The Intentional Life

Summer. Schools are winding down on the strangest school year ever and I know students and teachers both are looking forward to a reprieve! Last summer, though some things may have felt like summer, many things were unusual and maybe not how the typical season is spent. Because of that, you may be feeling the pressure to make up for it this year. And with that pressure the anxiety that you've got to make it the best summer yet.   Whenever I feel that anxiety rising in me, I know it's rooted in expectations that I've placed on myself. And when I can root out those expectations and replace them with intentional moments, days seem more manageable and enjoyable.   So, instead of setting a bucket list that I feel pressured to complete, I'm looking at ways I can be intentional with my kids this summer. Small ways of being intentional in different areas of life that can make this summer purposeful and refreshing for our spirits. Here's a few ideas I think I&#

  Intentional Relationships. I knew it as soon as my eyes opened. It was going to be one of those days.   The day felt dark and overwhelming. My legs felt sluggish and my mind slow to start.   There wasn’t anything in particular that made me feel this way. Or perhaps it was everything that did. Depression doesn’t always operate by a formula. And despite having the right tools to be pro-active and head it off, sometimes it finds a new way to come in.   I went through the motions of the day. I know the motions by now and can hide the hard parts from the kids while I shuttle them off to school. But then, in the silence, alone, it’s a little harder to fight.   I made it mid-morning, without a whole lot of productive things accomplished, when the phone dinged.   A text. From a friend. Just reaching out to say she was thinking of me and wondering how I was doing.   It didn’t make me do a 180 on my mental state. I continued through my day as I had before, struggling. But the load was

I recently asked this question to my social media feed: What part of your life is the hardest to be intentional with? 66% of the responses had to do with personal health, whether it was nutrition, exercise, or taking a break from the rush of life. Why do we have such a hard time taking time, and doing the right thing, for ourselves?   Maybe it has to do with comfort. It's just easier to grab junk food and prepackaged food. Hitting the snooze feels so much better than lacing up the shoes and hitting the pavement. Taking the path of least resistance is just easier, and so we tend to go that way.   Maybe it has to do with time. Our schedule is so packed with work, school, errands, clubs, etc, that it's tough to find a block of time to spend exercising or doing something just because we enjoy it.   Maybe it has to do with our perspective. We either are filling up our days with all the things because we feel we have to, or we have gone so long thinking this is how it is

  Home. Practice hospitality. It's right there, a two word sentence, right on the tail end of Romans 12:13. If there was ever a verse that I would skim over, it would be that one. The first part of that verse - Share with the Lord's people who are in need - that one I'm in full tilt. But then there is the second half of that verse. That one is a bit tougher for me. Helping someone out? I'm there! Practice hospitality? ... excuse me a moment I think I'm needed ... somewhere ... else ... I love the idea of hosting others in our home.  Opening up our doors and inviting people in. It sounds so fun, friendly, and warm. But I often choke on the implementation of it. It's hard to swallow the sweetness of hospitality when you've got a knot of perfectionism caught in your throat.   I want to be OK with the pop-ins.  The visitor who calls 5 minutes before showing up.  The guest who knocks on the door without warning.  To happily open our home to 20+ guest

 I wish I could say that I have always appreciated the hard work that teachers do. But, unfortunately, that is not the case. During my years as a student, they were certainly taken for granted, no thought for all the prep work and time spent outside of the classroom. The classrooms just come looking that way, right?  With all those posters and creative bulletin boards? I didn't think about all the homework assignments, tests, project, quizzes that had to be prepared before ever giving them to the students.  They just took them right out a book, didn't they? I mean, I know they had to spend time grading tests and homework, but they could get that done in about 30 minutes after school was done for the day. Done with work at 4PM?  Getting 3 months off in the summer and two weeks at Christmas, plus all those other random holidays? Psh. But that was then.  Sorry, teachers, I was a self-absorbed, naive student. I've had a few other lessons taught to me

(edited from original post August, 2018)   Recently I have learned something about myself. I've always known that I am a worry-wart. I've even jokingly called myself, and been called that, by others.  But it goes beyond that. For nearly 3 decades I have been battling with anxiety. I'm not talking about the anxiety you may feel with a test coming up, or stress that comes with job loss, cancer diagnosis, or family crisis. No. Those things would make sense to cause anxiety. The things that have caused me to feel anxious are much simpler, and when I would voice them out loud to you, you may even laugh and say "don't worry about that! That's no big deal!" I wish it was that simple. Because for those who suffer with anxiety, it's not. For years, I thought everyone got this anxious. I just figured they knew how to deal with it better than me and could brush it off. Unlike them, I tried to deal with it by suppressing emotions, put