Intentional

I am excited to introduce you to my new friends. They live in Sudan and she wrote a wonderful blog article on being intentional with your children.  This goes along so well with the purpose of my website. I hope you will be blessed as much as I was from reading this.

By definition, this word can mean the following: characterized by conscious design or purpose; done or performed with purpose and intent; the end or goal that is aimed at, or intended to accomplish; done deliberately; done with intent; “I did this by choice”.

This is how we ought to live. Amen. I could close with that! I have been very excited about this summer with my children. As each summer has approached in recent years I have this sense of the limited time I have with them as they grow older. Here in Sudan, the majority of people we work with, as well as Sudanese that can afford to, leave for at least a portion of the summer (the other night it was still 97 degrees at midnight!). The fact that most of my kids friends leave is something that I see as a unique gift, forcing and forging their relationships with each other. So, here we are—school let out yesterday and the word on my heart is “intentional”.

There are practical skills I want my kids to learn, experiences I want them to have and share with them…but far more I want them to learn something that it seems I am just figuring out myself, and that is how to simply “be”. When the kids came home from their last day of school, they opened a present. I am sure that they were disappointed! At least it wasn’t what they had in mind. Inside was a huge white piece of fabric that is now hung on our wall for the summer. Across the top was written this question: “Who Are We?” On that sheet they are going to draw all the fun things we do this summer and all the while together we will be ‘becoming’. I am not sure how to explain just what God is doing in my heart. I do know that this is the question that not only we need to ask, but it would help all of us. Who are we? Are we who we want to be? What are we doing/or not doing that is shaping us? What defines us? What do we want to define us? More importantly, Who defines us. I have personally tolerated too many things in my personal life and in our family simply for lack of being very intentional about doing the things that will bring about changes I desire.

We all know that we have to be intentional about things that we really want to see happen. I think it is easy to do this in tangible ways like saving money toward a certain goal—more difficult to do when we are trying to be intentional about becoming a certain type of person for example. How do we measure it? Sometimes, the growth is so subtle and we are even unaware it is happening…so when growth is difficult to measure, much less be found, we mustn’t get discouraged. On the other hand, a tree is known by its fruit. If there isn’t anything that points toward what you want to be growing, maybe some branches need to be chopped off altogether to make room for the new thing to grow!

One of my most favorite quotes is: “your home is the most powerful arena to change a life for God”. I will continue to reach out to my neighbors. Steve is working diligently to do some restructuring of the English centers to make sure that we are focused on proclamation of the Gospel. I know that you would all agree that we could reach all the Muslims of Sudan for Christ and if we lost our family in the process, we would have missed it. I think we typically operate in a good balance with this—but I wanted to share with you what God has on my heart. We cannot apologize, especially for those of you who are moms, for making our families our priority!

Here I am at the start of summer with a lot of good intentions. Will I fail? In some ways, I know I most certainly will. But I think that even in the effort, we will be “becoming” and if we are intentional with the end in sight, Jesus will define us. He will continue to teach me how being is of greater value than doing. He will continue to teach us how to really love each other. As His heart grows in us, he will show us how to respond to the poverty and suffering all around us in His way. I am counting on it. My heart is full of good intentions but as I said, I am learning to “be”. I know that apart from Him I can do nothing. I know that through Christ in us, He will accomplish His purposes for our family and for yours as well. Oh what might He do if we yield ourselves to the process of His definitions…