Your words reflect your character, your identity of what’s valuable to you
Jesus is called the eternal Word. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God” (NLT).
The words of Jesus and the essence of Jesus had no light between them.
Just as Jesus’ words show who He is, our goal should be for our words to reflect who we are. Our words should reflect our character, our identity of what’s valuable to us. We need to always be thoughtful of the words we speak.
There’s power not only in words, but also in selecting one word for the new year. Think about the power of a word like commitment – or words like:
- Action
- Belief
- Courage
- Forgiveness
- Gratitude.
Neuroscientist Andrew Newberg says, “A single word has the power to influence the expression of genes that regulate physical and emotional stress.”
Words are pictures in our minds.
Have you ever had one word spoken to you and experienced a physical reaction from it?
- Some of you have been in a doctor’s office, or you know someone in your family who received a cancer diagnosis. Just that word at the doctor’s office changes the physiology of that person. A chemical reaction flows through their body, reflecting what that word represents.
- A word like divorce, and how that could change you physiologically and emotionally, starts the flow of cortisol and other kinds of chemicals to your brain, and that affects how you respond.
- A phone call telling you someone had an accident, and you immediately respond to that word before you even hear the outcome. You don’t even know what the outcome of that word is, and yet the word itself carries such power with it.
So, my challenge for you is to pick one word for 2023.
Here are six reasons why one word is better than a lot of other words.
1.One word gets to the point.
Jesus said, “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words” (Matthew 6:7 ESV). Have you ever just prayed “God helped me?” Just like a child to a parent, you don’t have to give a whole sentence to explain the problem. One word – help – is a powerful word.
2. One word is sticky.
What I mean by that is when you come up with a word for the year, you can remember it. It’s a word that will govern your thinking and priorities for the year.
3. One word for a year takes more thought to decide on than a list of ten.
This should be an all-encompassing word that is important to you for this stage of your life. Maybe you have some words that are coming to mind, but I encourage you to really think about one overarching word for 2023.
4. One word should be actionable.
Your one word shouldn’t be just philosophical, but a word that compels you to move toward it throughout the year.
5. One word should be meaningful.
Choose a word that has meaning to you, not just as a Christian, but applies to you where you are in your life.
6. One word should be measurable.
Let your word be something you can look back on at the end of the year and say, “That was something I was able to accomplish, or it played a part in governing how I lived my life in 2023.”
In the next blog, Say Who You Are Part 2, I’ll share with you why it’s so important to have your word for the year.
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