Create In Me – Word of the Year – free printable

I realize my blog title is a little misleading. Let me explain.

This is the time of year we’re all looking to refresh, to start anew, recommit, and create new ideas, routines, rhythms, habits, spaces, and goals. Attached to this new start – permeated with possibility – is the practice of choosing a word for the year. This word is chosen and it sets a theme or animates movement through a year. Words like…

Create

Become

Restore

Commit

Consistence

…are all popular and wonderful choices. One word. It’s such a simple idea and I love the simplicity of it!

But of course, I can’t be simple! LOL!

And that’s not entirely true, because I have, some years, been inspired to choose that one word that will set the tone for my year, full of hope.

But this year, over and over again, in my prayers, in my thoughts, in my ponderings…over and over again, a verse danced through my head.

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and a right spirit renew within me.

Psalm 51:10

This verse first lodged itself in my memory in a very non-traditional way, but then, God works that way, doesn’t he?

I can’t remember if I was a teen out shopping with my mom, or…was I a young mom and visiting home? Either way, this was years and years ago. Possibly in the 80s. I think I was shopping with mom.

We didn’t shop in too many places; the budget was tight and mom had just begun this crazy new thing called homeschooling – and so we were frugal with resources. We were in a store that was near our favorite used bookstore and I saw a t-shirt displayed, hanging on a wall. It was nondescript other than the lilac flowers and the text written on it.

We didn’t purchase the shirt. I don’t think I even mentioned it, but it made an impression. I came home and mentioned to my brother that I was so inspired by a verse I saw on a shirt. I know at the time I didn’t even remember the words of the verse – just that they inspired me and lodged themselves as a possibility in my imagination. I mentioned it to my brother, who somehow, from my jumbled memory and a sparse tangle of words, immediately knew the verse, and repeated it back to me.

Maybe that’s why this verse keeps sharing its possibilities with me – because the memory of my brother’s assistance is entangled with the memory? Or maybe it’s just that God wants to do something more with me – something else. Something I can’t yet imagine.

In reflecting back across the panorama of unexpectedness that was 2020, I see with a fresh perspective just how much He created in me. So when this verse kept floating to the top of my thoughts, I couldn’t deny that it must be His prompting.

I love the imagery of this verse. It is hopeful and yet a reminder that in order for God to work within me, my heart must be clean first. It keeps me from looking out and looking around – it keeps my focus on my own heart-work. Because by looking within, and allowing for transformation in Christ, He can create within me and I can become what I was created to be. I want nothing more.

Part of being inspired to place myself under the mantle of Psalm 51:10 is exercising my own creativity. This idea is already seated in my thoughts and prayers and my imagination – why not make it a physical presence in my spaces, my planner, on the wall? So I did what I do – I created something, and then I thought, maybe you’d like it, too? Even if it’s not your 2021 theme. The verse is beautiful and uplifting and full of hope.

A quick word on the practical side of these printables. They can certainly be printed on regular white paper. My favorite is Hammermill Premium Laser Gloss paper in 32lb or Hammermill Premium Copy paper in 32lb. The 32lb paper is a beautiful weight, and takes color crisply. But, I found that I loved the watercolor-like softening effect if I printed on vellum.

I found the perfect translucent cardstock quality vellum here! If you’re looking for a smaller or larger image, just use your “print size” feature and adjust the size!

Whether you choose a word of the year, or not, may your 2021 be filled with hope!