When we were planning for 2016, we kept coming back to the practice of meditation, of focus. In the past, a few of us have chosen words for the year—one word we choose to focus on and aim toward for the duration of the year. We like that practice. It gives us something to strive for and to chew on throughout the year.
In our planning meeting, our focus kept shifting back to this practice and to prayer. We want 2016 to be a year where we as women pray and meditate on God’s Word. We want to strive to be women who radiate God’s love to others and focus on His promises and character.
We ended up coming up with one word each month. These words are both goals and prayers. They are characteristics we want to exhibit and prayers we want to meditate on. We want you to join us in praying for these things each month. We’d love to see your posts on Instagram and Twitter using the hashtag #PrayersFor2016. Show us how God is working to bring these words into focus for you this year.
The first word of the year, for January, is purpose. We chose purpose because we are setting out a plan for 2016. We want this year to be purposeful. We want to live with purpose—to make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20). We know that will look different for each of us. Some of us will live purposefully as moms, some as editors, some as daughters, some as students, some as all of the above.
It’s easy in January to be gung-ho about purpose. We set goals and we make resolutions and we march forth in weight loss and Bible reading plans. But we also know that sometime around January 20, life can begin to feel a little aimless. We hope this year does not feel aimless. We hope this year, the whole year, feels purposeful.
We love Colossians 3:23 when we think of purpose:
Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord and not for men.
That is our purpose. To do whatever it is we do—engineer, clean spaghetti stains off of high chairs, run marathons—as if we’re doing it for the Lord. God wants us to live lives of purpose and to glorify Him in all our actions. Our prayer this January is that we will all find ways to do just that.
We have some art freebies (including a printable 2016 calendar with all the words for the year—link at the bottom) for you that are so fun and will help you to memorize Scripture and remember the goal for the month. Right click (or press and hold on your phone—sometimes it takes a couple of tries) to download these images to print, to use on social media, or as wallpaper for your devices. Enjoy!
Computer Wallpaper (1280 x 1024)
Computer Wallpaper (1920 x 1080)
Facebook Cover Art
Instagram/Square Art
Phone Wallpaper
And here is a printable calendar for the whole year! Click to download. (Click that link. We promise you want this calendar in your life. And don’t you want to see what we have planned for the rest of the year?!)
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