Tuesday, September 3

Mean to.


Wow. This almost feels foreign to me. Sitting down at the computer and writing. My blog has definitely been neglected over the summer. It's been quite eventful in my world lately, and I wouldn't have it any other way. A new home and a new ministry has provided lots of new opportunities and adventures, and we've been enjoying them! But it does feel good to get back to writing. Over the last several weeks of being away, I've been jotting down notes (well...the iPhone version of "jotting down") about different post ideas I've had, so I'm excited to share them with you. One at a time, of course. :)

I wasn't planning on writing for the blog today. In fact, I woke up with the intentions of spending my whole morning writing for my book (details later). But you know how that goes. Things change, we get sidetracked, and plans go down the drain. After a couple hours of random tasks around the house, I sat down and decided to write about something that came to mind last night. So here goes. I'll make it quick. You're welcome.

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So I've been thinking about intentions lately. You know -- good intentions, bad intentions, being intentional, and the like. It's pretty obvious, but usually we're most productive when we have intentions. I'm a list girl. I like to make a list of every single thing I need to accomplish in a day and cross them off one-by-one. Intentions are good. But not just in the sense of productivity and accomplishments.

Intentions are a necessary component of life.

I could come at this from several angles: marriage, a relationship with God, friendship, etc. Either way, I think you'll get the point. When we're intentional about spending time with God, we're usually more successful. When we're intentional about showing interest in our friends' lives, our friendships tend to thrive more. When we're intentional about showing love to our spouse, we tend to have a happier marriage.

Last night, Josh and I were at some friends' house playing a game. If you know my husband at all, you know how competitive he is. And if you know both of us at all, you know how much we bicker and pick at each other (all in love, of course). Well, last night, I could tell he really was upset with me. It was no longer a joke...he was mad. ((oops.)) On the way home, I was trying to process what happened and figure out how to resolve it. I thought to myself, "I didn't mean to upset him."

Then....it hit me. I don't know if it's the pastor's kid in me or the writer in me, but I feel like I can make a sermon or a blog post out of anything. And here was my next idea.

Yeah, maybe I didn't mean to upset my husband. Maybe I didn't mean to be rude to the cashier at Target. Maybe I didn't mean to ignore the kid who really needed my attention at church. Maybe I didn't mean to forfeit my devotional time with God when I got busy doing housework. We all get it. Things happen. 

But I think it's time we start meaning to.

Take any area of your life and apply this and see if you don't notice a huge difference. I know it's kind of a vague concept, but that's what I love about it. What if we just wrote the words  "Mean to" on our mirrors or made it our lock screen on our phones so that we're constantly reminded to be intentional. Not just with making plans for the day or for the week, but with our whole lives. 

Mean to show love to your spouse today. 
Mean to smile at the cashier who looks like she's having a rough day.
Mean to take time out of your day to get alone with God and listen.
Mean to get down on your knees and talk to your kids face-to-face about their day at school.
Mean to share Jesus with someone who is hurting.
Mean to send a text to a friend who you know is going through a hard time.

Mean to.

Ya with me? Good.

Grab a wallpaper and set it as your lock screen so you'll remember to mean to.

 



4 comments:

  1. Girrrrrrrl..... I'm SO glad that you got side tracked by your blog today. This is such a good thing to think about and actually something that is seriously resonating in me as of late. You definitely have a gift for writing, and I'm so glad that you're back in the saddle (please, Lord!) of writing on your blog. ;) Oh and thanks for the new home screen!

    Linda

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  3. Great post, thank for sharing! I am going to "mean to" this week!

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