Friends, I am so excited to share this post with you. I too, am a participant in choosing a WORD for the year, going on 6 years now...and this year’s WORD...oh my heart. Be still for just a moment so that I can type.
Each year, I pick a WORD in January and each year, God gives me a different WORD in December. My January WORD is always a hopeful and beautiful-sounding one full of sincere ambition and passionate yearning. The December WORD from God is always a reflection of His work in my life. It’s descriptive of what He’s done. Honestly, I always have a harder time picking the January WORD than discerning the December WORD. The December WORD is almost always CLEAR. AS. DAY.
And if I had to choose which word is more important, it’s the December word, hands down. Before jumping into the next year, I’d encourage everyone to take time to reflect at the end of a year on the previous 12 months...how they’ve grown, changed, and been refined.
But I love choosing a word in January too. We are all prone to forget, prone to go off course and prone to failure. And more importantly, we all love a fresh start. We’re drawn to second chances. As I’ve said before, a January word helps me reset, refocus, reprioritize and remember.
My word for 2019 is anticipation.
Anticipation...Hope. Expectancy. Foretaste. Trust. Awaiting. Looking forward. Expectancy. Planning. Foresight.
I love words. There’s so much depth and richness within them, and so often, we just gloss over them. I LOVE this word because it covers two completely separate ideas.
Anticipation is all about expectation.
We anticipate things by eagerly looking forward to them. We hope for things to come. Anticipation is allowing the excitement of a future event to move your heart in the present moment. It’s expectation...getting excited about an upcoming vacation, entering a worship service and expecting God to move. It’s active, ready and focused...never passive, never faint. It’s preparing your own heart and mind for an experience or event and it’s celebrating in the waiting.
I don’t know much about music, but I keep thinking about songs that have chords that are composed to point to a crescendo following in full. When there’s a break in the melody and the instruments begin to climb. The chords change slightly and the resolution follows immediately after. That’s when we all sing the loudest.
And that moment right before the roar. That’s the anticipation.
“Anticipation is nine tenth’s of delight”.
Anticipation is looking forward with a heightened awareness of what is to come and this is something that I do well. If a vacation is coming up, I’m excited for a month and I’m pretty successful at getting everyone else pumped up about it. I love filling the squares on our family calendar with events and plans. I’ve been more actively anticipating the Lord to move, and when I’m expecting it, I experience it in more fullness than ever before in my life.
Anticipation also calls you to action.
Secondly, anticipation causes you to plan ahead. It provides foresight to execute. This is the part of anticipation that I’m not as good about.
Honestly, I have a hard time planning ahead. I question my discernment and can become overwhelmed with trying to predict the future that I become paralyzed to do anything proactive. (this is an attribute of enneagram 6s, which I have a strong wing). I like to enjoy myself in the moment and sometimes planning ahead is not that enjoyable (enneagram 7). I’m a last minute packer. I’m a “it will work out” kind of person. I’m forgetful. And I’m less about the details. (more enneagram 7)
Side note: it’s really empowering to know your strengths and weaknesses and remember that you aren’t defined by them.
Second side note: I truly think enneagram is so empowering in understanding yourself. It’s brilliant and life-changing and truly so meaningful.
These “non-strengths” that are a part of my core nature are why I have been so captivated recently by implementing anticipatory routines and rhythms in my home. They’re most likely old hat to many of you, but they have been life changing for me. They are rules (not so much a fan), but they provide freedom (total fan). I’ve seen just how effective it is to put in a little bit of effort now for a greater payoff later.
Anticipation is looking at the areas of life that are hard and actively pursuing solutions to reduce the hardship. It’s proactively planning ahead. It’s looking at marriage, at parenting, at friendship, at self care, at meal planning, at homemaking, and everything else and putting thought before effort. Anticipation stands to impact every single aspect of my life.
There’s so much information out now that looks at how our generation is riddled with anxiety and depression, with strong correlations indicating social media as one of the causes. But there are other causes too. Robin Skynner considered anticipation as one of "the mature ways of dealing with real stress... You reduce the stress of some difficult challenge by anticipating what it will be like and preparing for how you are going to deal with it".
This…
Don’t gloss over that quote.
This anticipation...an attempt to reduce the tension we’re all walking in everyday...I’ve already seen it in action and it’s stunningly effective. It’s not a battle to control what we can’t or attempting to change our circumstances. It’s within our means and it’s baby steps.
So this year, 2019...I will make anticipation a lifestyle.
I will have great expectations for things to come.
I will celebrate in the waiting.
I will look for the crescendos of life and eagerly await their arrival.
I will put forethought into areas of stress.
I will continue to set boundaries, rhythms and routines to protect myself and my people
I will proactively create and maintain sanctuary in our home.