Five Years Later...

A quick history of my "One Word"s for the last five years and what I learned during each:

2012 - LIFE  

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." John 10:10. 

 This is the year I became a new me - a mother. This whole other person was born. This surprisingly strong woman who needs no sleep, manages to be a professional and a nurturing mommy, and brings a smile to the sweetest face on earth. My darling Annabelle had to have a middle name that went with my word for the year, so Eva was added - "Giver of life".
I'm so thankful for Patrick and how he dove into this new life with me and was the perfect partner in parenting. 2011 for the Barbee family was a year of death - not physical death, but death in so many ways. Death to shadowy secrets. Death to a perception of safety and security. So much destruction and angst. Each family member was touched. We each - in our own way - experienced death. Therefore, in 2012 - LIFE!

2013 - INTERCEDE 

"Pray about everything." I Thessalonians 5:17 

I asked, and He delivered. I asked God to give me the gift of intercession. This gift/burden changed how I responded to most things. God wants us to reach out to him, to cast our cares on him, and to be in constant conversation with our heavenly father. Over and over, friends came to me when they needed prayer. I was complemented on my prayers, which is a little weird. One of my favorite prayer requests was for my friends who were dealing with infertility. One after another, God granted them the desire of their hearts. It was beautiful!

2014 - FREE 

"Now the Lord is Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" II Corinthians 3:17 

My whole life I have been a slave to people pleasing. I care. I care too much about what people think of me, that I never ruffle any feathers, that I don't ever draw attention to myself. In 2014 God showed me how my self-deprecating, self-sacrificing methods came from the wrong motivation. My motivation should be glorifying Him, not shrinking myself. What absolute liberty I found knowing that I was not meant to be constantly fearing the people around me and what they thought.

2015 - REACH 

"Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!" I Chronicles 4:10 

When I no longer limited myself by my own abilities I found that God did way more than I could have done on my own. 2015 brought another beautiful heathy baby girl into our family. Rosalie's birth brought a new dynamic to our every day, not to mention rocking Annabelle's world. My leadership grew in 2015, as a mother, a wife, an employee of Life.Church, and (most importantly) as a Christ-follower. I'm eager to understand how God could grow me so greatly, only to remove me from a role and a place that was so perfect.

2016 - HOME 

"For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come." Hebrews 13:14 

My word this year is a reminder that this life on Earth is temporary, that my true home is heaven. Losing Dad so quickly to cancer has brought me to realize how much I need to be about my Father's business. Currently, we don't know how we will sell our house in Edmond, what our new work life is going to look like, how we will adjust to all of the changes and where we will live. But home is not a house, a town, or even a general area of the world. Home is Heaven. Here's to having an eternal perspective in 2016!