What I’ve learned in a Year of Brave 2024

I’m not sure what I expected when I chose BRAVE as my Word of the year (WOTY). I am willing to try skydiving (once?) and maybe those kinds of things are what come to mind first. But I didn’t expect that kind of bravery (choosing thrill-adventure activities) to be my bravery. I didn’t know what it meant. Now I do.

It meant facing how crappy some of my drafts really are when writing. It meant facing surgery in my nuclear family, which was then diagnosed as cancer. It meant overcoming that cancer as a family. It meant facing a surgery myself (also as a family). It meant stepping into a new consulting role for authors who advertise. It was living with two broken toilets for months on end. It was accepting the limitations of living in a third-world country and that easy fixes just aren’t available. This is a small list of the stuff that required some bravery this year. But that isn’t what I learned.

I learned that being brave means accepting what is facing me and not avoiding or putting off. I learned that accepting my own limitations is part of being brave. I learned that being brave was sharing troubles with others and that sharing meant dividing a burden and not multiplying it.

I lived out God’s trust in me (see that book coming in March!) and that he is doing all things with me, not just watching. I learned that hope in God is about knowing that right now is enough. I learned that living in today and not worrying about a tomorrow that may never come is much more manageable. And fulfilling.

Brave is about showing up for today, doing despite emotions that are contrary. It’s being with others when I didn’t think I wanted to be. Brave is knowing that God is with me in it. Whatever “it” is. I’ve changed habits, I’ve grown into a better person because of the brave that was required this year.

I don’t know what next year’s word will be. It seems like there was something forming a couple of weeks ago, but then I can’t remember it now. So maybe that wasn’t the word. I’ll let you know I the new year what God leads my way.

What is one thing you learned from your WOTY 2024? Drop a comment below.

What I needed to be brave about and what I learned in a year of living brave.
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