I am a lover of traditions. I love anticipating their arrival and the rhythm they bring to each new season of life. But traditions don’t just inherently exist, they must be created and lived out. So, as I have been building a life of my own the past few years, it has both terrified me and excited me that I am now the one responsible for carrying on traditions and building new ones.

A tradition of my own I’ve followed for the past few years has been choosing a “word for my year” – one year it was brave, the next year obedience, and last year presence. This year I chose JOY.

If there really is an enemy of our souls, and being a person of faith, I believe there is, then wouldn’t it be like him to want to do this? To use jealousy to keep us stuck in comparison rather than going out and doing the thing God has called us and created us to do? Wouldn’t it be like the enemy to turn jealousy into a shame cycle, keeping us stuck?

On my 24th birthday I woke up early, seaside in a tent, with the most beautiful view of the ocean only feet from where I had just slept. I laid in silence reminiscing on my last birthday and the deep disappointment I had felt and wanted to make this year different. I jotted down some things on my phone that I hoped to take into my year with me. Things I hoped would become truth in my life. I honestly didn’t think much about the list again until a couple months later, when life got hard. I wondered what I had written down when my life had felt more consumed with joy than sadness, and if there was anything for me to take away from it. The list ended up becoming a road to healing.