Final Post of 2017!

Hey y'all!

Welcome to the very last Forgiven Former Feminist post of 2017. I am so incredibly grateful for this year and the opportunity to continue serving God through writing, ministry, and our interactions!

As many of you know, I like to pick a word of the year to focus on during the everyday trials of life. At the start of each new year it is super easy to get caught up in making resolutions, plans, and goals that aren't realistic or frankly even heartfelt. So rather than a bunch of resolutions, I choose a word to focus my life around for the year.

For 2017, my word was intentional. I spent most of the 2017 year focusing on being diligent in my interactions with my husband, sons, and friends. It was a great exercise for me and I believe it made me more outgoing and braver in the topics that I addressed both on the blog and in real life. In light of attempting to be more intentional, I wanted to share what I am going to be focusing on for 2018.

The word of the year for me in 2018 is... 

I know what your thinking. What a strange word, right? Let me explain a little bit. My husband is an active duty soldier, I have two (100% all boy) sons, and we run a Christian gym ministry out of our home that focuses largely on lifting heavy objects repeatedly.

When I asked my 10 closest friends to give me their top five words to describe me I got words like: strong, capable, organized, disciplined, structured, intentional, and tough. None of those words are bad things, at all. But I feel like I have spent a great deal of time learning to be tough and not enough time learning to be what God designed me to be. God designed me to be a partner for my husband, a helpmate. He has the strong and capable thing down, so I want to focus more on being the other side of that, the part that he can't be.

In Proverbs 11:16 it says, "A kindhearted woman gains honor but ruthless men gain only wealth".  I want to be a kindhearted woman. The dictionary explains tenderness as being soft or delicate in substance, not hard or tough, and easily moved to sympathy or compassion. Those are the qualities that I want to foster in myself this next year. I want to draw closer to the Lord, allowing myself to be soft and gentle because I know that I have El Shaddai being my strength, my toughness, my fortress. So tomorrow I will share with you how I am drawing closer to God and being more tender in daily life.

See you then!