*Delight* {My One Word 2014}

It’s been fascinating. This idea of having “one word” for the year. Seeing how it plays out over the course of the 12 months is always a bit surprising…delightfully so.


Especially this past year. My word was “Apprehend” and irony of ironies… the Lord asked me to open my hands and release so. many. things. Things that have deep roots. Like home and family and career.


We sold our home of 12 years. My nest officially emptied in August when our baby got married. And I closed my shop at the farm. Most of my ‘stuff’ is in storage {dishes, decorations, etc} as we are renting a partly furnished home.


What is wonderfully rich in this story, is that in all my letting go, I have indeed apprehended what God’s intention has been for me this year: {from Philippians 3:13-14} I press on to apprehend that for which Christ Jesus apprehended me.


Essentially, I apprehended more of Jesus. For He apprehended me for Himself. {Colossians 1:16}. In the challenges of opening my hands and releasing my earthly ties, I’ve had to tighten my grip on His hand.


And here is what I’ve apprehended: More of His friendship when I needed advice, more of His comfort when I felt lonely, more of His provision in my need for answers, for friends to help, and for surprising grace in places I knew not what to ask for, but when I got “there” I found He had gone before me… {having a place to sell my remaining inventory, providing a home to rent that required no lease when we had no idea how long we would be renting, etc}

And I feel satisfied in my deepening relationship with Him.


Last week as I pursued Him in prayer for my word this year, at first the word LIGHT stood out to me…I love, LOVE the lights of Christmas and that Christ is the LIGHT of the world, and came to LIGHT my darkness…but then this word kept showing up with LIGHT inside of it…and then I knew it then…DE{LIGHT} was the official appointed-for-me word.


First I heard Meredith Andrews singing it as I headed out in my Jeep. …”He delights in His people…”


I remembered Zephaniah 3:17 NIV …He will take great delight in you… 


The next day I landed on 2 Samuel 22:20 NIV He brought me out into a spacious place, he rescued me because he delighted in me. {I want to know more of that-His delight-His heart}

And that was a promise the Lord gave me when we lived in this very same house 13 years ago…when I was sunk low and dark in a pit of anxiety and depression, I heard that promise …that He would bring me out into a spacious place. I clung to it. I recalled it when I was weary of the battle. Frayed. Constricted. Suffocating.


And I thought of it: Here, right now, with no ties to a mortgage, and having a ‘lighter load’ without my full-time shop… I am in a spacious place with freedom to go whichever direction He is leading me. 

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Some days it is frustrating not knowing what is in my future, but I know He is testing my trust in Him and His plan for me and asking me to rest. He is uprooting worldly thinking about the worth of a soul. And inviting me to simply enjoy Him in this season. To drink deeply of the truth that He delights in me-and to grow in my joy in Him. Marveling at His glorious creation…as I have been doing more of the past several years than ever before. {I love my iPhone camera!}


Even when it is brutal-cold, a mere -14* here in the North country, the sky becomes mesmerizing when the sun breaks through the clouds. 


And I find beauty in the old and grey…

Do you have a word for 2014? I’d love if you’d share it or share a link to your post in the comments!

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Happy New Year friends! May you know in greater measure the delight the Lord has in YOU!


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