Live with Intention

3-8"What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the
seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it
sprouted quickly but didn't put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered
just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the
weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest
dreams.

18-19"Study this story of the farmer planting seed. When anyone hears news
of the kingdom and doesn't take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so
the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person's heart. This is
the seed the farmer scatters on the road.
20-21"The seed cast in the
gravel—this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. But
there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some
difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.
22"The seed cast
in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and
illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what
was heard, and nothing comes of it.
23"The seed cast on good earth is
the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond
his wildest dreams." Matthew 13 (The Message)

During my morning quiet time today, I read the parable of the Sower. (See above in the Message version) I find that even though I am a Christian and believe in Christ with all of my heart, I am not always "good earth." I think that often my life is filled with "weeds." The weeds are the busy-ness of life. There are so many things to do to manage a household of eight. Add to that the homeschooling, managing the apartments, church commitments, etc. and my life is full of so many things to do. The difficult thing is to figure out what things on my daily to-do list are weeds and which are the plants that will produce a harvest "beyond my wildest dreams."

Last night, as I was going to sleep and thinking about all that I need to get done, a thought came strongly into my head and it feels like it is from God. I need to Live with Intention. What does that mean? There are more things to fill my day than I can possibly ever get done. Living with intention, is intentionally choosing those activities instead of just merely dealing with things as they come at me. It is planning ahead instead of dealing with emergencies as they happen. Now, there are day that are just filled with emergencies and catastrophes that need to be dealt with, but I believe that by planning ahead, we can get less sucked into those things that SEEM like emergencies at the time, but are really not in the eternal picture.

So, my plan of action:

• Make sure that I have daily quiet time with God to be able to discern what needs to be weeded out each day.
• Make short manageable to-do lists and follow them.