Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Happy 2008!

As we go into each new year, many of us stop and take stock of our lives and that often includes some New Year's resolutions. Our resolutions are made with good intentions but we are notorious for letting those slip to the side somewhere along the way.

I thought that today we could focus more on the smaller intentions that come our way, the ones that can come up at any time as we go about our daily lives. The ones that can come from the Holy Spirit speaking to our hearts. I even listed one of mine that I will let you hold me accountable for.

I hope that your holiday week was wonderful and that you are prepared for great and awesome things in 2008!

-Becky



GOOD INTENTIONS

“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ And he answered and said, ‘I will, sir’; and he did not go. And he came to the second and said the same thing. But he answered and said, ‘I will not’; yet he afterward regretted it and went. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The latter.” (Matthew 21:28-31a, NASB)

If you’re anything like me, it is so easy to have good intentions and then not follow through. I’m not talking about one or two here or there. I’m talking about the good intentions that we seem to have on an almost daily basis. The intention to pray for someone, the intention to call someone, the intention to exercise, the intention to send someone a note, the intention to answer an email, the intention to get together with someone, the intention to read the Bible, the intention to do the floors, the intention to scrapbook, the intention to clean out the closet, the intention to put away the clean clothes that have been sitting in a pile on the floor… and on and on and on.

We’re busy, plain and simple. We really, truly do intend to follow through on all of those things, but then we reach the end of the day and find that none of them have happened. And that’s if we even remember about them at all by the end of the day.

How does our relationship with God fit into this? God is often at the heart of the good intentions that arise out of the tugs to our heart… the ones that nudge us to call or write someone, the ones that nudge us to help someone in need, the ones that nudge us to pray with or for someone. We are the hands and feet of Christ and at times it is God Who places those tugs on our heart so that we can be Jesus to someone who needs His love at that very moment. The good news is that it’s not too late to follow through on those good intentions that have been lost in the shuffle of life. We can still be obedient to those things that God has placed on our hearts.

For me, it’s a little 3 year old red-headed girl. Just before Thanksgiving our local paper ran a story on the homeless here in our city. They focused on a family of three; a grandmother, a mother and a little red-haired girl. They stay in the library for warmth during the day and sleep in their car at night. They fear the little girl being taken from them if Social Services were to decide that their homelessness is grounds for neglect. It’s been on my heart to find them and offer them what little I have to give… a couple of extra blankets, some extra food from my pantry, some books or toys. I’ve had good intentions to find them for almost two months. They’ve been on my heart but I haven’t taken the time to follow through. This week I will.

What about you? What good intention have you had that you need to follow through on this week?