Beginnings - My One Word

This week I am on assignment to put together the next Family Home Evening lesson. One would think this would be a simple task. Lately, I'm so jumbled up that even that seems complicated. Pathetic, I know.

So after a morning of playing with the kids I carved out some time to try to commit to a lesson topic while they worked together building a duplo zoo.

I prayed. I sifted through my scriptures. I sifted through Preach My Gospel then on to our Family Home Evening books and then on to a few online resources that have come in handy quite often. And I still came up empty handed. There were certainly a ton of great ideas, but nothing that resonated with me. Nothing seemed to fit.

So I told myself I was just being silly. I needed to just pick a lesson. Commit. And move on. After all, they were all good lessons. Who cared if it "fit" or not? Maybe it just didn't need to.

Then Atticus came in to show me something he had been working on. After I checked out his handy work he turned to me and asked "And what are you working on, Mommy?". And I said that I was trying to find a family home evening lesson that felt right for our family. He said "okay" and he walked away.

I thought that was Atticus' way of ending our little dialogue until he came back a few moments later with the kids' latest Friend magazine (a children's magazine published by our church) in hand with a page already open and said, "I found this yesterday and thought it would make a good lesson and activity, perhaps you think so to?". As I read the title of the article that he had opened up to it sunk into my heart and I knew that it was the lesson that I was looking for. I thanked Atticus for his help and for sharing his prompting with me and he headed back to playing with a big smile on his face.

Now, I don't know if the lesson I ended up picking was the right one because our family really needs to learn this lesson. Or if it was a chance for Atticus to learn about following promptings. Or even if it was just a chance for Atticus to help. But I do know that it felt right and I needed to follow through on it and move forward in faith that the other pieces would fall into place.

So what does all this have to do with my one word for the year? Quite simply - everything. Trying to come up with my one word went through a rather similar process. I came up with so many great, inspiring words but none of them resonated with me. Not a single one inspired me or gave me that bit of grounding and application that I felt I needed in my one word this year.

Then, one morning as I was doing yoga (my first session after a couple weeks of being quite sick) and the word came to me - Beginnings. It seemed like such an odd word but for some unexplainable reason it fit. It resonated. It put a little spark and grounding in my heart and I knew that I needed to pick it as my one word, even if I don't understand the reasons behind it.

So perhaps it will have an extra special meaning this year. Perhaps it will just be a gentle little guide as the year progresses. Whatever it is. I'm glad it fits. I'm glad it feels right.

So here is to a new year filled with beautiful 'Beginnings'. Whatever that may entail.