Thursday, January 8, 2015

One Word--Intentional

New Year's Eve is my holiday.  I love everything about it.  I love looking back on the past year and thinking about everything that has happened.  I love eating junk food and telling yourself it's the last time because tomorrow is a new year and a new you.  I love staying up late and spending time with family and friends.  I love playing games, watching movies, standing outside on my back deck and watching fireworks from the town square. 

But by far my favorite is waking up the next morning to a new start.  I love that I get to decide who I want to be and now is the perfect time to start making those changes to be that person.  I am a goal-oriented person.  I really do well with goals, they give me a focus and help get me to where I want to go.  Every year in the week between Christmas and New Year's I like to work on setting new goals for myself.  I look at all areas of my life: spiritual, my role as a wife, a mom, a friend, my health, recreational, etc.  There are always changes I want to make, and while I know I can start working towards those changes at any time there's just something about New Year's that just really motivates me.

Several years ago I was introduced to the idea of choosing one word to focus my year.  I immediately loved this idea.  One word to help me set goals.  One word to help me make decisions, to really focus on.  I am a firm believer that I don't actually choose my word.  Instead, God has always put a word on my heart several weeks before the new year begins.  I know that it's what I'm supposed to choose. 

This year, my word is intentional.

I want to be more intentional in all areas of my life.  Recently, I have decided to slow down.  I'm cutting out activities and creating more time in my life.  Now I have to decide what I'm going to do with that time.  I want to be intentional with what I choose to do.  Part of being intentional means reaching out to others and strengthening friendships or creating new ones.  Regularly inviting people to our house to join us in sharing a meal.  Calling a friend and asking if she wants to get together for coffee to just chat.  Making time to call my long-distnace friends and catch up.  Inviting a new mom to my house for a playdate.

It means spending my time with my kids wisely.  Rather than getting on the computer to check facebook it means choosing to spend time playing with them.  Choosing activities for my children that have a purpose.  They can be fun, but when deciding between activities (or whether to do something or not), I will ask myself how this fits into my goal to be intentional this year. 

Being intentional means making time to be with my husband.  Ignoring the mess around us and sitting down on the couch to talk with him.  Making date night a priority (we've even put it on the calendar for a specific day each month).  Setting aside time each week to talk about the "business" things we need to discuss together so that they don't get forgotten. 

I love how this one word can drive so much that I do.  It's like the measuring stick I use when deciding what to do or how to spend my time.  This year I want to be more intentional.  What one word do you want to focus on this year?