It's been a year...

It's been a year...

...a year since I launched this website.

Launching my website was something that had been on my heart in some capacity for 4 years prior. I spent countless hours, days, and months praying about exactly what that would look like.

2020, my word for that year was Brave. I prayed about how God would use that year to stretch me beyond my comfort zone. I prayed I would be brave enough to follow the nudges along the way.

A very clear nudge came November 2020 during my prayer time, to launch my website before the end of the year. Really?, I thought. That’s in, like, a month?? The answer to that question: “trust me.”

Have you ever asked God a question during your prayer time? Has He ever responded with “Trust me.” Why is it that sometimes that hardest part is trusting when we don’t have all the answers. We want to know how, why, and on what timeline. We want to see the whole picture before it takes shape. We want to have reassurance that the end result will turn out alright, before we take the first step.

Mid-December after His “trust me” answer, came a nudge to reach out to someone who had been on my mind to ask if she would be willing to help me navigate figuring out my own website. I reached out to her, not knowing if this was something she had ever done. We chatted, and it turned out she was exactly what I needed at that moment to help me get to launch.

When I prayed about my timeline for launch day, the answer I got was before the end of the year 2020. 2 weeks!! How could I possibly pull off a website launch in 2 weeks?! I won’t bore you with the details of how it all came together, but as far as I can see God’s hand was all over it, moving the pieces to make it possible.

My website launched and January 2021 came along…and my writing came to a halt as my dad was in and out of the hospital every week for the month that followed. Truthfully, I didn’t have the emotional capacity to put pen to paper (or fingers to computer).

I wondered why I was finding myself in a season of pause. Have you ever felt that way…like you’ve been called to do something, but then you feel a pause…God asking you to wait? It’s not the first time I’ve found myself in a season of waiting. I used to hate it. It made me antsy, frustrated, and itching to take my own action. Now, after experiencing a few of them, I KNOW when I feel the WAIT that God must be up to something.

I can’t say I know exactly what He has been up to, maybe it will make sense soon. What I do know is that the pause allowed my schedule to be mostly clear in the month of March. I traveled up to Illinois to be with my dad as he entered hospice at home and I helped care for him in his last 10 days here on Earth. I’ll share more about the journey that has transpired in the 9 months that have followed later. Now, I know the pause from writing allowed me to be present with all the feelings of the past year. I allowed myself to experience the ebb and flow of allllllllll of the emotions, waiting until the time was right to share more.

My word for 2021 was SERVE. If you read my post last year about choosing a word every year, you know that somehow God ALWAYS surprises me by taking my word to levels I didn’t anticipate. I had no idea I would be called to serve my guts out in so many ways this year. I could have never anticipated that serving beyond what was comfortable for me, would lead to the biggest personal growth I have ever experienced in one year.

So, what’s my word for 2022? After praying about it, a singular word usually rings out clear as a bell. This year…SHARE. I know better than to even think about what shape that will take this year…because I’ve come to know God always has something bigger planned.

I hope you’ll stick around for the journey as I share more this year.