We can no longer live like we have another day nor run on empty plans and promises. We need to live with intent, and with love as the goal.

Sirens signal the end is near. Actions leave some of us in the flying dirt. Phone calls rise up with anger, hurt, and fear. Loneliness abounds in the lack of faith, friends and family.  All the chaos looses what our intent should be.

I find myself caught up in the meaning of intentional behaviors and thoughts, as I am prompted by my online community to write about that exact word: intentional.  The Five Minute Friday writing community prompt has kept these thoughts on the forefront, possibly a conviction of the Spirit.

I am brought back to just under a week ago when the alerts went out and the sirens blared. All of the intentions that we had were tossed to the wind while shock and fear struck our being.

We intentionally hit the pavement with prayer and hope while fear and the shadow of death were hovering near. All of the plans of new year’s resolutions, dreams of improvement, and family adventures seemed to no longer matter. The only true intentional things that really mattered were standing right next to me: people, family, husband, my children.  Our faith and trust in the Lord’s plans held us together.

I don’t want to live life in the aftermath of chaos, or constantly reflecting back on “that day.”  I do want to take this moment to look at myself, my plans, and what the Lord has given me while being intentional about each moment, each step and every interaction.

God created with purpose. Creation was made to bring Him glory through worship and relationship.  The Heavens glorify His name and so shall I.  My walk will be made with purpose in sharing the Good News that the Lord has made known to me.

Psalm 139:13-16 ESV 

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

He intentionally made me and I will live this intentionality in my relationships and worship.  I claimed to have lived this out all this time, but God has taught me a great lesson in humility. He showed me that I thought I had it together in my plans and actions, but the follow-through was not there and I needed to stop talking a big game. He showed me that it is time to live out loud and to take care of what He has commissioned me with. It is time to focus on relationships and community.

Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

To further drive myself and others forward, I would like to leave some encouraging verses about being intentional in relationships. 

Some of these verses will remind us about what is important. Others will help encourage us to look at others as the Lord looks at us.

John 15:13 ESV Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Romans 12:10 ESV Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

1 Corinthians 13:1-7 ESV  If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,but have not love, I gain nothing.  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Galatians 6:2 ESV  Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Ephesians 4:32 ESV Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Colossians 3:14 ESV And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV Therefore encourage one another and build one another up

1 Peter 4:8 ESV Love covers a multitude of sins

1 John 4:11 ESV Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.