Words...they are powerful little diddies.
How we use them can inspire...and encourage...
They can express our innermost feelings...of love...of hate...
They have the power to heal...and to hurt...
When I was thinking/praying/contemplating my word for 2013 I kept coming back to the same word.
It's a big word...a hard word.
I tried to run from it but it kept popping up in conversations with dear friends, my spiritual director, and in the different scriptures I would read every morning. I mean it was freaking EVERYWHERE!
I figured after the twenty or thirtieth time I heard it that maybe, just maybe, God was tying to tell me something.
Maybe, just maybe I should actually you know...listen to Him.
So, now that your dying to know, here it is...my word for 2013...
humility
yep...BIG word...SCARY word...lots of layers to it.
Websters's Dictionary defines humility as follows -
"the quality or state of being humble"
humble is defined as -
: not proud or haughty : not arrogant or assertive
: reflecting, expressing, or offered in a spirit of deference or submission
a : ranking low in a hierarchy or scale : insignificant, unpretentious
The virtue of humility as follows -
"The virtue of humility may be defined: "A quality by which a person considering his own defects has a lowly opinion of himself and willingly submits himself to God and to others for God's sake." St. Bernard defines it: "A virtue by which a man knowing himself as he truly is, abases himself." These definitions coincide with that given by St. Thomas: "The virtue of humility", he says, "Consists in keeping oneself within one's own bounds, not reaching out to things above one, but submitting to one's superior" (Summa Contra Gent., bk. IV, ch. lv, tr. Rickaby)
The Catholic Dictionary definition of humility is what really got me -
"The moral virtue that keeps a person from reaching beyond himself. It is the virtue that restrains the unruly desire for personal greatness and leads people to an orderly love of themselves based on a true appreciation of their position with respect to God and their neighbors. Religious humility recognizes one's total dependence on God; moral humility recognizes one's creaturely equality with others. Yet humility is not only opposed to pride; it is also opposed to immoderate self-abjecation, which would fail to recognize God's gifts and use them according to His will.
Yep..total dependence on God. Intimidating to say the least. But when God gets my attention, I know it's never going to be an easy journey but it is a necessary one.
So, there is much to consider in this new year.
Where God is calling me to.
What He needs me to do to get there.
Let the adventure begin...yipee!
Labels: My Crazy Life