Being Intentional

"Quality of life...it's what we all are working on, right? Every day...although we call it being intentional."

~Kelle Hampton

I have this excerpt from one of my favorite blogs written on our refrigerator. I read it many, many times a day, and it is a good reminder that life doesn't just happen. There are always choices. Always new beginnings. It's all just a matter of the tiny choices. The small steps. The almost unnoticeable moments when the tone is set and the dominoes start to fall.

One of the gifts of this blog is that it has made me more mindful. It has helped make more tiny choices and whispered prayers. The short, two words prayers that are more about shifting my heart and perspective a million times a day.

This week, my focus has been Unrush Me. It hasn't always been easy. When the kids are taking twenty million years to get dressed, it's hard. The rewards, however, have been huge. I made the choice to make the kids pancakes yesterday morning. They asked, and I wanted to say no because of the to do list twelve miles long. But I said yes, and I saw their eyes light up. It's not about the breakfast. It's about them knowing that they trump the to do list. And I still made it through the whole list yesterday. I've found that when I slow down and am really intentional about each choice, time seems to go a little slower. The frenetic energy, apparently, was a major time sink. Who would have thought?

I'm still a work in progress. Unrush Me will stay written on my board for a long while. But I am have been so blessed by the answered prayer this week, and we are all the better for it.