oneword365 | parousia

February 21, 2012 By Mary Hess

I’m going to try and stay more focused on my OneWord365 this year than I have in the past. It seems more important to me this year than ever. So my goal is to post some sort of update every 2-3 months instead of a couple of times in the year.

Parousia

Greek for “personal presence”

It’s February 21st.

Two months into the new year – 2012.

And I have totally sucked at being present so far this year.

As a matter of fact, so far this year I have found myself so pulled in twenty different directions, that I haven’t had the energy to be present.

That sucks.

(Sorry. But it does.)

I’ve tried planners, to-do lists, schedules, etc. but nothing seems to work.

Life has just felt chaotic.

And that makes me nervous and sad.

Nervous because it probably means I need to say no to a few things.

Sad because I don’t want to.

I love every part of my life.

I love it all.

But it’s not fair to my family.

It’s not fair to my body.
(especially when I have to spend an entire day in bed because I’m past the point of exhausted. Not. Good.)

So over the next few days I’ll be re-evaluating what I have going on in my life,

seeing what I can drop, seeing what I can keep, and scheduling my time better.

I want to be present.

In everything.

When I’m at work.

When I’m at church.

When I’m with my family.

When I’m with God.

I don’t want to short-change anyone.

So, I guess He knew what He was doing when He gave me my word for this year.

Parousia | to be present

Here we go.

What others are saying 4 Comments Filed Under: matters of faith, matters of the heart, matters of writing, oneword

oneword365 | parousia

January 3, 2012 By Mary Hess

Last year I was anticipating. Anticipating from a positive perspective since my nature is to be negative. It was hard, I won’t lie. But I tried. And I eventually found myself anticipating God to show up – show up in the most dire, sad, frustrating moments of my year.

And He did.

So I wasn’t sure what to expect when I asked Him what He wanted me to focus on this year. I wish I could say there was a booming voice from Heaven telling me to be present. But yeah, umm, that didn’t happen. Instead I thought I originally heard the word “wait.”

And I surely wasn’t happy about that.

Wait?!?!

Really?!!?

GAH!!

But as I was sitting in our living room the other night, working on the computer, using my phone and playing with my Kindle Fire, ahem, I clearly heard Him say, “be present, Mary. Be present this next year – fully present.”

Parousia

Greek for “personal presence” – it’s actually a derivative of , awww heck. Here’s the definition for you:

[Greek parousi, presence, Parousia, from parousa, feminine present participle of pareinai, to be present : para-, beside; see para-¹ + einai, to be; see es- in Indo-European roots.]

When I heard Him tell me to be present, I knew that was more than “OneWord” so I looked it up and found this.

{sigh}

So this is me

admitting to you

that I’m not sure how to be present

fully present.

It doesn’t sound easy to me.

Not in this world of distractions,

busyness, work, life.

But somehow, I have to.

I have to learn to be present -

not only with I’m with them,

but even more so with Him.

So maybe you’ll join me this year? Do you have OneWord that you can focus on all year long? I’ll be posting periodically about it, talking through it, the ups, downs, successes, failures, as 2012 moves on by (at warp speed, I’m sure).

Happy New Year everyone!

What others are saying Filed Under: oneword

oneword 2011 | wrap-up

December 8, 2011 By Mary Hess

I can’t believe another year has practically come and gone. {this is me shaking my head in disbelief and picking my jaw up off the floor. seriously} When Alece asked us to choose our OneWord2011, I was stumped. I had no clue what to choose. Then I posted about the anticipation of opening up a gift from Him and it came to me

Anticipation

Little did I know that my OneWord2011 would really put me to the test this year. Because honestly, y’all, it’s been a tough year. So learning to anticipate God showing up even when it looks completely hopeless was difficult to say the least.

But I was determined to press in.

So press in I did.

Do you know how hard it is to anticipate (positively and with joy) when your house is in foreclosure, your in laws have moved in with you and your home is not your own anymore, when your outgoing is more than your incoming and when life just stinks in general?!?!

No?

Me neither.

Ahem.

So God had me all set up for learning to anticipate Him even when I couldn’t see Him in the situation. I learned to focus on His goodness, His faithfulness and His provision because let’s face it, I couldn’t make it happen on my own, ya know?

He really showed up.

How?

Our house is no longer in foreclosure.
Our house payment has been cut in half – on a fixed note.
We both have jobs now which means we’ll be able to pay off more debt and get his Mom settled in to her own place soon.

And while those are miraculous things that we could’ve never made happen on our own, He didn’t stop there.

This year I attended a School of Ministry through our local church, New Day and learned to anticipate God in a different way.

I learned to hear His voice.

Can I tell you what an excitement that was for me?!? The anticipation of meeting with Him and knowing, knowing that He would not only be there and hear me, but that He wanted to talk to me on a daily basis – be a part of my life all day long – that, THAT was incredible.

For a girl raised to believe it was all about the rule-keeping, this was a monumental breakthrough!

And completely worth all of the other crap I had to deal with all year.

Learning to anticipate – expect – believe – trust that He’s here.

He’s on His way.

He’s with me always.

He’ll always provide.

My OneWord2011 was right. on. time.

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How was yours?!?! If you had a OneWord 2011, you can link up with us at Grit and Glory. We’ve have a great community over there and we all want to celebrate with you!