Attributes

The summer before I moved to college I worked at a stationery store called Papyrus with my sister Kate a girl named Tarissa. We remained friends for a short time afterwards and kept in contact via email. I haven't heard from Tarissa in ages, but whether she knows it or not she has profoundly influenced me in ways I have a hard time describing.
In one of these long-ago emails, she had mentioned something about choosing an attribute of God to focus on for a year. Each year she would pick a new one and try to gain more insight and practice into that specific characteristic. I thought this was a great idea and have been doing it since (I think).
My first attribute was courage. I hear often from various people and sources that the most often-repeated commandment in the Bible is to fear not or some variation of it. So I spent a year on courage, learning when to speak and when to hold my tongue, when to act and when to wait. It takes courage to listen to the Lord and seek discernment and then to do what He has lead you into. Following after Jesus takes courage.
My second attribute was faithfulness, to constantly say yes to the things that the Lord has called me to be faithful to. Relationships, friendships, reading my Bible, praying, my studies, resting, finding counsel, being counsel for others, leading with InterVarsity, serving and loving those around me. It has been teaching me to be selfless while still caring for myself and doing my best to rest well and find the rest that Psalm 23 talk about.
So for the Year of Our Lord 2009, I will be choosing the attribute of generosity. Its something that the Lord has been placing on my heart for the past couple of months and has always been something that I've admired in others. I've heard that the patterns that people develop in college will most likely stay with them throughout the rest of their lives, so we better start practicing them now. It definitely is something that I want my life to be marked by. Pray that I learn it well.