On a recent walk, it came to my heart to name three words that I love… words that I lean on, words that I use nearly every day. The first word that surfaced was the word ‘savor’. When reviewing the dictionary definition, I was excited to read this: ‘to delight in, to enjoy slowly in order to appreciate it fully.’ Yes! This is why I love this word. I love to savor beauty and time with people and quiet time with God. To savor is to be present, fully. To savor is to take time and allow the pressures of ‘hurry up’ to rest. To savor is to discover the gifts right before our very eyes.
The next word that surfaced was the word ‘lovely.’ Isn’t it lovely? It’s such a precious word, so full of joy and ease, thanksgiving and attention. This definition includes: enjoyable and pleasant, kind and exquisitely beautiful. Wow! Don’t you love that? I mean, I say all the time to folks, “I wish you a lovely day!” And so I am actually wishing you exquisite beauty and pleasant kindness. Yay! That just feels so good!!
And the third word to bless me was trust. Trusting doesn’t happen for me as easily as savoring and honoring what is lovely. Trust is something I practice… daily and moment by moment. Trust interrupts feelings of fear and those things that hold me back. Trust encourages patience and hope and reminds us to keep loving. Trust is what I lean heavily on for myself and for those I love and pray for in the most difficult of times. I often say, “I will trust with you that God is present and at work in this circumstance.” The definitions include: to have a firm belief in the truth, reliability, ability or strength of something or someone, and to have confidence in. I trust that the Creator of all that I savor and all that is lovely, is loving and kindhearted, and this same Creator trusts every day that we will learn how to trust in this love. I believe that we are called to trust in “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:8).
We are standing at the edge of a New Year, and we’re all going somewhere. We are not called to go back, to live in the past or to mourn without hope our mistakes, our losses, or our wounds. We are not called to jump so far ahead that we also grieve what is not yet time to be. We are called to arrive here… to this moment, to this new day, this new chance to be fully alive and fully loving. We are called to know ourselves and love ourselves, so that we may better know and love others. I believe, as we peer into the New Year, that God is yearning for us to be happy, to be whole, to be pure vessels of what has always been intended for us… that we see what is lovely, that we savor our blessings, and we trust that God is with us and we are loved and held on the journey’s paths.
May the words that call to you at the edge of this New Year, enable you to love, to savor, and to trust the bountiful life God has created for you… wherever you are and wherever you may go.
The next word that surfaced was the word ‘lovely.’ Isn’t it lovely? It’s such a precious word, so full of joy and ease, thanksgiving and attention. This definition includes: enjoyable and pleasant, kind and exquisitely beautiful. Wow! Don’t you love that? I mean, I say all the time to folks, “I wish you a lovely day!” And so I am actually wishing you exquisite beauty and pleasant kindness. Yay! That just feels so good!!
And the third word to bless me was trust. Trusting doesn’t happen for me as easily as savoring and honoring what is lovely. Trust is something I practice… daily and moment by moment. Trust interrupts feelings of fear and those things that hold me back. Trust encourages patience and hope and reminds us to keep loving. Trust is what I lean heavily on for myself and for those I love and pray for in the most difficult of times. I often say, “I will trust with you that God is present and at work in this circumstance.” The definitions include: to have a firm belief in the truth, reliability, ability or strength of something or someone, and to have confidence in. I trust that the Creator of all that I savor and all that is lovely, is loving and kindhearted, and this same Creator trusts every day that we will learn how to trust in this love. I believe that we are called to trust in “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:8).
We are standing at the edge of a New Year, and we’re all going somewhere. We are not called to go back, to live in the past or to mourn without hope our mistakes, our losses, or our wounds. We are not called to jump so far ahead that we also grieve what is not yet time to be. We are called to arrive here… to this moment, to this new day, this new chance to be fully alive and fully loving. We are called to know ourselves and love ourselves, so that we may better know and love others. I believe, as we peer into the New Year, that God is yearning for us to be happy, to be whole, to be pure vessels of what has always been intended for us… that we see what is lovely, that we savor our blessings, and we trust that God is with us and we are loved and held on the journey’s paths.
May the words that call to you at the edge of this New Year, enable you to love, to savor, and to trust the bountiful life God has created for you… wherever you are and wherever you may go.
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