“Your words have power. Speak words that are kind, loving, positive, uplifting, encouraging, and life-giving.” -Unknown
Have you ever heard of the One Word Challenge? Several years ago, pre-pandemic years, picking one word for your year was all the rage. I’m sure it’s still out there floating around for some, but I haven’t heard as much about it as I did when the idea was newer. What some suggested you do, instead of listing several New Year’s resolutions or even one New Year’s resolution was to pick a word that you could make a focal point for your year.
I did a post about this back in 2019. One Word Resolutions. In that post I considered a number of words to resolve to remember in the year to come. I ended up thinking the word listen might be a good word for the year. I have to admit I don’t remember if I listened better in 2019 or not. I’d like to think so, but sometimes we forget to remember the goals we set.
Why revisit the idea, you’re probably thinking, if it isn’t going to stick? I can hope that it did stick for a little while and perhaps stayed with me even after I no longer remembered to remind myself to listen.
But one missed goal doesn’t mean you can never take another shot. My love of basketball is coming into play there. 
Besides, I like words. You might even say I love words. I like word games. I like spreading words across a monitor screen to try to tell a story. I like hunting for the right words and slashing out the wrong words when I’m writing. I like speaking words. I like listening to words.
You know, I’m beginning to wonder if my one word should be word. No, I think I can come up with a better word. So what? Some that would surely work are joy and love and hope, but if I’m going to take this one word challenge again, I want to come up with a word that does just that. Challenges. Not that joy and love and hope can’t present challenges in a person’s every day life.
Hmm. I just scribbled some words down in my notebook without taking time to think too much about the words that popped into my head. The first to come to mind was trust. Then experience followed on its heels. Strangely enough, survive was my next word. I think I’m remembering 2020. Improve would certainly be something that I could do. Then I took a deep breath and thought relax.
Next I looked at the word art I posted up top. Lots of great words in it. Seek. Persevere. A writer needs both of them. I need to seek ideas for the new story I’m writing and I need to persevere to go from that opening sentence to the end. I love opening sentences. Maybe I’ll share the opening sentence for my upcoming book on my next post. Or the first sentence for the book I’m writing now. That one could very well change.
Back to my one word challenge. Maybe I should pick focus so I wouldn’t be chasing down rabbit trails. Another word in the mix of words in the picture is wonder. I like that one. Perhaps I should concentrate on the wonder of life, the wonder of story, the wonder of friendship, the wonder of God’s love, the wonder of nature. So tonight I choose wonder. It may not stick, and who says we have to have only one word for a year. Why not one word a week or maybe even a day according to our circumstances? I guess I can wonder about that, can’t I?
Have you ever taken the One Word Challenge and chosen one word to focus on to make your life better? If so, are you willing to share your word? What word catches your interest and inspires you for 2023?