Before I move on and share my 2017 word, I just had to share with you a few of the ways choosing this word changed me in 2016.

Early in the year, the book The Temperament God Gave your Kids was recommended to me. You would think I would know this after sixteen years of parenting, but not all kids respond the same way to the same discipline. It’s humbling to learn that they didn’t read the same parenting book you did, and they might not know that you are doing  this parenting thing “right”. (insert sarcastic laugh here.)

I’ve been working hard to learn how to discipline the different hearts in our home and as I was reading this book, after a particularly trying day, I read that I needed to stay calm with this particular child. I threw the book across the room, I was so startled. How did they know that my word of the year was calm? And how on earth did they know that my kids can push my buttons to a point where I’m no longer calm?

That was my first reminder that God chosen that word just for me.

Staying calm when we found out we were expecting again was another huge moment for me! Of course God healed me and didn’t promptly un-heal me. Why was I shocked that we were expecting a second miracle?

Calm.

Staying calm as Mary Alice decided to show me what a climber is really like. I thought Julia was a climber. Nope. I never found her on top of a bunk bed after scaling the gate at the bottom of the stairs.

Staying calm as I taught my oldest to drive.

Calm.

I can’t wait to share with you what my 2017 word is, but I just had to write down how God used this word in my life before I forgot!