For the last few years, I have been choosing one word for the year instead of writing New Year’s Resolutions.  I have used http://getoneword.com to help figure out what my focus should be. My word of the year is ROOTED. I want my focus for 2020 to be rooted in God.

I found an old journal entry that encourages me.  “The Lord will guide you continually, watering your life when you are dry and keeping you healthy, too. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an everflowing spring.” – Isaiah 58:11.  I love the care the Lord gives.  He is a loving gardener who treasures his creation. He wants to keep me feed, flourishing, growing and healthy. I don’t want to block the flow or allow things that counteract the watering. Like putting a sponge in front of the water flow so that my roots don’t receive the precious water.

Sometimes I feel like my phone/social media etc is like a sponge.  It absorbs my time and attention.  I want to receive His flow/gifts, hear His voice so that I can water those around Me with His love.  I want to help cultivate the seedlings in my home.  I want to be filled so that I can pour into them.  Most of the day is pouring out to others so I must be intentional about pouring back in.  I can allow Him to pour into Me via centering prayer/contemplative prayer, pausing/being still throughout my day, practicing gratitude, practicing lectio divina (http://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/catholic/2000/08/how-to-practice-lectio-divina.aspx), walks in His creation, savoring/absorbing the gifts right before me.

I love to read that God wants to keep me healthy.  So my pursuits to exercise and eat better honor him and his design for me.  I love how it says I will be like a well-watered garden.  I love botanical gardens.  They do need so much water and care.  This month of slowing and quieting is a chance to allow myself to be watered and tended too.  So much of me and my time is given to others, primarily the little beings in my home. I need an intentional season of receiving and resting in Him.  Not hustling, striving, etc. It is part of the rooting process.  A newly planted tree needs a slow, constant drip so that the water can be absorbed and helping the roots to go down deep.  A quick, surface level watering will keep the roots at the surface thus making a weaker, less stable tree.  A tree that can be easily uprooted and blown over.  Swallowing watering can cause a tree to be scorched in a hot/dry season because its roots are shallow and easily dried up.  In those hot/dry times it pulls from water/reserves from long ago that nourished it.

I am totally a tree.  I am reminded of a prophetic word that I received from a stranger a few years ago.  He said that I am like a tree and that I give out life and oxygen but I will also receive junk in return from others, like trees absorb carbon dioxide.  A friend shared a really cool podcast episode all on what trees teach us about God’s love, https://www.anniefdowns.com/2019/10/22/episode-179-dr-matthew-sleeth/