The word I’m choosing for this year is Surrender. It’s similar to my word for last year: Peace. And the 9-month update I wrote about my word for last year is extremely relevant for this year’s word too.
Surrender was inspired by this quote that I saw on Instagram:
“God can do far more with your surrender than you can do with your control.”
We are discussing some big changes to our kids’ schooling and family life, and as much as I want to figure out a plan right now, or cling to the things that are familiar, I need to be reminded to surrender all things to God.
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).
I am also dealing with some behavioral issues with my kids — sibling fighting and bad attitudes. Surrender also reminds me that all situations and circumstances are from God. I think of this quote from “He Leadeth Me” by Fr. Walter J. Ciszek, S.J.:
His will for us [is] the twenty-four hours of each day: the people, the places, the circumstances he [has] set before us in that time. … We [have] to learn to look at our daily lives, at everything that [crosses] our path each day, with the eyes of God; learning to see His estimate of things, places, and above all people, recognizing that He [has] a goal and a purpose in bringing us into contact with these things and these people, and striving always to do that will — His will — every hour of every day in the situations in which He [has] placed us.
So when the kids wake up and are fighting within 5 minutes, or someone throws a fit over their math assignment, or no one wants to go outside, or my living room is taken over by a fort again, I will seek to surrender, and accept my specific circumstances as God’s will for me in that moment. And if that means our school day doesn’t get finished, or I have to break up sibling squabbles yet again, or bedtime takes longer, then I will seek to trust God, instead of seizing control to make happen what I think should happen.
Life, Really Blog 