Intentional
Intentional probably isn’t how most of us would describe ourselves. I am spontaneous and prefer to not have a plan. Perhaps a general outline would be more my idea of a plan. I love to just get up and go and let the wind blow however it pleases. We can be flexible. We can adapt. My husband is a very careful person-with relationships with words with time. He is very aware of the impact of decisions he makes and how they will affect others. He cares about all the details and even the details of the details. Obviously God put us together for a reason.
Family needs to be intentional. Just because two people decided to get married and happen to have kids doesn’t necessarily make a family and definitely doesn’t mean they will make a family that works. Dysfunctional family grows out of family without intentionality. In fact, our society encourages a fractured and dysfunctional home, separating children from families at a young age for education that typically begins far to young and indoctrinates them into leaving the house the first thing in the morning for the rest of their lives. Men and women are encouraged to have careers separately, and typically, outside the home, creating for themselves their own identities away from family. Even with in the home, our separate devices can lead us into different worlds, interests and friends. In fact it is so easy to become fractured, disinterested, and alienated from those we live with that, intentionality is NECESSARY to becoming a whole, cohesive, and healthy family group.
Starting our families from the same value system and beliefs is core to making decisions about what will or will not benefit your family. Believing that God gave us children because He wants us to raise them, is a key component of why we chose homeschool over another type of schooling. It would be much easier (probably for the both of us but defiantly for me) if we sent the kids to school-public or private. But such a significant amount of time spent outside the home, is spent with values that are outside the home, spent with others who may not have the same vision or goal toward what makes a whole and complete person, and that can negatively impact the direction that we believe are important to the growth of a child. This is only one example of how we intentionally made a decision toward family togetherness and creating a home environment that would encourage our kids to grow in faith.
Choosing a Messianic congregation was, for us, about finding the most Biblical place we could attend that would help us to grow in grace, and decidedly about community. We wanted a place where our children would learn about the Biblical feasts around like minded people who believed that those feasts were important and had value (rather then thinking they were just interesting icons of a historical culture we no longer adhere to).
Even families without children can be intentional in how they structure their time and energies to benefit the growth of the family. Finding things to do that encourage you to walk in faith together- volunteering, participating in community, spending time with other believers who encourage your faith, finding others to pull into your circle to encourage, discussing articles or passages of scripture, or sermons together. All these things will help build a culture of intentionality into your home.
Perhaps you chose to be more intentional in one area of your life for a season: speaking gently to yourself or others, training your mind to think with grace about those you come into contact with, extending hospitality toward others, choosing where you spend your weekend and with whom, memorizing a scripture verse or two that will encourage your growth in grace. Growth happens in so many different directions. Which way are you being led today?
In Messiahs Love,
Kim
