Well, January is almost over and I feel like it just started.  I decided after all the starts and stops this month with not one, but two rounds of snow and a ridiculous number of snow days for my little one, I’ll just start my “New Year” in February.

And since February is right around the corner, I thought I’d share my word with you.  I’m sure you’re probably familiar with the One Word idea.  Instead of making a bunch of resolutions, which I already said I wasn’t going to do, you prayerfully seek out one word that will set the tone for your year to come.  Last year, I don’t think I actually had one particular word, but rather several phrases.  But this year, there has been one word that keeps settling into my heart.

Unbecoming.

I first saw it in a Facebook post from a page I follow:

Unbecoming just stuck in my head.  For so much of my life, I have tried to be this or be that.  Tried to make myself into somebody that I thought people would like.  Tried to fit this mold or that one.  Tried to be pleasing.  And the worst part is that with all my efforts to become this or become that, I still never felt like I fit in anywhere.

Maybe it was because I was too busy trying to be things that I’m not supposed to be.

So this year is going to be about unbecoming.  About taking off all the layers of stuff that’s just not supposed to be there.  About unbecoming the perfect wife and mother….because I’ll never be perfect.  I’m releasing myself from that.  About unbecoming the perfect Christian…because I’ll never be that either.  I’m giving myself grace there.  About unbecoming the funniest person or the thinnest person or the best writer or whatever else and give myself space to find out who I am underneath all these layers.

I’m giving myself the freedom to not have to fit anybody’s mold, but rather to allow God to shape me.  I feel like I have already been walking through a season of removing or “unbecoming” as it were…it’s just only recently I think that I’ve really begun to recognize it as season of undoing.  It has been a hard season, but I think I’m beginning to understand that God has been walking me through the process of unbecoming – before I even had a word for it.  I believe His intention has been and continues to be to clear away all the clutter and start fresh.  I’ve said for so long how much sometimes I wish I could just erase everything I knew about God and just start from scratch.  To learn Him from the beginning without all the “churchy” baggage that I’ve picked up along the way.

So that’s my word and my prayer for this year…

Lord, give me perseverance and courage to unbecome all the things that aren’t the me you would have me to be.  And in the unbecoming, I pray that all the things that keep me tangled up and tied down would all fall away and I would fall in love with you all over again.

Did you have a “One Word” for this year that you’d like to share?  I’d love to hear it!