The first, is that my car needs a new engine, which means we need a new car. And as fond as I am of getting behind the wheel of a new-to-me vehicle, we aren’t exactly ready to start looking for a new one just yet. I’m choosing to trust in God, and not fret about it. I know from experience that His provision is much better than what I can do for myself.

The second thing that gave me an opportunity to dwell in God’s peace was my son’s surgery- which we have had on the calendar for the first week of January for a while now, and its approach caused me many wakeful nights. The surgery itself was fairly routine- it was to correct a common issue. Apparently 1/10 baby boys are born with a hydrocele, which I am not going to explain here because it's pretty easy to google it. His needed surgery, though, to correct the hernia that caused it. My darling baby boy had to be placed under general anesthesia, and I had to trust God to care for him while we handed him off to strangers to perform the procedure.

But my word of the year is peace. So instead of wallowing and worrying and letting my palms become sweaty and clammy, I prayed. And when it felt too scary, my husband prayed. And on the day of the surgery I woke free from fear, trusting that God would care for this beautiful baby he gave us. And he did. The nurses and surgeon and staff were all so kind, and fawned over how adorable he is. It felt good to see how genuinely they all loved children. The surgery went as expected, and our son’s recovery has been smooth. Even I could hardly tell the difference the next day, aside from a little extra fussiness. The worst part for him is probably his pain medicine, which I have to force him to take every six hours. And I can’t even get a video of the hilarious face he makes because I need all my limbs just to hold him down. This boy of ours is STRONG. Must also be rough going from only ever tasting breastmilk to suddenly being force fed cherry-flavored baby pain medicine.

So, while the outcome is most likely very much the same, I got to experience much more peace and joy in the waiting by trusting God. It wasn’t easy, and I did fret and worry and cry a little. The difference was I didn’t allow it to end there. I’d push the bad thoughts away and turn my mind to God and His promises.

I hope I can continue to make progress in this area by focusing on my “Word” of the year. 2023 is going to be great, because my God is great, and I am going to trust Him through it all.