Good intensions

I make my best plans in the shower. I remember a letter I want to send. I remember friends I want to call. I think of the yummy meal I want to make my family for dinner. Some mornings I think of parties I’d like to have or projects I’d like to start. Then I step out to of the shower and my good intensions evaporate. I hardly send friendly letters anymore. I don’t even send newsy emails. I forget to call a friend till evening has turned to night and my head is hitting the pillow. Parties? Projects? Forget it, I just get the necessities done most weeks. This is not the way I want to be. I want to take back my good intensions. I want ACTION!

I have made a small start. When a pleasant comment comes to mind I say it. A coworker remembered to fill the copier with white paper after he used colored paper. Oh thank you for remembering! He smiled. Our pastor said a particularly heart felt prayer at church. Right after the service I told him how much I appreciated it. He thanked me for the encouragement. I picked my son up from school and drove by Chili’s for a special after school snack. He was tickled. I am acting on my good intensions. These are small things, true. In the shower I have big ideas. I imagine new ministries, more disciplined prayer times, sweeping actions of change. It all dries up. So I am learning to use a trickle of good ideas instead of a river.

I am thinking small now. I look for times in my day to act on a good intension. It is beginning to work. I see more and more opportunities to do a little good. I don’t have as many regrets at the end of the day. I still get behind on the laundry. The groceries don’t always get purchased in a timely fashion. But I am happier at the end of the day. I have found ways to show others appreciation, I tell them! I still splash out big plans in the shower. And one day I’ll act on some of those, but I know longer beat myself up thinking I have done nothing all day but get by.

Try acting on your good intensions. Say the thing that will make someone’s day, offer help, make the call or plan the lunch that will lift someone’s spirit. It doesn’t take much time and it puts the “feel good” in good intensions. You’ve heard the phrase “the road to hell is paved with good intensions.” It means all those impulses to do good sat unused. It means you had all the right thoughts but never did anything about it. I’m drenched with good thoughts each morning. God plants them for a reason. They give me a place to start looking, a place to use my good intensions. I miss opportunities everyday, too tired or wet to follow through. But the change is trickling through and I can feel the refreshment of good intensions fulfilled. Try it yourself and see what I mean.

Posted 2/14/2007 @ 12:51 PM | Weekly Thoughts