Word of the Year: Ministry

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Welcome back to Authoring Arrowheads in this shiny new year of 2022! It’s great to be back after my two-week Christmas hiatus. I had an amazing first married Christmas and New Year with my husband, and not only did we get our wedding pictures back, but we got our video! While I won’t be sharing the video due to privacy reasons, I plan to share some photos from our big day soon. ❤

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming. 🙂

For the past three years, I’ve hopped on the bandwagon of choosing a Word of the Year for myself. Throughout the last three years, for whatever reason, I chose all P words: Positivity, Peace, and Purpose… but, this year, I felt a nudge from God to mix it up a bit.

2021’s Word of the Year Journey

2021’s Word of the Year was Purpose, and throughout the year, it was, honestly, the only Word of the Year I’ve ever really stuck with. God worked on my heart and mindset toward His purpose for me as a Christian author, and over the past twelve months, I’ve realized that no matter how hard I work toward/worry about making my author dreams “successful”, that only God has a say in whether or not success will ever come from the books I write.

2022’s Word of the Year Hopes

Over the past few years, I had been living what I thought was God’s purpose for my life, but had been doing so selfishly before I realigned my focus on God this time last year. Because I now have a newfound desire to write for God and make Him known in the books I write, I plan to dedicate 2022 to doing just that by shifting my mindset on authorship. From now on, I want to consider authorship as a ministry for God rather than a career for myself. Therefore, my Word of the Year for 2022 is Ministry.

What Does Ministry Mean?

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 5:14-16, KJV

Ministry means using our gifts from God, whether that be speaking, teaching, pastoring, etc., to be a light for Him in the dark world. In my case, God gave me the gift of writing. Since 2017, I’ve felt led to write books for young adults and middle schoolers that honor God without sugarcoating the realities of the world. So far, I’ve done that by releasing three books. My attitude just hasn’t been in the right place.

Instead of “being a light” for God, in years past, I’ve put more focus on “coveting the limelight” of other authors’ success. I’ve covered this in more detail in the Writing by Faith series, so I won’t rehash that again. Basically, for the longest time, I had tunnel vision on one desire: to become a full-time author, and I stressed myself out to no end trying to do it on my own. But, I’ve now realized that’s impossible. God is the Leader, and I am His Task Force.

Will I be contradicting myself throughout the year, and slip up? Probably.

Will I have moments of self-doubt and sore feelings if the books aren’t selling? I can almost bet on it.

Will I still worry about sales ranks, follower counts, and review amounts? Guaranteed, because Stats is a pesky little booger.

But, if I keep coming back to the Root of my Word of the Year, it will serve as a constant reminder that I’m doing this for God’s glory, not my own, and that all those distractions don’t matter.

The Mental Switch From Author Career –> Author Ministry

By making Ministry my Word of the Year for 2022, I pray that it will keep my focus on God as I continue writing and publishing. Hopefully, by doing so, I will begin to see writing and publishing for God as less of an “author career” for myself, but an “author ministry” for His glory.

Like I mentioned above, I’m not going to be able to have a perfect mindset switch over night. There are going to be days when I fall back into those old temptations because of Stats. Nevertheless, I’m going to prayerfully continue to write and publish books this year, doing my best to be a Light for God and less of one for myself.

Talk to Me, Arrowheads!

Do you have a Word of the Year? Share yours, and why you chose it, in the comments below!

Aim high, stay strong, and always hit your mark.

-Allyson 😀

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As an author and blogger, my goal is to teach writers that there is a way to write realistic, thought-provoking, redemptive Christian fiction that honors God while not sugarcoating the realities of the world. 

2 thoughts on “Word of the Year: Ministry”

  1. This is so good! I love this whole article. Question: What do you do to keep your word of the year constant enough in your mind that you are thinking about it, but not so constant that you ignore it? I read this and thought, “Wow, what she just said about ministry – I want to use this too.” But then I thought, “How do I think about it enough without becoming desensitized to it?” Just wondering what you do to find that balance?

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    1. Thank you so much! 😊 The planner I’m using this year (Bloom brand) has a page in the front where you can write a word of the year. In years past, when I didn’t have that, I would forget about my word lol, but by having it at the front of the planner it gives me a gentle reminder whenever I catch a glimpse of that page. 🙂 Last year’s Bloom planner didn’t have a Word of the Year section, but I just kept seeing content about living out God’s purpose for our lives, so that made it stick. I don’t really have a tried and true method lol, but I hope this helps! 😊

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