I had this post planned for Thursday, but I think it’s more fitting to post it New Years Day, don’t you?!
Each year, I hear families praying about a “Word of the Year”. I have never done this, but looking back, I think we have had several:
2010: Discipline
Our year of financial discipline was difficult to say the least. You can read some of the amazing things God did during this time here, the first of a three part series. I see now, looking back, that this was all a breaking down of Dale, so the truth could come in the summer of 2011. There was a bigger picture at work, one we could not yet see. It served a big purpose in my own life, to re-evaluate the important things, to re-define our former comfortable lifestyle, and to let go of the “American Dream” in my head of what our lives should look like.
2011: Broken
There is no doubt the word for 2011 was Broken. Broken hearts, broken dreams, broken marriage vows. In the end, we learned God desires our brokenness. And we will never ever forget, that to become broken, is actually to become whole.
2012: Transparency
This was a HUGE part of 2012, I kept thinking “Healing” might be our word of the year, but I keep going back to the TRANSPARENCY that had to occur for Dale and I to move forward in our tragedy for God’s glory, and share it both on the world wide web, but also speaking at church events, Encounters, and sitting down with other couples. Owning our truth was hard, and there were those that judged us harshly for it, but God is so faithful. Obedience brings blessing!
I am excited to say, I feel like the Lord is showing me what the 2013 word could be, when I received the SAME word, for the third time in a 2 month period:
RESTORATION.
I was not praying for a word of the year, but I have been meditating on this verse for the past few months:
“Restore to me the joy of my salvation and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalms 51:12
I WANT this. I was asking God for this to happen this year. I feel like after an amazing mountain top high, I am in a Spiritual Valley. I feel as if my prayers do not reach above the ceiling, and I no longer feel the Lord’s presence constantly, as I did in crisis mode. I am asking Him to breathe new life into me, I miss the mountain top. I suppose if we didn’t walk through a Valley, we never would understand the blessing of the view from the top, would we?
In the midst of this, I was asked to speak at a Women’s event coming up this month, and the key word for the evening was Restoration.
Hmm, see a pattern here?
Then weeks later, I see the words:
RESTORATION 2013.
My heart jumped as only it can when you are nudged by the Holy Spirit!
RESTORATION! Yes, Lord, yes!
“You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance.“ Psalms 65:11
I pray our time of famine has passed, and it is my prayer for 2013, that He will abundantly lavish us with restoration of joy, restoration of our financial storehouses full and overflowing with a bountiful harvest, and a year full of blessings. I cannot WAIT to see what He has in store.
For He will restore what the locusts have eaten…. {Taken from Joel 2:25}
So, I shared a little bit of this post on New Years Eve, on the 4 little Ferguson’s facebook page, and you will not BELIEVE the message I got:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed.”
Isaiah 55:8-13
What is your word for 2013? Want to join me in asking our Heavenly Father for RESTORATION?
Restoration for Marriages. Restoration of a quieter, less busy lifestyle. Restoration of the family unit as it is meant to be. Restoration for the lost. Restoration for the broken. Restoration of our Great Nation. Restoration of the Church, so that is no longer a Museum for the good, but rather a Hospital for the Broken.
We cannot even begin to imagine the great things He has in store!
Hugs, T
Shared with Mercy Ink: Heart Home Link Up
4 little Fergusons 