Heart Words

I realized about a year ago that I had a heart word.

A word that pops into my head whenever I am silent.
A word that appears in my prayers more than any other.
It's the word that I scribble on the edges of notebook paper when I've stopped listening in class.
It's the word I ask about, talk about, live by.

I thought my heart word was "Hope" forever. I thought for the rest of my life, I'd be sketching the word "Hope" in a giant, delicate script on chalkboards. I thought I would forever pray that I be given more hope and beg God that I may never lose the hope that I had and always return to him who is my hope.

But it changed.

The last few weeks, I've written fewer capital H's, I've had fewer prayers about my hope. I've had few conservations about what people hope for.  Instead, I've been talking about faith.

I drop the word Faith into every conversation. I talk about what it means to wait faithfully on the Lord. I ask God to give me more faith for this moment, for my future, for eternity.

Faith is the only thing I want to talk about.

I doodle around the bulletin at church. I point out to friends that what they really need is more faith and give myself the same recommendation.

Faith is my new heart word.

I don't know the significance of that change. I can't even tell you why a heart word matters. But what I can say is that I'm excited for this new wave of life. For this time when Faith is my priority. I am excited to see my faith grow as I learn to trust God more and let him guide my course knowing that it may not be a smooth trip  but it will be the right path. I'm growing up. I'm changing gears. I'm walking in faith.

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1