As the old saying goes Time Flys & I must admit the older I get the more it seems to be true! I can’t believe another year has gone & we’re already into 2026! Can you?  It really does feel as though time is flying!

I remember many years ago as a young teen thinking about Time & thought it would be amazing to live to the year 2000 with all of the space age things that I thought would be around by then, & thought I would be sooo old at that point, lol!

Looking back, to a teenage girl all adults were ‘old’ but here we are 26 years on from the turn of the 21st century & in the world’s eyes I’m now considered ‘ an ol’ gal’ in fact I’m classified as a Senior in my community & have been for some time.

Today, I’d like to introduce you to my word for this year (WOTY) in our time together. So grab a cuppa, a treat & get comfy.

I’m still enjoying some treats gifted to me from my hubby for Christmas, so I’m having a mug of hot Chai Tea with a gf White Choc & Lemon Shortbread. What are you having my friend?

WOTY Background

I adopted this fun practice after I started blogging in January 2018 (yes, it’s my 8th blogging anniversary next week!). Praising God for His faithful enabling over these years in this season of Chronic Health conditions.

Getting back to the topic at had, this time last year I shared that I had put several of my WOTY into a sentence (highlighted in bold text below) as an exercise & it was amazing what that one statement revealed;

“Release prayer that has been asked intentionally for a season of change to explore!”

by Jennifer Ross

God indeed has answered so many prayers over the last eight years (& in the preceding years) & I have come to see that this season of Chronic Health conditions is actually a blessing wrapped in very strange packaging.

Now I realise that some may think that having a theme or WOTY is a distraction from the Lord & His Word. However, in my experience this practice doesn’t in any way take away time or focus from the Lord & His Word, in fact I find it actually enhances it. For my main focus will always be on my Saviour for He is life itself!

So how do I come to my WOTY?

Well, I observe what God has been revealing to me through the last quarter of the previous year, as to whether He has been highlighting or bringing to mind an area for a more concentrated focus in my life.

2026 Word of the Year

And that brings us to my WOTY for 2026; I found that one particular word kept being highlighted through devotions, Bible Study, circumstances & just coming to mind, it seemed to be everywhere leading up to the end of 2025!

I even wrote about it in;

We all need Sanctuary!

That word was Sanctuary but around the same time another word appeared, a new word, which I shared in;

Thanksgiving v Thanks-living

And that word was Thanks-living & for awhile I thought these two words were competing with each other but then I realised they actually go hand in hand! 

So my words for 2026 are; 

Sanctuary & Thanks-living

Thus, on the back of 2025 WOTY  Explore, I will be exploring Sanctuary & Thanks-living in new ways & depths this year than ever before with the Lord.

And to repeat the exercise from last year & my first look at these here is an extended sentence of my collective WOTY over the past several years including this year’s (highlighted in bold);

“Release prayer that has been asked intentionally for a season of change to explore the Sanctuary of Thanks-living!”

And in the words of Charles Spurgeon;

“I think that it is a better thing than Thanksgiving: thanks-living.

How is this to be done?

By a general cheerfulness of manner,

by an obedience to the command of Him by whose mercy we live,

by a perpetual, constant delighting of ourselves in the Lord,

and by a submission of our desires to His will.”

How awesome is that! I’m quite excited to see what God reveals to me through this theme.

And what’s more I’ll be sharing my journey at different points with you as we go forward into 2026 my friend, so stay tuned.

Welcome to 2026!

Jennifer

You’re most welcome to join me in The Reading Nook

or in Prayer

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© 2026 Jennifer M. Ross, All Rights Reserved. Photo by Anna Tarazevich at pexels.com

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