Stopping to Think: New Year: New One Word

Happy New Year

Another year has flown by! IT’s time to stop and think about the past year. Ours was full of ups and downs. I was intentional about publishing a book. And while I didn’t get my devotional book completed I did publish a children’s picture book, Holly the Holstein Talks about Milk Cows. This was a “practice run” for self-publishing but it turned out to sell quite a few without much effort. At the end of the year, I published a companion coloring book, A, B, Cs Down on the Farm. It was all very exciting.

As you think about the new year, let me suggest a few Bible reading plans that you may enjoy.

Daily Bible Reading

Michael and I have been joining Chuck Swindoll’s worship at Stonebriar Community Church this year. He has been in the minor prophets and I will have a few things to share from his sermons. In particular, we were impressed by his challenge to read the Scriptures every day for 24 minutes. That is a minute for every hour. Perhaps you might join the #24forLife challenge too. Find a reading plan to read through the Bible in a year. I’m going to read chronologically but with something from the Old Testament and the New Testament each day. Since I’ll be doing the Saturdays for Selah, I am choosing a 5-day reading plan which has a companion for explanation available for a small fee.

New ONEWORD365

As I thought about what God may want me to focus on in 2023, I kept thinking of several of my previous WORD 365 themes. I stumbled on a reading plan to study all the scriptures in Psalms with Selah in them.

Selah interprets as “Stop and think about that”. It is sometimes thought to be an interlude in the music which still in my mind says to stop and think about it. So my WORD 365 will be “Selah!” I’ll be going back and looking at old journals, old ONEWORD365s, and ideas that I had that possibly got left behind.

I’ll be doing a Selah study every Saturday. You can come along if you like. Just download this file or if you like I will send you a reminder every Saturday morning with a link to my thoughts on the particular verse. You can also consider previous years’ reading plans that I have written.

Mandy’s Writing for Publishing

I have created an e-list for those who are interested in knowing the latest about my book ventures. A children’s book about a family whose Mommy has fibromyalgia is already in the works. It’s called Soft Hugs for Mommy. I am very excited about this one. And you may hear from Holly the Holstein again.

A devotional book for Chronic Pain Warriors is still in the works. You may sign-up to keep abreast of my all writing ventures about once a month here:

My Health Notes

I still plan to write about my journey with pain and let others occasionally write as well. I just started severe osteoporosis treatment and may face some joint replacements. Your participation will be helpful. Coming in January are a post about my Osteoporosis Treatments & two special guest posts :

  1. Fibromyalgia and Your Diet by Dayna Ault
  2. Chronic Pain Devotional by Angie Clayton

So What Are Your Plans in 2023? Selected a ONEWORD yet?

I always seem to have lofty goals. I may have to whittle this down some yet. Have you selected YOUR ONE WORD? Share it in the comments. I would love to hear about your plans.

If you would like to guest post at Mandy and Michele, remember to click on the buttons in the above paragraph.

Stopping to Think;

Mandy

Have you checked out my books yet?

About Mandy Farmer

Pastor's Wife (retired) &  Chronic Pain Warrior blogs about how to make it through anything by relating her own life experiences to her writing. She is passionate about her love for the Lord and desires to spread that passion to others. She has a great desire to encourage women who are following behind her.

View all posts by Mandy Farmer

4 Comments on “Stopping to Think: New Year: New One Word”

  1. I like your choice of “Selah”. I have been thinking about the word, joy. I am often concerned about the challenges of our time. Yet, I am thankful for the steadfast love of God. I need live in joy and thanksgiving.

  2. Hi Mandy! Your word is really cool, I hadn’t heard of anyone choosing the word “Selah” as their word of the year before. Beautiful word and I LOVE how you will be reading the Psalms that contain Selah in them. It took me a while to figure out what my word was this year but it is “Rooted”, actually “Deeply Rooted” in Christ. I want to go much deeper this year … 🙏💕

  3. Thank you and your word is just as awesome.
    I had a hard time selecting mine this year too. I thought about reviewing several past words, one a month. THen I found this 52 week study on Selah. I thought that “Think About it” is much like looking at what we have learned so that is how I came up with it.

    God bless you as your grow deeply rooted in Him.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.