It’s Mama… January 3, 2025
Word for the year – THRIVE
By definition, THRIVE means “growing well or vigorously”
Madison, as promised, once I got back on my feet from my 2023-2024 breast cancer journey, I would restart journaling my blog to you and your brothers.
As you know, any good garden starts with a dream then moves to a plan, executing the plan, working the plan, and maintaining the plan. I know of no shortcut to this process, whether it is a personal goal or backyard cutting flower bed.
Same can be said for life….which requires all of the above and even more.
As we enter 2025,I reflect on my long-standing objective to guide our family when you children were at home with a guiding word, verse, and theme.
This year, my word is “Thrive” and I confess that I didn’t particularly love the word THRIVE. It seems prosaic (lacking poetic beauty) and boring. “Thriving in 2025” didn’t ring with the purpose or loveliness that past words have; however, Thrive it is because I have learned to go with what God gives me. This year, God sent me the word Thrive.
Some light research into scripture gave me this verse:
planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.
Psalm 92:13 (NIV)
So, this 2025, it is my hope and prayer to lean heavily into thriving – as a daughter of God, a wife to Ian, a mother to you and your siblings, a Granna to my grandchildren, a friend to my friends, a therapist to my clients, a daughter to my parents, a sibling to my siblings, an aunt to my nieces/nephews and so on….
But ultimately, I seek to thrive in the journey that God has planned for me during this season of my life…and I encourage you to do so as well.
Research shows us that we need many things to become “Thrivers” and so, I thought I would spend the next few weeks sharing these qualities beneficial to our ability to thrive!
- Positive perspective
- Strong faith- connectivity
- Proactive personality
- Motivation
- Knowledge and learning
- Psychological Resilience
- Social Competence
What I know about thriving is that often before the thriving arrives a brokenness occurs. So, do not be surprised if your journey to thriving in your own life has at its root a season of brokenness and do not be afraid…
In fact, ask God to do whatever it takes to draw you close to Him, to rely on Him, to seek Him in your life and even to “take you to the bottom of yourself” as that is when you will get to the beginning of God.
Run to God in faith and bravery – and trust that He has a purpose for your life! Do not let the “things of this world” get in your way of that purpose…
You will not walk alone
I will walk with you….thanks to the goodness of God
As I always have and always will…
And, like any Master Gardner, He will give you all the tools you need – rich soil, weather ready tools, a mission, a plan, just the right weather to make you hardy and whole, His word to feed your mind and body and spirit, the sunshine to supply nurturing light and yes, bountiful blessings for the work that you have done…
Seek the Thriving that is holy and can only come from God who loves you even more that I do…
I cannot wait to see the harvest soon to come…
ILYAOYMC,
Mama
