Wednesday, January 12, 2011

WiP...and My One Word

WiP (Work in Progress):
I'll start with my writing today. I've been editing the first chapter on my novel and really need to crack the whip.  Need to focus a bit more of my computer energies on that and not Google Reader. =)
Also, if you didn't read on Friday's "sprinkles", I made the first round of judging with WOW! Fall 2010 Contest. I should know within the next week or so if I made the next cut or not. They are holding another contest Winter 2011 and I'm thinking about it, but must finish my class first.





L-WiP (Life Work in Progress):
Last week I promised that I'd have myoneword picked out.  I thought it would be around faithfulness or obedience, but it turns out I went a different direction, sort of. My one word for the year is "Secure".  This word has a lot of meanings to me. To be firm in my faith. To feel safe/secure when all seems out of control. To not worry when things seem out of control because of Who my security is in.
I got this word because I was reminded last week of something God had been teaching me about security. Last fall, I was in a ladies Bible study reading Kelly Minter's book, No Other Gods.  During this time, my husband was given his contract to re-sign and we were deep in prayer and flooded with doubts and fears over what we should do. We felt God was calling him to work more with a small nonprofit organization here in Taiwan.  I felt safe in Uwe's job. The benefits that are provided are really quite unreal. Many of you know, but his job provides the following: rent-free apartment that comes with all the large appliances, round trip flights back to home country every two years, free schooling, and a paycheck. They provide more, but those are the biggies.This small nonprofit is great, but it is fairly new and funds just aren't there to compete with the principal position he currently has.  But, through this study and God's Word, I was challenged in where I placed my security.  I was challenged to put my security in Christ alone and let him provide for ALL of our needs.

So, "secure" seem like the perfect word for me this year. To remind me that Christ is my security. That He alone will provide for all that we need for this coming year. That I don't need to worry and fret about it. He's got it all covered. What I do need to do is be obedient and pray, watching to see how the whole puzzle gets put together.  When I do that, I get excited to see how next year unfolds.

And to test my security we just found out that our building will be getting a new elevator. The elevator will be out of service for about three weeks.  Did I mention we live on the seventh floor?  A friend and I have been discussing about getting our "China legs" back...we both lived there and did not have an elevator.  Guess, the kids will be getting them, too. I'm fighting this "fear" with being thankful that our building doesn't have higher floors and that we don't live on the 23rd floor or something like that. And I'm praying and waiting to see how God works with this one. Maybe Matthea will come out of the three weeks accomplishing climbing stairs and we can take that off her IEP. =)

So, did anyone else do myoneword? What did you choose? Be careful because it will get you. =)

4 comments:

Julie said...

MD- I love following what you guys are doing in homeschool! So fun and creative. :)
I'm curious how you came across myoneword- port city is a church here in town that I used to go to. I thought it was just something they did, but maybe not??
Hope you all are well!
Julie

MaDonna Maurer said...

Julie, I came across it through another blog. She posted the website and I looked it up. I had already made up my "resolutions", but liked this so much better...sort of scrapped the whole resolutions and am using my word to drive my whole life.

Do you have a word for the year? That is so cool that your church is doing it.

Jenny said...

The one word idea is intriguing; I'll have to think about it.

When we were in Manhattan for 9 days, we were on the 5th floor without an elevator, and it definitely put a bit of a damper on the trip. It got old really quickly. I vowed to never stay anywhere without elevators again. :)

MaDonna Maurer said...

Jenny, I'm really liking the one word. It is so simple and useful. Just took me a while to pick one out.

We used to live on a 5th floor with no elevator one time. But, that was almost 10 years ago...I'm not for that these days. Either the youthful side of me disappeared or something. HA!