It's hard to believe that it's been EIGHT years since I started picking One Little Word (idea from Ali Edwards) each year. If you've read my blog for very long, then you know that I consider the word "goal" a bad 4 letter word! But, picking just one word each year to focus on works great for me. Here is my list of words from the past 8 years.
2014: LIGHT
2015: LOVE
2015: LOVE
There is no link to click on for 2015, b/c I never did a blog post at the beginning of the year like I usually do for my OLW. I wasn't quite sure if that was the word I was going to pick for the year but another one never found me so love just stuck by default. I didn't find the love of my life like I had hoped I would, but Nick did! But, 2015 was still full of lots of types of other love. And as Grandpa Jay said, "all that matter is LOVE."
For this year, I was thinking about the word WHOLE. However, one day I was reading a blog post and on the sidebar of the blog I saw a link for an article called, "Are You A Fountain Or A Drain?" I clicked on the link and as I started reading the blog post, I knew I had found my one little word (or phrase) for 2016! It just spoke to my soul. Especially this part:
" If people only knew how much more effective they could be at life if they just learned this one lesson; 'magnify the good in life, and laugh away the bad.' The question you need to ask yourself is; 'are you a fountain or a drain'? A drain sits in the dark, always trying to hide but always taking, taking, taking whereas the fountain is always springing up for all to see. Kids and adults flock to fountains almost automatically and are refreshed by its life giving qualities."
I always like for my OLW to have lots of "layers" or meanings to it. As I poured myself into learning more about this phrase I found that the person who coined the phrase "Be a fountain, not a drain," is Rex Hudler, a Major League Baseball player & TV commentator. There are real life applications as well as deep spiritual applications. I am very critical & demanding of others, and I need to bring life and light and positive energy to situations instead of draining the joy out of them.
Since I like to put a positive spin on things, I thought of how I could use "drain" in a positive way. I figured that I can "drain" negative things out of my life such as pride, jealousy, loneliness, etc. I found a quote that said, "Find your fountains and dump your drains!"
I like one of the thoughts I read which said, "In order to be a fountain you must be tapped into the source." In order to be an effective mother, friend, Young Women's president, etc. I have to be tapped into the "fountain of living waters." ~ Jeremiah 2:13. That's why I try to attend the temple as often as I can. I found this quote which I love:
"As at Jacob’s well, so today the Lord JesusChrist is the only source of living water. It will quench the thirst of thosesuffering from the drought of divine truth that so afflicts the world. Thewords of the Lord to ancient Israel spoken by the prophet Jeremiah describe thecondition of many of God’s children in our own day: “My people … have forsakenme the fountain of livingwaters, and hewed them out … broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” Toomany of our Heavenly Father’s children spend their precious lives carving outbroken cisterns of worldly gain that cannot hold the living water thatsatisfies fully their natural thirst for everlasting truth." ~Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin
I also like for my OLW to have a song to go along with it, b/c music is so powerful and it helps to remind me throughout the year what my OLW is. This year my song is "Come Thou FOUNT." The words of the song are so fitting and perfect:
Come thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it
Mount of thy redeeming love
Here I raise my Ebenezer
Hither by thy help I come
And I hope by thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above
O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above
I've already had several opportunities to use this phrase. When I feel myself getting frustrated w/ Autumn I pause and remind myself to "be a fountain, not a drain." When I'm driving and someone cuts me off I remind myself, "be a fountain, not a drain." When I feel sorry for myself, when I want to take the easy route, etc. There are so many ways to use this phrase to bless my life and the lives of others each and every single day.
I even told the Young Women that this is my OLW for the year, so they can hold me accountable and gently remind me to not be a drain if I'm acting that way. One site I read simplified it even further by saying, "Happies vs crappies." LOL! I'm excited to see where this OLW for the year takes me.
I always like for my OLW to have lots of "layers" or meanings to it. As I poured myself into learning more about this phrase I found that the person who coined the phrase "Be a fountain, not a drain," is Rex Hudler, a Major League Baseball player & TV commentator. There are real life applications as well as deep spiritual applications. I am very critical & demanding of others, and I need to bring life and light and positive energy to situations instead of draining the joy out of them.
Since I like to put a positive spin on things, I thought of how I could use "drain" in a positive way. I figured that I can "drain" negative things out of my life such as pride, jealousy, loneliness, etc. I found a quote that said, "Find your fountains and dump your drains!"
I like one of the thoughts I read which said, "In order to be a fountain you must be tapped into the source." In order to be an effective mother, friend, Young Women's president, etc. I have to be tapped into the "fountain of living waters." ~ Jeremiah 2:13. That's why I try to attend the temple as often as I can. I found this quote which I love:
I also like for my OLW to have a song to go along with it, b/c music is so powerful and it helps to remind me throughout the year what my OLW is. This year my song is "Come Thou FOUNT." The words of the song are so fitting and perfect:
Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it
Mount of thy redeeming love
Here I raise my Ebenezer
Hither by thy help I come
And I hope by thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above
O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above
I even told the Young Women that this is my OLW for the year, so they can hold me accountable and gently remind me to not be a drain if I'm acting that way. One site I read simplified it even further by saying, "Happies vs crappies." LOL! I'm excited to see where this OLW for the year takes me.
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