Just One Word

I stink at New Year's Resolutions.  I don't make them anymore.  In fact, it would be more accurate to say that I make daily resolutions...to be more patient, to be kinder, to clean my closet, to quit Diet Coke.  Some days are better than others.  And, truthfully, some days are epic failures.  This is the beauty of the "New Day Resolution".  You get to start over tomorrow. 

As 2012 dawned and all the New Year Resolution talk started, I heard of a movement where one chooses one word as a guiding word for the year.  The theory is that focusing on this one word will help to create it.  And it's only one word.  It's not a giant list all bullet pointed and alphabetized and pulled tight like a mousetrap waiting for that one misstep.  It's only one word.  How hard could that be?  As I pondered this, I found it very easy to select my word....that thing that I want more of in my life--the thing that I intend to focus energy and prayer and actions to create.

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Psalms 34:14 reads, "Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it."  More truth, I'm not off to a rousing start.  It's day 8 of the new year and there have already been innumerable times that I could have done something differently, said something differently, or opted not to say anything that would have steered this lifeboat I'm rowing toward more peaceful waters.  It's a process.  I'm working on it.  And, one way or the other, I mean to have it.

Copyright LeissnerArt 2012

Clearly this has been on my mind for a while.  I was contemplating doing an art piece for my word when I realized that I have already done THREE paintings whose subject was "Peace" in the last year.  I guess I have been trying to clue myself in.

Copyright LeissnerArt 2011

The word "peace" occurs 429 times in the King James Version of the Holy Bible. Interestingly, "love" occurs 311 times.  Since, "the greatest of these is love", I'm drawing an uneducated assumption that "peace" is right up there.  Although Solomon was talking about wisdom and understanding, Proverbs 3:17 could (should?) also apply to me.  "Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace."





LeissnerArt 2011

Eleanor Roosevelt said, "It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. It isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it. "

That's what I intend to do.

  Beautiful artwork by Melody Ross at Brave Girls Club

And so, my prayer for you is the same as my prayer for myself.  I pray that the peace of God that passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus in 2012.

<3 Lori

This post is part of a blog hop that I'm participating in with my Fly Tribe friends from Flying Lessons.  Please head over to our new joint blog to check out other One Word posts by some lovely gals by clicking HERE.