It’s the start of a new year, and the time when many stress about goals and resolutions, and dreams and plans to accomplish over the next 365 days. I don’t make resolutions, per se, but, as many people do, I choose a focus word/theme as a guide for the year. As has been the case the past couple of years, my word /theme for the year came at the 11th hour. Late in the day on December 31, the Lord whispered to my heart the word for 2020:
REBUILD
Rebuild
- to make extensive repairs to :
- to restore to a previous state
rebuild inventories
- to put into good order something that is injured, damaged or defective
Synonyms: repair, patch, mend (implies making whole or sound)
Rebuild. I thought about using this word a few years ago:
Several years ago I became familiar with the concept of choosing a focus word for the year and was intrigued by the idea. In 2014, just days after learning of my ex-husband’s adultery, I tried using rebuild as my word; but as we know, timing is everything.
And it most certainly wasn’t the time to focus on rebuilding, since my life as I knew it was in the process of being dismantled and demolished.
RECOMMENDED POST: My Focus Word For 2018
Timing is indeed everything. And as I wrote in this recent blog post “while there are still remnants of that heartache, it’s gotten better every year. I honestly feel like I’m on the other side; that I’ve made it through.”
The heartache has subsided. The dismantling and demolishing are over. It’s time to rebuild.
READING ASSIGNMENT
Along with a word/theme, I also got a reading assignment to start off the new year. I’m in a book club, and our January pick is a sort of a free-for-all. Members were told to choose and read a book of the Bible. I was thinking that I might take the lazy way out and go with 2 Samuel, which, I’d just started reading for a Bible study, but then I sensed that I should pick Nehemiah.
RECOMMENDED POST: New Life: Some Assembly Required
I quoted Nehemiah 2:18 a couple of days earlier for an Instagram post in relation to a blog post I wrote about doing the work necessary to rebuild my life after divorce.
The book of Nehemiah is the perfect compliment to rebuild. Nehemiah is “the account of the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. And Jerusalem is a symbol of the city of God, God’s dwelling place…In an individual life, then, the rebuilding of the walls would be a picture of re-establishing the strength of that life.” raystedman.org
So for 2020, I’ve got an assignment and an instruction manual. It’s time to rebuild.
What’s your focus word for 2020?
