Choose Your Twelve: A Year of Intentional Love in 2026
During this time of thankfulness, and as we move into a season of gift-giving and “12 days of…” traditions, I encourage you to Choose Your Twelve in a Year of Intentional Love for 2026.
What if 2026 became the year you loved on purpose?
Not accidentally.
Not “when I remember.”
Not “when I get time.”
But intentionally—one month at a time, one person at a time.
Choose your twelve.
Twelve people who could use your attention, your encouragement, your help, your friendship, or your love.
People God has already placed on your heart.
People who could be lifted and strengthened by one caring voice—yours.
Write their names down on your calendar. Pray over them.
Ask God to open your eyes to their needs and soften your heart to their struggles.
Then assign each one a month in 2026.
Next, choose twelve simple ways to love throughout the year:
a meal, a note, a prayer, a visit, a coffee, a text, a surprise, a ride, a Scripture, a helping hand, a kind word, a small gift.
Little touches that carry the weight of Christ’s love through you.
Finally, assign each person a Bible verse—one anchored to a “twelve.”
Let Scripture breathe life and blessing into the way you serve.
Here are twelve example verses you can use:
- Romans 12:12 – “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
- Romans 12:10 – “Be devoted to one another in love.”
- 1 Corinthians 12:12 – “For just as the body is one… so it is with Christ.”
- Mark 12:30 – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart…”
- Mark 12:31 – “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
- Luke 12:12 – “The Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
- Psalm 12:6 – “The words of the LORD are pure words.”
- Job 12:13 – “With God are wisdom and strength.”
- Matthew 12:12 – “People are worth far more…”
- Proverbs 12:25 – “Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.”
- John 12:46 – “I have come into the world as a light…”
- Deuteronomy 12:7 – “Rejoice in everything you put your hand to, because the LORD has blessed you.”
Imagine a whole year of focused, Christ-shaped love—twelve lives lifted, strengthened, and encouraged because you chose to be intentional.
Imagine what God can do through a simple commitment offered with a willing heart.
Choose your twelve.
Love your twelve.
And let 2026 be the year someone sees Jesus through the way you choose to love them.
May we use our lives to be an intentional blessing to someone who could use it—and truly, that is all of us.
A Prayer for Service
Dear Father,
Open our eyes to the people You have placed around us.
Give us eyes that see needs, ears that listen to both joy and pain, hands willing to serve, and hearts that love like Yours.
Help us love with intention and purpose—not convenience; with compassion, not duty.
Bless the twelve we choose this year.
Go before every conversation, every act of kindness, every moment of encouragement.
Let Your Spirit guide our steps, and let Your love flow through us.
May our lives reflect Jesus in every month of 2026, and may those we serve experience Your hope, Your comfort, and Your grace.
Strengthen Your Church in the Greater Manchester area as it grows in love through serving others.
In Jesus’ precious, powerful, and perfect Name, amen.
–Beth Stafford, Daughters of Encouragement