Spread the love

Dec 28

By: Mark Merrill

If you’re like most people, you’ll be coming up with some new resolutions for yourself, your marriage, or your family which can be hard to keep, as I’ve blogged about before. So this year, I’m endorsing a simpler idea: Remember one word.

A friend of mine Bobb Biehl inspired me to do this. Recently, I found some notes I took during one of his talks 15 years ago. Bobb shared the importance of having a “single word focus.” It’s a great concept. Through the years, I’ve used this single word focus at work and at home.

This year at work our one word is clarity: to be clearer on strategy, roles, and responsibilities at Family First. Your word might be something you want to do (verb), something you want to be (noun), or something you want to describe yourself or the world around you (adjective).

Here are some examples for you to consider:

Picking a Verb: Something you want to do or accomplish.

  • Finish. Maybe you have a project or list of projects that you’ve put off as a couple. What would the new year look like if you focused on finishing that off?
  • Find. A marriage sometimes needs fresh discovery. Maybe your year could be focused on finding out more about your spouse than you really know or finding a new purpose or a new activity to pursue together.
  • Help. What if your focus this year was on finding new ways to help your spouse or together to help others?
  • Pray. What would your year look like if you decided to pray together on a regular basis as a couple?

 Picking a Noun: A person, place, or thing you want to be.

  • Team. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Marriage is the ultimate team sport and marriages only work well when husbands and wives remember that they’re on the same team. How much better would our world be if every marriage focused this new year on being a better team?
  • Home. Maybe you need to spend less time on the road and more time at home. Maybe you need to say no to more things outside your home and yes to more things inside your home.
  • Student. Be a student of your marriage. Perhaps you could dedicate yourself to finding new sources of inspiration and help for your marriage by reading a new book every month on relationships or going to a conference or retreat sometime in the year.

Picking an Adjective: Something descriptive of what you want to be like.

  • Compassionate. Your marriage could be strengthened by a year dedicated to exercising compassion for others together.
  • Patient. Maybe you’ve grown weary as a couple with each other or with life circumstances, and a year focused on being more patient with each other would give you a new perspective on marriage and life. If so, I can identify because of my own struggles with patience, but I’ve also made progress.
  • Funny. Maybe you need to laugh more. If the burdens of life have beaten you down as a couple, focusing your year on laughing and having fun together on a regular basis might be the refreshment you need.

Perhaps this year we can set aside a laundry list of goals and focus on a single word that might mean more in the long run. Print your word. Keep it handy in your purse, wallet, briefcase, backpack, or desk.

What will be your one word for the New Year?

 

friendship-baptist-thurs-thrive-logo

www.friendshipowasso.org