not to us

Recently, my friend, Daryl Hunter, tweeted his three words for the year.  I was intrigued, so I followed the link in his tweet.  It led me to a blog post by Chris Brogan.  His post got my wheels turning, even though it was a little above my head.  The idea is to forego traditional "resolutions" in favor of choosing key words for the new year.  Words that represent broader ideas to give guidance to the year ahead.

What can I say?  I'll try (almost) anything once.  :)

So, for 2010, I've got three words that I'll be using to guide my faith, my thoughts, my actions, and my choices.  All of these words have been in my heart for quite some time.  My three words for 2010 are:

Intent

Another friend, Kirsten Smith, wrote a blog post about Intent the other day.  I couldn't say it better myself, so I won't.  :)  It was quite interesting, because on the day she posted this article, I had written in my journal: "I don't care what I do this year, so long as I mean to do it."  Later that evening, Kirsten and I met for hot drinks and good conversation.  We intend to do it again soon.  :)

This year, if the laundry piles up, I want it to be because I made a specific choice to do something else...something more worthy than keeping my home in order.  This year, if I make someone angry or hurt their feelings, I want it to be on purpose.  Since that's never my intent, I mean to say that I hope to only make people angry this year if there's absolutely no way around it, and I hope to hurt no one's feelings.  I want to be an intentional and purposeful wife and mother.  At the end of our days, I want to go to sleep knowing that I gave my family everything I had to offer.  And, most importantly, I want to be incredibly deliberate in my relationship with Christ.

Belief

In God.  In myself.  In others.

Compassion

This word has layers.  I very literally want to be more focused on Compassion Internation.  I want Pracidia to know that she is loved, so much, by God and by us.  I want to work toward letting her know in a more tangible way.  I would like to become more involved with the program on any level, by sponsoring another child, promoting child sponsorship and the war on poverty, or any other opportunity I'm given. 

I also want to increase my compassion for the world around me.  My neighbors.  My community.  My city.  I want to react with compassion at all times.  I want to look beyond the hurt to see the need.  I want my heart to be broken for the things that break God's heart.  I want my eyes to be open to God's purpose in my to bring healing to the wounded and comfort to the hurting.

I will be making very intentional actions in the coming weeks to reduce my life to these purposes.  If, at some point in my deliberate journey with Christ, I feel led a different direction, then I will certainly obey.  For now, however, I am convinced that this is where I need to begin.

How about you?  Have you got some words?