Finding Your Theme

“What is your theme for the New Year?” My friend made the post on her Facebook page (and then followed up with a blog post about the theme answers she received). She had the idea of encouraging people to start the New Year off with a bang. I knew it was the purpose for her words, but all they did for me was cause immediate distress and discomfort.

Theme? We don’t need no stinkin’ theme. After all, I got through the last year just fine with no theme – and for that matter, very little direction, focus or consistency. It may have been survival on a wing and a prayer, but it was survival none the less.

I read her post again and responded that her words had me thinking and I would pray on them for a while. I meant I was going to invest some time praying over her words and meditate on theme. I was not offering her the traditional Southern idea of “pray about it” which translates into the idea that I will walk away and hope we both forget about it – which goes along with the Southern idea of “drop by and see us sometime” which translates into the idea that you should never just drop by . . . but I digress.

I did pray. I prayed about her words. I looked over my own journals and read my words. I reviewed my life and my walk from the previous several years. What I saw was not pretty. I had to wonder how I had made it through at all. I had plates spinning everything. I had ideas sprouting out of ideas. I had projects started, starting and continuing in all directions. It was a mess.

“Too much of anything is a bad thing.” I know this. I have talked about this. I have lived this in my home. We have thinned out the stuff from our house – partly because of the tornado but mostly because we want to make room for what is to come. We have thinned out the activities and events on our schedule. But I have managed to continue to pile up ideas like they might become extinct in the near future.

“No wonder I’m struggling. I’m all over the place – with my family, with my writing, with my life.” I wrote the words in my journal while I was pondering Dana’s challenge. Suddenly, it was all crystal clear. My theme is focus.

With focus comes direction. With focus comes consistency. With focus comes success.

Do you have a theme word for your New Year?