Well, I’m
at that phase of the holiday season where I am starting to pack up all of the
Christmas decorations, getting rid of all the uneaten Christmas goodies, and putting
away beloved ornaments for another year.
It’s in the single digits in Wyoming today and so I am enjoying a cozy
fire, a plate of Swedish Kringler, and a cup of coffee while taking some time
to think back over this Christmas, and actually thinking over the entire
year. I’ve been remembering the
blessings, the pain, the disappointments and the victories of 2014. This is also the time when I begin thinking
about the New Year, wondering what 2015 holds in store for me and my little
family…..and I have been contemplating that sometimes loved and often hated
tradition of making resolutions. I don’t
know about you, but making New Year’s resolutions ultimately ends up
overwhelming and discouraging me rather than motivating me to have a better,
healthier, happier year than the last.
There’s too much that I’d like to change, improve on, new things to try or
bad habits to let go of. Are you with
me? Am I the only one who struggles with
making resolutions? I start trying to
figure out what my New Year’s Resolution is going to be and before I know it I
have so many to pick from that I just throw my hands up in the air and give up
before I even verbalize what my resolutions are! Or I go ahead and make one or two and within
a month have completely given up or forgotten what I had resolved to do in the
first place!
No, New
Year’s Resolutions are not my favorite…..and yet……I love a clean slate, a fresh
page, a new start. And I really do love
what is behind the meaning of making New Year’s resolutions; the meaning of
resolution is: “a firm decision to do or not to do something.” I’ve tried for a few years now to figure out
a way to make resolutions without really making a “New Year’s Resolution”; how
to take advantage of the newness of the New Year, of resolving to do or not do
something, without being unrealistic in what that is, as well as not losing
steam in my resolve one or two months into the year! In all of my soul searching, praying and
thinking about this I have ultimately come up with one resolution for 2015…..the
resolution of intentional living....but this one resolution leads to so many
more areas in my life that I want to make a firm decision about living with
intention or purpose…..12 different areas in my life that I feel God is drawing
my attention to live with intention; areas that I need to either completely
change, shift in a different direction or areas where I need to just keep on
keeping on! The opposite of “intentional”
is “accidental”…..I would so much rather live by intention than to live by
accident!
I began
thinking of this idea of intentional living this time last year; and have been
thinking about what aspects in my life I would like to live with more intention
and purpose since then. I want to invite
you to go on this journey with me; each month I will focus on a different area
that I have chosen and share my thoughts, feelings and experiences with
you. It may just be one post a month
dedicated to intentional living in that certain area or it may take a few different
posts depending on what subject I’m covering!
These 12 disciplines in my life are places where I feel God is drawing
my attention to live with meaning, intention and purpose; you may have areas in
your life that are completely different.
If so please share them with me, I’d love to hear about your journey as
well!
The 12
areas in my life that I have chosen to live intentionally for 2015 are:
1.)
Being intentional in my faith and relationship
with God
2.)
Being intentional in my marriage
3.)
Being intentional in my role as a mother
4.)
Being intentional in my attitude towards food
5.)
Being intentional about physical exercise
6.)
Being intentional with my finances
7.)
Being intentional with my thoughts
8.)
Being intentional with my relationships
9.)
Being intentional with my time
10.) Being intentional with my words
11.) Being intentional about my responsibilities
and jobs
12.) Being intentional about my calling, gifts and
talents
My hope is that by dividing this resolution up into 12 different areas, I will spend an entire year focused on living with intention and purpose. The definition of intentional is “something done on purpose or deliberately.” See, that’s the key for me; I want to live deliberately and on purpose! I want to thrive, not just survive. I’m tired of feeling like I am just barely scraping by day in and day out…..spending a lot of my days low on energy, motivation, joy and intent. Like so many of you out there, I want a full and abundant life. One of my favorite verses is John 10:10 where Jesus tries to explain to the Pharisees who He is and why He has come. He tells them “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Jesus came to give us full and abundant lives; He doesn’t want us to just “get by”, going through the motions of our days, doing what needs to be done but no more than that…..living flat, dry and intentionless lives. I think that especially for those of us who are stay-at-home-moms or ranch wives that work at home with our husbands, the drudgery of our days takes out the intention and purpose that God wants us to live with. I want to resolve to change that.
So, I
invite you to go on this journey of intentional living with me; commit, not to
making another New Year’s resolution that will leave you overwhelmed and disappointed,
but instead commit to living the next 12 months with the intention and purpose
that God intended for you to have. And I
want to wish you all a Happy New Year……No more than just “happy”…..I want to wish
you a joy-filled, abundant and full 2015, a year that is lived with meaning and
purpose to the glory of God!!