I know I just posted yesterday but I realized last night (as the kids were playing scrabble and drinking their sparkling apple cider) that I love the New Year holiday! I love the hope, the newness, the looking ahead. I love decluttering and getting rid of all the extras that seem to overwhelm me in the dark of winter. We never know what the New Year will bring but hope is a good thing, isn’t it?

Over two years ago, I began noticing on several random blogs that people were writing about choosing one word for the New Year. I didn’t think much about it until a book by Debbie Macomber caught my eye. Debbie is a Christian romance writer from Washington state and she has written two non-fiction books that I have enjoyed. I do not recommend that women read any kind of romance novels because we women can grow very discontent with our lot in life as we compare what we have to the women in those books. However, I do recommend the two non-fiction books written by this author.

Debbie Macomber wrote a book called One Perfect Word in which she chronicles the influence in her life of picking one word each year.

Debbie has picked one word each year for over twenty years and doing this has changed her life. Listen here for an excerpt about the power of one word.

As I read her book I realized that, somehow, those bloggers out there had caught on to this one word thing.

I liked the idea. I like anything that helps me focus…and simplify.

The first year I chose the word WRITE. I’ll admit that I was embarrassed to say that word out loud to myself. I chose the word and began blogging that month. Two years later I have written almost 400 posts and have tripled the number of readers in my second year.

Last year I chose the word LEGACY…I guess because I needed to remind myself that even though I turned 52 last year, I still had a legacy to build and pass on to my children. I’ll be raising children for a long time yet, since I have a 7 year old and and 11 year old plus three teens at home. I needed reminding but the word was not particularly inspiring for me. Legacy? Perhaps I didn’t define it enough but I felt like it had less impact on me.

I’m still mulling over this years word. I’ll let you know when I pick it….

Here’s a funny story for you. I was in a used bookstore two weeks ago and mentioned Debbie Macombers book One Perfect Word to the bookstore owner. I explained the premise of the book and the importance of choosing a word and she quickly piped up with a smile and said, “Oh, do you want to know what my word was for last year?”

“What?” I asked

“BROWNIE!!” she said, patting her tummy. We both laughed.

So pick a word for the year and, if you are so inclined, share it with us! Just make sure you don’t pick a food word! That might be dangerous!

Here’s my last year’s post about picking one word for the year. So what is yours? By God’s grace, what will you focus on this year?

(And a thank you to Alina Joy who left a comment on this post! Now I know the source for this One Word phenomenon. Visit OneWord365.com!)