Welcome, 2025. It’s great to meet you! ❤

Today is the first day of a brand new year, my friends, and after experiencing my busiest year to date in 2024, I’ve felt the Lord laying 2025’s word of the year on my heart for months. This year, I’m seeking stillness.

2024’s Word of the Year Journey

In an effort to remind myself that I need to continually and intentionally spend time with God during all circumstances, my word of the year for 2024 was Abide. As listed in my post from last year, abiding can involve obeying, following, observing, and respecting God no matter what is going on in our lives. My goal in choosing to abide with God more was to eradicate my toxic tendencies of allowing anxiety to control my thoughts and emotions, giving in to discontent and cynicism rather than dwelling on the goodness of God, and allowing anger and bitterness to eat away at me instead of learning to forgive as He forgives us.

So… did I learn to abide with God last year? Yes, I did. It’s the only way I got through.

When we ask God to teach us how to be more like Jesus, or how to trust or rely on Him more, He will rarely allow our lives to be all sunshine and rainbows as we learn those lessons. Instead, He will walk with us through trials to teach us that He is with us even through the worst circumstances.

Don’t get me wrong, 2024 wasn’t a bad year. It was nowhere near as aggravating as 2023 had been. Nevertheless, last year came with its fair share of challenges, one being a new health issue for my husband that has affected him daily ever since the issue arose. When negative life changes like health issues happen, our human nature often defaults to blaming God rather than going to Him for help or praising Him through the storms. I’ll be the first to admit that during the times when my husband’s health has suffered the most, I have not wanted to praise God. During his flare ups, when I would stop what I was doing and kneel on the floor, crying out to God to PLEASE heal my husband only for the issue to continue to get worse, there were times when turning to God felt like a joke. That’s bad to say, but that’s how it felt. It seemed like no one in our circle really cared or understood what was going on with him, which reinforced the lie the devil was feeding me that God doesn’t care either. Through it all, Josh has remained nothing but faithful to God, even when I was grumbling about Him ignoring our prayers and allowing him to continually deal with his health issue.

Honestly, I’ve grumbled a lot over the past year, but even after weeks upon weeks where it felt as if every prayer I muttered would forever be ignored, I still chose to pray. I still chose to listen to worship music when I was having bad anxiety or needed reassurance rather than making the situation worse by researching “answers” on the internet. I still chose to go to church and ask others to pray for us. I still chose to read God’s Word. And even though my heart wasn’t always in it, even though I still carried doubts, even though it wasn’t daily, I chose to abide with God throughout it all last year. I hope and pray I can continue to choose time with God over time with anxiety, hurt, and anger in the years to come.

2025’s Word of the Year Hopes

As mentioned in this post’s introduction, 2024 could have best been defined as busy. Being shy and a people pleaser, I have difficulty saying no to invitations and requests, and after the constant go-go-going of the past year wore me slam out and led me to resent most invitations, I’ve realized this isn’t a sustainable way to live. When busyness is affecting you to the point you dread being around people because you know they’ll ask you to go to or do one more thing, it’s time to take a step back and rest. So, as the antithesis of busyness, my word of the year for 2025 is stillness.

What Does Stillness Mean?

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

-Isaiah 40:31, ESV

Synonyms for stillness include “restfulness”, “silence”, “serenity”, and “quiet” according to Merriam-Webster’s website. The verse above offers us reassurance that God promises to renew our strength, and help us carry on and not grow weary, if we wait on Him. Part of waiting on Him involves allowing Him to dictate my schedule and not just immediately agreeing to every request. The Holy Spirit offers discernment, if we’ll just calm down and listen to Him. If I had taken the time to listen for that discernment last year, maybe I wouldn’t have been as worn out as I was.

This year of stillness does not mean I’m not going to any events or helping anyone out to avoid burnout. Instead, this year, my goal is to learn what God wants me to do and follow His lead rather than being strung here, there, and everywhere all the time. For the past few months, I’ve felt God nudging me to slow down in different areas. Over the past couple months, I’ve learned to say no when I’m overwhelmed instead of adding more to my load, and the world didn’t stop turning. Everyone survived. And now, I’m finally feeling rested.

Will this quest for stillness upset some people? Yeah, but the people who are upset by boundaries are the reason boundaries are needed in the first place.

Will saying this is a year of stillness immediately halt all invitations and requests for favors? Absolutely not. But, by taking the time to listen for God’s guidance, I’ll have better discernment in which invitations and requests to accept.

Will focusing on stillness mean no storms will come my way? Ha! At this point, I fully expect another figurative hurricane to touch down at any moment in 2025, but part of true stillness is trusting God to calm the storm.

Like with any designated word of the year, choosing stillness will not immediately switch my life from chaotic to serene, but by letting go of the reigns and allowing God to lead, I can be assured that He will lead me down the best path forward.

I pray each and every one of you have an amazing year. I’m excited to see what 2025 holds. ❤

Talk to Me, Arrowheads!

If you have a word of the year, feel free to share it in the comments! How can I pray for you this year?

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

-Allyson 😀