You know how everyone picks a word for the year now? Last year, I picked “discipline.” Please do not ask me how that worked out for me. You really don’t want to know. Then again, if you’ve been following this blog for long, you probably already figured it out.
A few weeks ago, I had a talk with my 8th graders about being intentional. They were just going along, saying the “right” things without even thinking about it. It’s good when they do right, don’t get me wrong… but they need to know why and if it’s what they actually believe. If not, then they’ve not changed inside, and the world can sway them way too easily.
It got me thinking about myself. I’ve been stressed lately. Lately as in since January 2010. Literally, we went from me taking a job, settled in Georgia at Christmas, to how-did-we-get-here-Tennessee in late January. Four months later my husband deployed. One year later he came back. Two months later we were living in North Carolina. Holy. Cow. What. Happened?
Ever since then, I’ve let life happen to me. I’ve been like a person tied at the end of a rope, swinging around as life turns, banging into things, stressed out, wondering what’s coming next, never living in the moment. Life happened so fast for two straight years that I forgot how to sit still.
No more.
It’s April 2013, and I’m choosing my word.
I’m digging in my heels and pulling on that rope. God never intended for me to be jerked around by life. He intended for me to live it. To think about what I do. To put meaning and purpose into it. To stop saying yes when I should say no and no when I should say yes.
To stop acting like things happen around me and to start making things happen.
God made us to ACT, not to REACT. To really think about what we’re doing for Him, not just to jump in and do it mindlessly.
So that’s me. Starting now. Intentional.
Anyone else need that one?
-JB
Jen says
While I’m far from perfect, I like to think I have a pretty good handle on intentionality… at least when it comes to my time, my finances, my diet, and my relationships. I’m not sure if it’s a good trait or a bad one, but I’m an OCD list-maker who likes to be in control. I strategize, I plan, and I get things done. Where the trouble lies is my quiet time. No matter how long I spend coming up with a plan of what to do during my time with God or how disciplined I am about carving the time out of my schedule….. what I feel like God’s telling me lately is, “All I want is your heart.” He doesn’t want my reading plan, my journal, or anything else but ME. As I said last week, I’m learning how to simply be with Him, to set aside all of the to-dos (even the good ones), and just give Him my heart. All of it. And let Him do the “doing” for a change. So if I had to choose a word, I’d go with DEVOTION. because no matter how much of my life God already has, I want Him to have even more of it tomorrow. I want to be fully devoted.