Intentional.

I had one thing, and one thing only, on my Christmas list for 2016. It was a devotional day planner from Anchored Press. As soon as I opened it on Christmas, I excitedly started filling it out. In the front is a page for listing my 2017 goals, my verse for the year, and my focus word. My word immediately came to me – “intentional.”

Synonyms for intentional: Deliberate, Conscious, Planned. By definition, the word means “done on purpose.”

It’s easy to let life slip by with no real intentions. One day weaves right into another, and next thing you know, a year has passed and you realize how much you missed. Or is that just me?

I need to learn to be intentional. I need to be conscious as a parent and as a wife. I need to be deliberate in maintaining friendships and seeking out new ones. I need to plan out my goals and the steps I need to take to accomplish them. I need to be purposeful with my faith and growing in my relationship with God.

I need to focus on this, because it doesn’t come naturally to me at all. And I can’t let one more year pass by without learning to be intentional. Time is precious and I won’t be getting it back; I’m tired of wasting so much of it on things that ultimately won’t matter.

Intentional.