Intentions

Do you ever fully intend to do something and then just never get to it? Or am I the only one?

Just last week I stayed up one night to write a blog post…and then never published it. I intend to do this thing or that around the house. I intend to work on a projects, sew something, or fix something. Many, many intentions. Far too few completions.

What concerns me is the habit I make of this. I am a complete person. The way I behave in one aspect of my life bleeds into another aspects of my life. So, when I make a habit of piling up sewing projects and never getting around to them, that affects my habit of collecting books that I never get around to reading. It then shows up in the writing I intend to do but never actually accomplish. That then affects my performance in homeschooling or as a housekeeper. It bleeds into how I behave as a wife and a mother. It’s never just one thing.

So how often do I not get around to doing something God has told me to do?

For the record, that is disobedience. Plain and simple. If I tell my children to do something, and they don’t get around to it, I consider it blatant disobedience. Perhaps other things just crowded out that instruction. But the truth is that what I say should come first because I’m the parent and I know what’s best for them. Is it any different between God and me?

That’s a sobering thought. And here are a few responses that comes to mind as I think that thought:

• If I say I’m going to do something, I should back it up with my actions. I must be reliable.

• I should not intend unless I know I’m going to be able to do it.

• I should make sure that my life is not so full of insignificant things that I don’t get around to the important ones.

• Above all, my life should not be so packed that I don’t get around to the things God has instructed me to do. In fact, only what God tells me to do is important. All else is irrelevant.

It’s so easy to fill life with the irrelevant, insignificant, and unimportant. When we do, we often miss the things that truly are essential – the things God has set before us.

My goal this week is to simplify. To truly evaluate each thing I do and each thing I commit to do. Is it obedient? Then let’s go! Is it irrelevant and selfish? Then it’s gotta go. Only then can I eliminate the things I never get around to and fill my life instead with obedience action. Only then can I quit saying, “Oh, I meant to get that done…”