ERICA DUNOMES

Have you ever had things happen to you that leave you saying words like, “I didn’t see that coming?” That’s how I feel about the topic for today. I didn’t see it coming. Yet here we are halfway through the year, and God has given me my one word for 2025.

Here’s a moment of honesty.

Every year towards the end of the year is when I’d normally do the No Social Media Challenge and ask God for one word for the upcoming year. Well, last year, I did not do that. I didn’t necessarily feel the leading to. However, it did not stop God from revealing some very important things to me about myself.

For a period of time, I had been feeling stuck as if my life was just not moving forward like I believed it should have been. It just seemed like I was that hamster on a wheel running while going nowhere fast, and I was deeply troubled by it. Of course, you know that when you ask God to show you the reason for something that’s taking place in your life, He will.

God showed me that I was double minded and unstable. Ouch!

For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. ~James 1:7-8

I’m not sure about you, but the way God deals with me when it comes to certain things is that He allows it to unfold as a vision or picture. Suddenly, I realized that I had spent most of my whole entire life that way.

For example, I’d start out on a quest to get in better shape by eating right and losing weight. First, I’d talk myself out of doing it because I’d wonder if the outcome of my efforts would really bring the results I wanted them to. Due to that frame of thinking I’d end up doing nothing. That would leave me not looking the way I wanted to look or feeling the way I wanted to feel. Every year, the cycle would repeat itself. I’d constantly start over again and again and again. It was an ugly cycle that I hated.

Accepting that reality was not easy.

It was a truth that I had to own regardless of how I felt about it. I struggled with it for the next six months after God revealed it to me. The battle was ugly. Here are some ways it made me feel:

• defeated
• stuck
• powerless
• like it was too late for me to ever break the cycle and be free.

All lies from the enemy. Thankfully, God’s light illuminated the darkness what was dark in me. Freedom came when I accepted the truth. I gained knowledge of what had held me back. I also discovered what I had to do about it which brought me to my one word.

My One Word for 2025: Focus

I discovered that I had to get focused. In order for me to do that, I had to admit that there were so many things out of alignment with focus. Basically, I had no real direction or clarity as to what I really should have been doing with my life. So, let me tell you how finally getting my one word for the year came about.

Adopting Focus as my one word came by way of my husband requesting me to watch a video by a man named Myron Golden. In this video Myron talks about dangers of retirement and how you can live life in such a way that you wouldn’t want to retire from it. He briefly touches on the subjects of focus and balance. It was that part of his message that clicked another reality of truth for me. Here are the words of confession that I shared with my husband:

I now realize what I have been doing so wrong that has kept me stuck. Feeling stuck. Where I needed a lot of focus, I was too afraid of losing balance. And when I neglected focus, I didn’t feel balanced at all. ~Erica Dunomes

It was after watching that video that God helped me to see that what I needed more than anything in my life back then was focus. I had not realized how much I had allowed myself to be tossed. Truth be told, at the rate I was going in being double minded and unstable, balance was never in my reach. Even more so, I realize what I need more than anything in my life today is focus.

There is always room and time for change.

I am firm believer of that. Let me admit that I’ve not arrived at this. This journey of having focus is still fresh and new. Prayerfully for me, God has revealed that the time is now. Now is the time that everything can change. Now is the time that I can finish 2025 stronger and better than when I began it.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. ~Ecclesiastes 3:1

Here are three ways I’m expecting that having focus will help me:

• I’m expecting it to help me Get rid of all distractions. Distractions are thieves that steal, kill, and destroy what God has called you to do. By being focused I plan to concentrate and pay close attention to letting God show me from here on out what He needs me to do to direct my efforts to prioritizing what’s most important. Like Jesus, I want to have the focus of being about my Father’s business (Luke 2:49).

• I’m expecting it to help me grow in discipline and consistency. Time has allowed me the privilege of learning my strengths and weaknesses. Time has also allowed me to see that in operating more out of my weaknesses, certain areas of my life have been stagnant. I want to get to the end of a year and see the fruit of growth and change that I know for sure is possible with God (Mark 10:27).

• I’m expecting it to help me make better sound decisions. The word of God tells us to have faith in and to trust in God. For so long I was afraid that if I made any decision, it wouldn’t necessarily be the right one. So, I always second-guessed mine. Now, that has all come to an end. I’ve accepted the truth that I am new in Christ. Old things have passed away from me. All things about me have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). I am capable because of Jesus to trust that whatever decision I make, it will be what’s best.

Everyone needs tools for their journeys.

I love a good acronym. I’ve decided to adopt the one above. I find that, in this season, it resonates well with me. The plan is to let it serve as a reminder of where I’m headed. It is time I get about following one course until successful. It’s time to leave the crossroads of indecision and take the steps necessary to get me to the other side of all that’s held me back.

In saying this, I’m only speaking of those areas of my life where I know that I need to make more progress. I think that no matter how far we’ve come in our walk with Christ, God will always be beckoning us to go a little further.

Can you think of some areas in your life where God has been beckoning you? What areas are you feeling stuck in? Maybe like me, you need to adopt F.O.C.U.S.

I’ve created a lovely tool with us in mind. Download this 8.5 x 11 F.O.C.U.S. acronym wall print for FREE. Everyone needs tools for their journeys. If focus is something that you know you need more of, let this serve as a tool for you. You can hang it somewhere you’ll always see it. Friend, that’s exactly what I plan to do too.

Complete the form below to get yours today.