Being Young and In Love (Words of the Year 2020)

Welcome (back) to my blog dear reader! I hope you enjoy your stay! 😄

Last week I talked about the two saints I chose (or did they choose me?) for this year. This week I am going to be talking about my words of the year. The word generator/Word of the Year trend has been around for a while now and there are plenty to choose from online. Some people pick a word they want to focus on during their year like “grateful” or “persevere” or any number of words. I chose to use the word generator. Like the saint generator, Jen Fulwiler made the one I used. I have linked it here. Also, like the saint’s site, I could not choose just one.

Word number one is youth. Like most things I write I wanted to define my terms so I know what I mean and you know what I mean, dear reader. So the definition I will be using for youth is: “The time of life when one is young.” Thanks, dictionary.com! 😄

How the word youth help me this year? I think there are a couple of different ways I can use it. The first thing that popped into my head was The Little Way practiced by Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. She was only a few years younger than me when she died but she still embraced the faith and trust characteristics of a child to explain how someone can approach God, Since she is one of my patron saints I feel a connection to this method but have not yet put it into practice for an extended period of time. This year I want to incorporate it more seriously into my life. (I might do a whole post on this.) Secondly, the viewpoint of a child looking at the world is usually filled with wonder and curiosity. We lose a lot of that as adults, but how much more would our faith in God grow if we looked at each day as a new chance for awe and learning?

Third, and this is mostly because I struggle with pride, I want to learn more, especially from places I would not expect. And with that learning, I want to work on my willingness to be wrong. As a teacher, I have made a career out of knowing a lot of information. That is also gotten me into some trouble in my life when my stubborn head will not listen to what someone has to say. I might be pretty smart but I'm not perfect. I have to accept when I am wrong and apologize if necessary.

Fourth and finally, I will never be this young again. In almost exactly three months I'll be 27. 😲 I have a chance at this point in my life to do things I never have done before now. Memento Mori, the expression meaning Remember Your Death, comes to mind. I can take advantage of opportunities and risks I would not take if I was a wife and mother. For example, if a job opens up out of town I would be able to move and I would not be uprooting an entire family. I will never be this young again so it is time to take advantage of the time I have been given.

The second word I was given was, adore. I love this word and I'm so glad I get to use it to help with my year. The definition of adore I will be referencing is: To love and respect someone deeply; worship, venerate.” Multiple opportunities to develop or use this word in my life came to mind as I was brainstorming this post. First of all, you may recall, dear reader from my resolutions post a couple of weeks ago that I'm spending time in adoration every week. Tomorrow will be the fourth time so far this year!

As a brief side note, I wanted to explain what adoration is if you did not know. The consecrated Host, which is the bread from communion, transformed by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Jesus, is placed in a monstrance, There is a picture of a monstrance with a Host in it to the left. The monstrance is then placed on the altar. The people are invited to pray in silence and adore Jesus in The Blessed Sacrament. (squeals) Oh, it's the best thing ever as far as a way to have prayer time goes. I love going every week.

So, with this time in weekly adoration I am making time to worship Jesus and show Him how much I love Him. From the hours I have spent in prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament, I have begun to see how important it is to bring that love of Jesus into my everyday life which brings me to the second way I want to use this word.

Especially with my morning prayer time I want to take time every day to fall more and more in love with Jesus. He is the Perfect Lover of my soul and I will try the rest of my life to show Him how much He means to me.

That love I have found in Jesus is meant to be shared and sharing it is a third way I can adore Christ. What better way to worship Him than my loving my family and friends, even perfect strangers with the love Jesus has shown to me? It will be a challenge to do it all the time, but 2020 is the year of accepting challenges.

In fact I might take that challenge a step farther. I want to build respect and connections with the people I encounter. They could even be people with whom I disagree. People with whom I disagree are those who I have the most trouble showing love towards, so I definitely need to work on that. I want to move towards having more civil and constructive conversations more often. I think this word will help me remember that as I go through the year.

Even though these words and how I want to apply them are not super profound or extravagant, I am very happy with the ones the generator gave me. I hope you give it a shot, dear reader. It could just be a fun activity or it could give you ideas to explore for the rest of the year. Whether just for a single moment or dozens of moments throughout the year, finding time for yourself to learn and grow is definitely some beauty in the crazy. ☀️💙