One Word

The wonderful little book Flourish, Catherine Hart Weber, has filled my night night reading for the past week and let me say, it is a very thought provoking book. The challenges in each section results in careful reading and thoughtful pauses. It is a book I heard of first on "Homeword" right before Christmas break. By the time I arrived home, I had determined to order and read it over the holidays.

She suggests, as our friend Tina has written about this past week, selecting a single word to focus on during year. This has been a challenge for me. Let's face it. I need a lot of work. Selecting one word for a year to movitate change is, well, reckless at best!

However, after spending time in thought and prayer, one word has been sifted from the debris field of possibilities:

Moderation.

Also defined as balance, calmness, restraint, steadiness, judiciousness. Yeppers. Just the word I need.

After a little research, I found Biblical instruction on moderation:

Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. – Philippians 4:5 NKJV
And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. – 1 Corinthians 9:25a NKJV
Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls. – Proverbs 25:28 NKJV
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; - Ephesians 5:18 KJV

Then, I looked to see what my two greatest literary heroes had to say about it.
When he is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance to learn something; … he learns his ignorance, is cured of the insanity of conceit; has got moderation and real skill. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


A man is rich in proportion to the things he can afford to let alone. ~ Henry David Thoreau
 
And. last, but certainly not least, I looked to see what my faith guide had to say:
 
Be rather bountiful than expensive; do good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good. ~ William Penn
 
Frugality is good, if liberality be joined with it. The first is leaving off superfluous expenses; the last bestowing them to the benefit of others that need. The first without the last begets covetousness; the last without the first begets prodigality. Both together make an excellent temper. Happy the place where that is found. ~William Penn
 
And, so, my sole goal this coming year is to be ....
 
Moderation.