6 Practical Ideas to Focus on Grace this year

Have you already chosen your word of the year? Focus for the year? You nipped that in the bud by January 2?

That’s awesome.

It’s taken me a bit longer to really ponder, Where do I need to grow the most? What do I need to focus on this year?

Eventually, I’ve settled on these two key phrases:

• Dwell in grace
• Be intentional (continuing this from 2020’s focus)

If you haven’t chosen your word or focus for the year, these ideas may get you going to help you STAY focused throughout the year. After all, you can live intentionally with passion and purpose as God’s beloved.

In this post, I’ll share the why, what, and how of my focus for this year. Let’s jump in!

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What is a word of the year? Focus for the year?

A quick synopsis of this concept can be found here.

Basically, you choose a word/focus for the year to give you a framework for how you choose to spend your time, talents, energy, and resources.

Continuing to focus on “being intentional”

I’m passionate about being intentional with my time, talents, energy, and resources – because I’m often NOT intentional.

Even though this was a big focus for 2020, I still feel that niggling need to keep it as a cornerstone for my life.

Heck, that’s a reason Coffee Chats and Yoga Mats is focused on this idea – I need help, too!

(Plus – focusing on being intentional made such a HUGE difference in making my life more satisfying even during the crazy year of 2020.)

So, perhaps this is just a lifelong anchor point for me. I dunno.

Regardless, I’m going to continue striving to focus on being intentional – living my life on purpose – for this year, too.

New focus: Dwell in grace

Perhaps you can relate to any of these tendencies?

I get really frustrated with myself when I…

• Don’t 100% always follow through with what I’ve given myself to do (either written, spoken, or just thought about).
• Get distracted by unwanted thoughts or feelings.
• Feel like I’m too much. Or too little. Often at the same time.
• At times overthink things that don’t require lots of thinking.

It’s all too easy to be offended by others’ words/actions.

• Instead of thinking, “Remember – you don’t know what’s going on in their head.” I tend to assume the worst.
• I struggle with forgiving others, in particular when they don’t acknowledge there IS something to forgive.
• I get frustrated when others don’t see things the way I do.

I forget what it means to live covered by God’s grace every single day.

• There is freedom and forgiveness for me every day.
• This should transform how I think of myself.
• This should also transform how I respond to others.

Lately, I’ve been reminded again and AGAIN how much I don’t really understand what it means to dwell in grace.

So, why not make a concerted effort this year to explore that further? To live out?

With this in mind, I’ve decided to focus on three prongs of grace:

• Dwelling in what God’s grace means for me and to me.
• Consciously seeking to offer grace to others.
• Giving myself grace.

What is grace?

Let’s take a moment to define what grace is. If you’re going to focus on this, it helps to know what that means.

For my purposes, I’m focusing on the following definitions of grace.

grace :

1a: unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification

b: a virtue coming from God

c: a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine assistance

2d: disposition to or an act or instance of kindness, courtesy, or clemency

8b: the quality or state of being considerate or thoughtful

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Planning HOW to practically focus on your word of the year. My example: dwell in grace and be intentional.

As I’ve shared before, before 2020, I wasn’t very successful at focusing on a word of the year.

A big reason was that I didn’t actually focus on that word of the year.

I came up with an inspiring word, wrote it on sticky notes, and went on with my life.

Nothing changed.

But, when I chose to be intentional and pursue peace, I actually started taking steps to BE INTENTIONAL and PURSUE PEACE. Some steps included…

• Taking a regular spiritual pause.
• Implementing Sustainable Day-To-Day Routines.
• Using the strategizing and planning trifecta: Weekly Planning, Monthly Planning and Marriage Retreats.
• Streamlining my meal planning and maintaining a food inventory
• Articulating my style recipe.
• Setting boundaries.
• Taking positive proactive action.
• and more!

With this in mind, I know I need to be more intentional with this year as well.

Here’s my current plan to focus on dwelling in grace and being intentional.

Just write it down each day

Are you a Post-It reminder lover?

I totally admire folks who can see a Post-it day after day and still clue into what it’s saying.

I’m just not that person.

Since I try to start the day with a little journaling, I’ve decided to just write INTENTIONAL GRACE at the top of the day’s entry.

This could also work with a planner.

My hope is that by writing it every day I might actually remember it.

Memorizing and dwelling in Scripture that focuses on grace

Now, the whole Bible is basically about God’s grace for His beloved children (woohoo!).

Rather than memorizing the whole Bible, I plan to focus on a verse every week that zooms in on grace according to God’s standards.

A few of the many I have in mind are below…

• Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works so that no one can boast.
• Proverbs 22:11 One who loves a pure heart and who speaks with grace will have the king for a friend.
• Luke 2:40 And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.
• John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
• John 1:16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.
• John 1:17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
• Proverbs 11:16 A gracious woman will be respected, but a ruthless woman will only get rich.
• Numbers 6:25 the Lord makes his face shine on you and be gracious to you.
• Psalm 25:16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.
• Psalm 67:1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us.
• Psalm 103:8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
• Psalm 116:5 The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion.
• Proverbs 15:26 The Lord detests the thoughts of the wicked, but gracious words are pure in his sight.
• Proverbs 16:21 The wise in heart are called discerning, and gracious words promote instruction.
• Ecclesiastes 10:12 Words from the mouth of the wise are gracious, but fools are consumed by their own lips.

Reading books throughout the year that focus on grace

I’m planning to seek out books that focus on:

• God’s grace
• Offering grace to others, including forgiveness and empathy
• Giving myself grace

So, a few books I have in mind for this year (in no particular order), include the following.

Note: Whenever possible, I prefer to make use of my local library to reduce additional reading expenses. The digital library is AMAZING!

The Bible – more specifically by doing a deep dive into one book of the Bible using the Abide method each quarter

Becoming Us: Using the Enneagram to Create a Thriving Gospel-Centered Marriage” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Becoming Us: Using the Enneagram to Create a Thriving Gospel-Centered Marriage by Beth McCord and Jeff McCord 2021 update – read it!

Beyond the Masquerade: Unveiling the Authentic You” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Beyond the Masquerade: Unveiling the Authentic You by Juli Slattery 2021 update – read it!

Rethinking Sexuality: God’s Design and Why It Matters” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Rethinking Sexuality: God’s Design and Why It Matters by Juli Slattery

Making the “Terrible” Twos Terrific! (Volume 16)” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Making the “Terrible” Twos Terrific by John Rosemond 2021 update – read it!

The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus (Case for … Series)” target=”_blank” aria-label=”The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel (opens in a new tab)” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel

Finding I AM – Bible Study Book: How Jesus Fully Satisfies the Cry of Your Heart” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Finding I Am by Lysa TerKeurst 2021 update – read it!

Forgiving What You Can’t Forget: Discover How to Move On, Make Peace with Painful Memories, and Create a Life That’s Beautiful Again by Lysa TerKeurst

Love Does by Bob Goff 2021 update – read it!

The Next Right Thing: A Simple Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions 2021 update – read it!

Hidden Potential by Wendy Pope 2021 update – read it!

Triggers: Exchanging Parents’ Angry Reactions for Gentle Biblical Responses by Amber Lia

Just some light reading…

Praying before I post or publish

Whoa – talk about a way to pause before putting something out there!

Creating content at Coffee Chat and Yoga Mats is something I feel called to do. I also feel so self-conscious every time I click PUBLISH or promote a post. (You too about your own content?)

Could this actually provide value to someone else? Or am I just being ego-centric?

So, before I put written words out there – either on a blog, social media, or email, I’m challenging myself right now to pray first with a simple prayer like this:

Jesus, please use this to honor you and shut me down if it doesn’t!

Actively focus on forgiving both the small and the big things

I can roll with the punches on many things, but when it comes to others…

I. Can’t. Seem. To. Let. It Go.

I’m sure no one else has ever had this struggle. Like ever. 😉

If you can relate, perhaps, you too have carried around some baggage that requires true forgiveness for it to be gone.

Maybe it’s time to proactively forgive.

I’m not expecting something magical to happen during 2021 because I said so.

But – I do want progress.

I don’t want to keep hanging on to something because I can’t forgive.

Choose to not take offense first

On the WHOA That’s Good Podcast,  Sadie Robertson talked about when she began her ministry. She was overwhelmed and anxious and asked Christine Cain for advice. In a nutshell, this is what she said:

You have to choose to not take offense first.

Christine Cain paraphrase from the podcast # I can’t remember

Whoa, right?

That is the mindset I want to move into.

Wrapping up ideas to focus on grace

So, now you know my big plans to focus on being intentional and dwelling in grace.

I’m not expecting perfection. I’m aiming for progress. To move forward, I need a plan. Here’s what I have in mind:

• Just write it down each day
• Memorizing and dwelling in Scripture that focuses on grace
• Reading books throughout the year that focus on grace
• Praying before I post or publish
• Actively focus on forgiving both the small and the big thing
• Choose to not take offense first

Hopefully, some of these ideas can be helpful launching points if you’re considering a word or focus for the year!

You can live intentionally with passion and purpose as God’s beloved.

It’s your turn.

Do you have a word or focus for the year? If so, what is it AND how are you going to focus on it?

Let me know in the comments!

P.S. Want some crazy simple steps to start living intentionally? Grab the Embrace Your Potential Playbook. It’ll help you zoom in on your God-gifted temperament and give you practical tips to be more intentional, passionate, and purposeful as God’s beloved so you can become the best version of yourself.