2024 started in a really weird way for me. As the clock counted down toward midnight, I found myself sitting on an uncomfortable airplane chair, surrounded by half asleep strangers. I was traveling back to Virginia after a week with my family in California. Even without the countdown, fireworks, and cheers to ring in 2024, my heart knew it was entering a new season – one where intentionality would become key. 

What is intentionality? Dictionary.com defines intentionality as “an attitude of purposefulness, with a commitment to deliberate action.” I recently accepted a job position within my current department, one where some days I wouldn’t work until later. Having had a similar schedule in the past, I knew two things: I was given the opportunity for more flexibility and I knew I needed to steward it well. The easy choice would be to sleep in until it was time to clock into work, something I’ve done before in the past, but I knew that I wanted to use that extra time for writing and editing. So I set my alarm for 6 AM my first day on the new job, it was a small step toward intentionality. This is when I realized a few lessons I was still learning about intentionality:

1. Intentionality keeps us in the here and now.

I think it’s easy to think about and plan for the future. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. However, we’re not being intentional with the current season we’re placed in when all we can think about is tomorrow.  

2. Intentionality allows for accountability.

Intentionality is a practice and discipline that will require work. One thing I would encourage you to do is find accountability. For months now, I have been working on being intentional with my evenings, especially with the time that I head to bed. Just about every morning, as we start our work days, my friend and I message each other with our plans for the evening, including a general time we hope to shut off the lights and head to bed. A lot of times, the next morning, I’ll send a message saying something along the lines of, “I did not get to bed early enough and I am exhausted today….” or she’ll send me a message saying how she was successful in her previous evening ventures and we’ll celebrate with each other’s wins. Accountability is important because it helps us realize that we are not alone in this life.

3. Intentionality reminds us there’s room for grace.

When you think about it, every action we take comes with some form of intentionality and sometimes the outcome looks different from our original expectation. I had every intention of getting up early to knock out my to do list. However, as soon as my alarm went off, the procrastination set in. As the day continued, I was starting to grow disappointed in myself and knew there were some decisions I needed to make while focusing on intentionality.

This is where grace and flexibility come into play. Maybe your expectation and intention is to go to bed at a reasonable hour, but then you begin doom-scrolling on Instagram, and before you know it, it is way past that original bedtime you had hoped for. You definitely had good intentions, but it’s important to offer yourself grace. There’s always room to grow.

No matter what your 2024 resolutions are, I hope you take some time for intentionality and make decisions to glorify the Lord.

What choices do you face during your day? Are there some decisions that you are faced with in which you are needing to practice intentionality?