I don’t always do a “Word of the Year,” but I often give some thought about where I want to go for the year and where I should focus.

Last year, we embraced the concept of “Impact” (the first line of that post says, “2020 is going to be different.” HA!) and I tried to do anything and everything through that lens, both personally, and when looking at A Frank Voice as a whole.

As I thought about what I might want to focus on this year, one word kept coming to mind. I was mulling it over in the car, when Hailee, my wife, asks something like, “Are we going to have a word of the year for the family?”

I responded, “I don’t know. I’ve been kind of chewing on the word, ‘Growth’ for me.”

She stared at me, eyes wide in shock. “That’s the word I was actually thinking about, too!”

So I guess we’re doing this growth thing.

Balance

I’ve learned some important things about myself over the last few months. A healthy life is a lot about finding a healthy balance. Balance between work and rest, entertainment and productivity, Canes and Chick-Fil-A, you know, balance.

One thing that I’d really started feeling toward the end of the year—and this is me being super vulnerable here—is that I’d gone too far in commercializing my faith. That’s the best way I can describe it.

Last year, our focus was all about impact: making everything we do matter. And that’s good, we want to live intentionally and with purpose. We’re placed in this life to make an impact for God’s kingdom. But the well I found myself in is that I was viewing everything I did through the lens of, “How can this concept be taught? How can I write a blog post about this? How can I create compelling social media content along this theme?”

You can see how that might not be super healthy. It became mechanical. It was far too easy to gloss over what it meant for me, instead of only what it meant for others. I forgot to continue my own personal growth.

And it’s not like I ever had the conscious thought that maybe I’d arrived or anything like that—believe me, I am fully aware that I have so much growing to do. By the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, I hope to make up for a lot of missed growth last year.

A Year for Growth

So what does that mean for me this year? What does that mean for A Frank Voice?

We’ll start with A Frank Voice:

For one, we’ll be slowing down a little bit. 2020 was a lot about creation for us: blogs, social media campaigns, book recommendations, etc. All of that is still going to happen, but just at a different pace.

Our mission at A Frank Voice is to equip believers to pursue Christ toward a deeper faith, a stronger family, and an unshakeable purpose.

It’s still very much our mission to do that this year, but how can be in a position to equip others if we’re not fully equipped ourselves? I can’t speak for Preston, but I know that for me, I’ve probably lost the balance battle of remembering to feed myself as well as pouring into others.

So in 2021, A Frank Voice will slow down a little bit. This will allow us to grow more as individuals, so that we can create even better, more engaging, and powerfully equipping material for you. That’s the goal anyway, and if 2020 taught us anything about goals, it’s to not take them to the bank.

So what about me?

I plan to make this a year of personal growth for me, in a lot of areas. I want to read through Scripture in its entirely twice. It’s a daunting task, and it will take time, but it will be worth it. I want to spend time understanding the broad strokes and big picture of Scripture. I’ve also fallen out of the practice of journaling how the Lord is speaking to me, personally. I still journal often, but it’s become less reflective than I’d like, so I aim to fix that.

I also need to take a serious hold of my prayer life. Prayer is historically difficult for me, and I’m not sure why. I think I’m often racing through the tasks that need to be done, it’s difficult for me to slow down and just speak to God and listen quietly to His response. I want to learn to rest in Him.

On a practical note, I want to develop a few of my skills further. For one, I want to hone my Spanish language skills. I can read the language decently, and grab the broad strokes of a conversation I listen to. But I want to become reasonably fluent. Much of the community around where I live and where my church is seems to be shifting to predominantly Spanish-speaking. How can I make connections and meaningful relationships in my community unless I know the language well? In 2021, I hope to change that.

I’m also hoping to set aside time to improve some skills through online courses, like art, marketing, writing, and business.

This year, I’m taking intentional steps to grow. How do you want to grow this year?