The Intentional Life

  Thoughts. Each time, as I sit to type up this weekly bit on intention, I come with a bit of hesitancy.  Who am I to tell you anything about intention? Who am I to speak into your life? There are so many things going on in each person's life. I feel inadequate to type something that could even possible reach each person where they are. I am inadequate. But I serve a God who is not.  So each week as I approach this writing with hesitancy, I also come boldly to my God, and ask that He speaks through me. My prayer is that the person who needs to read this this week, reads it. And for those that it falls a bit short, I pray you extend me grace and come back next week. Since this week is on thoughts, I thought that a great place to start would be with a few thoughts of my own, so there you are. A peek into this introverted, bent for perfectionism, realist mind. This past week, my daughter had a memory verse for school that stuck with me and I thought...

  Home. When we talked about creating an intentional home last time, we discussed coming up with words to describe your home, and then being intentional in helping it become just that. To help it seem more doable, let's break it up into rooms. Let's start in the bedroom, because, well, I enjoy naps. You know that feeling when you walk into a hotel room, like, a really nice hotel room?  Everything is in order, the bed is made and looks so comfy, the curtains are letting in a beautiful, filtered light. It's quiet, and you have that feel of relief as you know you have arrived at your destination. That is what I am intentionally going after when I think of my bedroom. There is so much out there demanding our attention, so much chaos and noise. A place of calm is much needed. And with the bedroom being a place of rest, this is a great space to play out that word: calm. For my bedroom, it looks like cleared off surfaces, no piles of laundry, no corners...

Heart. Here we are. The final week of February. We have been through 7 full weeks of this Intentional Living series and now we are coming back to the Heart. Did you know that 80% of New Year's Resolutions are quit by February?  Well, if you have resolved to be more intentional in 2019, then, Congratulations! You have made it further than 80%. But, if you've found yourself stumbling a bit with this whole intentional thing, let me provide a different perspective...and a question. Perhaps you are focusing on reaching goals instead of being intentional. Ask yourself, "What is my heart's intent ?" Goal making is a valuable skill; it involves envisioning a future outcome in the world or in your behavior, then planning, applying discipline, and working hard to achieve it. You organize your time and energy based on your goals; they help provide direction for your life. Committing to and visualizing those goals may assist you in your efforts, but...