Opinion
New Year - What’s the motto with you?
Regular contributor Jane Walters has found a way of reminding herself throughout the year of the direction she believes God wants her to take in 2024.
I’m not going to start 2024 with an opinion column about New Year’s resolutions. After all, we are already a few days into January – maybe those honourable intentions have already fallen by the wayside! Instead, I’d like to focus on something that has become my habit for quite a while now: setting a motto for the year ahead.
I cannot claim the credit for the idea. At our church’s New Year’s Eve party, maybe 2014 or so, a lady told me she felt that God was giving me a silver balloon. Whenever I felt burdened or overwhelmed in the year to come, I was to reach for this balloon and God would lift me above the circumstances. That stayed with me very helpfully the full twelve months.
The following year, I sensed God whisper, ‘Don’t settle.’ It was a reminder not to become complacent or self-satisfied and, again, the motto would repeatedly come to mind – usually when I was just about to choose the safe option.
I shan’t bore you with the details of subsequent years but suffice to say that it has always proved significant. It reminded me of the what3words app, which uses unique combinations of three words to provide pinpoint-accurate location. If three words can say where we are, maybe our little motto could inform where we are going? Keeping us on track and in God’s will?
It was Eastern religions that ‘invented’ the mantra, an utterance believed to have sacred power and regularly repeated in meditation. That doesn’t sit altogether comfortably with my Christian beliefs, although the Bible does speak clearly about the power of the spoken word. If our own, limited, human speech can be important – for good or for ill – how much more is God’s word supremely powerful? After all, He brought creation into being by speaking into the darkness and chaos.
This is why I’m careful not to conjure up any old motivational phrase to keep me going but rather I like to seek out what God might be saying over me. That way, every time I call the words to mind, they become a prayer: that God would bring it to pass as He has before. Why not give it a try this year? Ask God what He is saying to you, write it somewhere prominent, and join with Him in repeating it.
Happy New Year! Let’s see where we go…
The image is courtesy of pixabay.com
Jane Walters, formerly Clamp, is the author of Too Soon, a mother’s journey through miscarriage (SPCK) and a regular contributor to Premier Radio and UCB. She is also vice-chair of the Association of Christian Writers. Jane leads creative writing retreats and is a popular speaker locally and further afield. Visit: janewyattwalters.com
The views carried here are those of the author, not of Network Norfolk, and are intended to stimulate constructive debate between website users.