One Word 365 {renew}

I picked a verb last year too.

{I can't help it -- I tend to be a do-er}

2012 started out as a year of action: I was setting goals, stretching myself, conquering new territory, saying yes, taking strides, moving forward.

Truth is, I'm a tad bit weary.

This year's verb is a little different: I'm not going to be the one doing it.

It's something I'm going to allow Him to do in me.

{*deep breath*}

Renew.

Begin again, breathe new life into, bring up to date, continue, exhilarate, fix up, freshen, go over, mend, overhaul, reaffirm, reawaken, recondition, recreate, reestablish, refit, refresh, regenerate, rehabilitate, reinvigorate, rejuvenate, renovate, reopen, repair, replenish, restate, restock, restore, resume, resuscitate, retread, revitalize, revive, spruce, stimulate, transform.

My heart, my health, my half-full true self, took a beating last year.

It is time to begin again.

It is time to allow Him to wipe the slate clean. It is time for a fresh start.

I want to rethink, reestablish, reawaken what it means to be a wife, a mother, a friend, an inhabitant of this earth, an inhabitant of this body.

A daughter of the King.

I want to toss out the old ways, the things I thought I knew, the expectations.

I want to turn towards The One who is Alive, True, and Filled with Hope.

I want to hold on to His promise that He will make all things new.

{Even though hard is an understatement when it comes to a do-er letting go of the control, the action, the doing}

My hope, my prayer: transform. restore. revive. renew. 

Not by my strength, but by His.

My word. His word.

{button credit Melanie @ Only a Breath}

Psalm 51:10-12 (NIV) 

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from your presence

or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation

and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Psalm 51:7-12 (MSG)

Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean,

scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life.

Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,

set these once-broken bones to dancing.

Don’t look too close for blemishes,

give me a clean bill of health.

God, make a fresh start in me,

shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.

Don’t throw me out with the trash,

or fail to breathe holiness in me.

Bring me back from gray exile,

put a fresh wind in my sails!