When I was in high school, I had this incredible opportunity to take voice lessons from a professor at Florida Southern College. It was quite a drive from my house, but the circumstances behind this little miracle opportunity were such that I never considered not going. 

That miracle is a story for another day, but know that I don’t take that opportunity to have received voice lessons lightly.

During my first lesson, said voice teacher asked me which of the vowels I thought I sang best and, contrastingly, which vowel I thought was my weakest and need the most work. I didn’t put a ton of thought into my answer because I had been singing in choirs for the past couple years and I thought I already knew. So I said that “Ah” was my best vowel and “Ee” was my weakest vowel. I was sure of it. 

Then he had me sing each of the vowels on moving scales. Twice.  Maybe even three times.

And then he smiled and declared, “Ah is not your best vowel.” I was embarrassed and surprised, but he continued, “Ee is.”

I was dumbfounded. He explained that because I knew that “Ee” was a more difficult vowel, I put more effort into how I placed the vowel and because of the work I did, the vowel came out beautifully, whereas because I felt more confident in my “Ah” vowel, I wasn’t putting as much work into it and so it was not as beautiful as it could have been.

This memory has come to my mind many times through the years (OK, OK, decades) since that experience. But as I was thinking about my word for 2021, this memory came to mind more than ever. 

Because the word that kept coming to my mind is something I’ve always felt was one of my strengths and naively, I kept brushing it off, thinking, “Nah, I have plenty of that…”

But then the realization came to me: maybe it is like my “Ah” vowel. Maybe I think it is one of my strengths, but I am not putting in the work and so it isn’t what it could be. And that is when I surrendered to the word. 

My word for 2021 is FAITH. Yes, faith. And no, I am not going to force my religion upon you or tell you what to believe. But this year, as I put in more work to strengthen my personal faith, I hope to share some of the things I learn with you along the way. 

Throughout my early morning personal devotionals last year, I kept coming back to this one concept: there is strength in remembering. And so as I seek to strengthen my faith this year, one of the ways I hope to do that is by remembering. I want to remember the miracles I have already seen and experienced throughout my life. Because I believe in miracles and I know I have witnessed quite a few in my life so far. I want to remember how it felt to know my prayers were heard and I want to let that remembrance strengthen me and my faith as I move forward in my efforts this year.

The dictionary on my computer defines faith as “complete trust or confidence in someone or something.” I have to confess that I am not the most trusting of people. I don’t often believe people will follow through with what they say they will do and to avoid heartache/disappointment, I have lowered my expectations of people in general to abysmal depths. But I have to draw the line somewhere. And this year, I am hoping to draw a better line separating my lack of trust in other people and my complete trust in a perfect, loving Father. He has my best interests as His sole motives. I can—and must—put my complete trust and confidence in Him.

One of my favorite scriptures explains that faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things, but to hope for things which are not seen, which are true.

And 2020 found me feeling hopeless on more than one occasion. The division and overt racism that came to light during 2020 was soul-crushing to me. Everything was politicized. It was like people weren’t allowed to be human anymore. We were reduced to political parties. But we are far more than that. I am not a Republican or a Democrat. I am a daughter of God. I am a woman. I am a mother. I am a friend. I am so many things, but I am not a political party and neither are my neighbors–my brothers and sisters. Did I vote? Of course I did. But that is not the only thing I did last year. It didn’t even make my top ten. Don’t get me wrong: I am grateful to live in a country where I have the right to vote for my local and national representatives. I research carefully and consider it a civic duty. I also serve on our Municipal Utility District board of directors. But my responsibility as a member of the human race does not stop there. 

I’ll stop that soapbox (no guarantees that it won’t come up again in future posts. If you found that offensive, please accept my apologies as I welcome you to unsubscribe) for now. But I think you get the point: I want to invite hope into 2021. I want to hope for things which are not seen yet True (yes, the capital “T” Truth because I wholeheartedly believe Truth exists). And I am excited that I have this opportunity to focus on that hope this year. I am looking forward to learning and growing this year as I focus on FAITH.

If you have chosen a word for 2021, I’d love to hear it! Please share in the comments below or email me. I’ll be cheering you on.