Word for the Year: LOVE

Hi Everyone!! Welcome to 2026….

Is everyone buckled in and ready? Keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Please do not unbuckle until the ride has stopped completely. Here we GOOOOOO!!!

Even though, I am working slowly with my mentor group through a process of setting goals and casting vision for the year, I still feel kind of like I’m in line for a huge, long roller coaster.

And there is no getting off. No stopping in the middle. No emergency braking. Now that we have started the year, we are stuck.

Generally, I spend January just working through the goals and ideas I want to implement for the year. Of course, those shift and change as needed. Life always throws you through a loop de loop when you least expect it. Sometimes even flipping you upside down on that roller coaster.

Flipped Upside Down on the Roller Coaster of 2025

Last year, was a definite flipping upside down on the roller coaster. My husband was diagnosed with cancer. We never even saw that one coming. He is generally very healthy up until last year. And even now, is bouncing back really well. He still has 3 more chemo treatments and then, possibly, radiation. But, we are managing his treatment both medically and holistically and that seems to be helping him immensely. The doctors are so happy with his progress and have said that he should not be doing this well.

So yes, we got flipped upside down, for a bit. Our plans for the last part of the year changed. But we still stayed on the coaster and made it through.

This year, we will still be working through that process. But it will not define our year.

The funny thing about this coaster is that, yes, it takes us where it wants. Life is like that sometimes. BUT- our reactions and responses change how we experience it.

For example, the diagnosis COULD have kept us flipped upside down and going through loop de loops upside down. But we CHOSE to take back our power. We CHOSE to do things that empowered us to regain our equilibrium.

And, who knows, maybe this year will flip us upside down again for a time. We don’t know what the year will bring.

But we know God.

Back to my word for the year; LOVE.

That roller coaster analogy got me off on a tangent!!!

Anyways.. This year, my word is Love. And Love is such a perfect word for me. This is the verse God gave me to go with it:

John 13:34“I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another.

That is my job for this year. To love.

So come with me on my roller coaster ride called Love this year. I don’t know what it will look like. But I do know God is going with me. And He never fails.

Maybe you choose a word to focus on for the year. Maybe you choose one just for part of the year. I would love to hear what you do and what word you have chosen.

Buckle up, Buttercup. Its going to be an awesome ride!