This week I'm wondering this: how often do you stop and think about WHYs of your actions?
I have to tell you that often don't. I lay my head on the pillow and night and wonder where the day went. What exactly did I do?
Yet when we live like this, we're lacking in this week's word: intention.
Intention is defined as the determination to act in a certain way.
I'm finding myself using the word intention a lot lately. In fact, the leaders I've worked with during my tenures as pastor have been known to roll their eyes when they know I'm about to say it (I know in love, of course).
And here is something I've learned from all this intentional talk: it's soul-stretching, discipline making, moving away "from the way we've always done things" kind of living.
And it comes in the big and small choices of our lives.
For example, think about your daily routines, how easy it is to eat out if you haven't made a plan for food at home. How easy it is to spend your time alone if you haven't reached out to someone for company. How easy it is dread going to work tomorrow if you haven't had experiences this weekend of rest and play.
Intention helps us make space for the best possible experiences. What we want. What we need. What God wants to bless us with!
I have a friend who asks to herself when she's trying to make a choice: "Will future me like this decision?"
She further explains this like: if eating a bowl of ice cream at 11 pm at night won't make her 8 am self the next day happy, then maybe she shouldn't do it. Or maybe if saying yes to watching her grandkids play baseball will make her smile for days to come, then maybe she should just go!
So this week, I'm wondering, what are you longing for? Whatever it is, start moving toward that feeling, or that dream or that mindset today.
Text a friend. Search for plane tickets. Turn off your phone after 9 pm. Take a walk.
Small steps are important steps. Small steps, daily steps take us the desired future you want.
Your soul today and of the future will thank you too.
XO
Elizabeth
P.S. I know that sometimes even when we make intentional choices in life, we still feel stuck. We do EVERYTHING we think we can do to change our circumstances and nothing changes. We wonder where God is in our life? SO frustrating. This is why I believe in the mystery of God, timing that I don't understand and committing to being still to know that God is God. If you want read more of my own experience of waiting in frustration from several years ago, I'd love to share this post with you.
