Intentionality

Ann Voskamp. Do you know her? I don't know her know her but I do know of her. And love what bits of her heart she's shared with the great wide world. She names her years, as a way to focus herself on her goal/s for that time. I love the idea but I struggled with naming my kids so the idea of naming an entire year was daunting with a capital scary. So I didn't.

Instead I wrote out my goals -- for the first time ever if I remember correctly. After writing them out, I really began to study them, knowing that success would be possibly only after I addressed not just the behaviors I wanted to change but the motivation behind those behaviors. (A sidenote: I do this with my kids all.the.time. Why did I never think before now to do it to myself?) Time and again I came around to the same word -- intentional. If I am going to be healthy I am going to have to be intentional. If I am going to actually reach my goal of writing a list of 1000 things to be thankful for, ever going to better understand eucharisteo I am going to have to intentional. If I am going to change my Bible study habits I am going to have to be intentional. If I am going to do anything well, right, correct I am going to have to be intentional.

Right smack in the middle of that epiphany is when I realized 2012 had named itself -- my year of intentionality. I must use that word a gazillion times when I'm talking about raising my kids, when I'm speaking of shepherding their young hearts and shaping their minds. But I've never thought to turn it lose in my life.

So here I am -- in my year of intentionality -- knowing I can't do anything on my own but choosing each day to embrace a new day's worth of grace and using it to intentionally seek more, see more, do more.