When I lost my job at the beginning of 2013 I didn’t think I’d ever feel capable again. It was a year filled with words like fear, worry, anxiety, doubt, and sadness. After years of striving, climbing the corporate ladder and doing whatever it took to earn the fancy title for my business card, to move from a cubicle to an office, God closed the door.

If I’m honest, He’d been asking me to walk away from that particular “door” for awhile and I’d been too afraid to make the move into the unknown. Striving and considering myself fully capable were much easier than dipping a toe into the waters of something new.

It was in that season of unknown that God revealed His grace and provision over my life in a way that I’d never experienced before, because my “I can do it on my own” left little room for dependence on Jesus. And He did provide. In the big ways, with friends who trusted me with their work and their time, and in little ways, with small gifts of coffee and kind words. But He was also firm with me when I asked Him if I was truly capable of doing any of this work – He said “No. But I am.”

So 2014 started and I chose the word “capable” to remind me that I’m not, but God is. It was the word that has given me the courage to start something new, fully dependent on God and His grace, because I would rather lean into Jesus than go back to a weary life of striving. And now, as we’re past the halfway point of the year, “capable” is still very much my word of the year. But it has taken on a new shape, and that word now looks more like “grace.”

• Grace for the days where I mess it all up.
• Grace for the days when I don’t have enough in me to pour out one more piece of encouragement for my family after giving it all online.
• Grace for the days I forget that I’m not the one who is capable.
• Grace for this sinner who puts herself first instead of loving her sisters.
• Grace upon grace.

And sometimes? Sometimes a word-girl like myself just needs a little reminder of the gift God has given her. The new Letterpress Blocks* {coming to the (in)courage store on DaySpring.com in September} are just the reminder I need. Hung on a wall, sitting on my desk, spelling it out in beautiful design when I forget. Grace. Because words matter, and the Word matters.

This week as we’re reading and writing about our own “Best Yes,” mine is this: Today, my “best yes” is to say no to myself and “yes” to Jesus – because He is capable.

What is your “best yes” this week? How are you living out your one word this year? Has it changed at all?

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*If you are interested in learning more about the Letterpress Blocks (as well as (in)courage’s upcoming Everlasting Light Line!) and being a part of a Product Launch team, click here!

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