intention

I was thinking yesterday about how the subject of "Intention" has been popping up over & over again in my world the last few days. 

First, I heard an interview on Oprah radio a few days ago that Oprah did with a lady who studies intention from a scientific standpoint....she gave all sorts of data that supports the idea that intention can be an extremely powerful source of change. She gave an example of thousands of people focusing their intention at the same time on decreasing violence in Sri Lanka, and showed that violence actually decreased dramatically in that region after the experiment. 

I am also taking a Bible Study right now about the power of praying for our husbands. It is all about taking specific areas of our husband's lives (work, finances, relationships, health, etc.) and focusing on each of those areas for a week at a time......when our intention is to show our husbands love, respect, gratitude and kindness through prayer, God will bring about miraculous things!

Then, this past Sunday, my husband had Joel Osteen on the television while he read the Sunday paper......Joel was talking about the power of our thoughts and our words to shape the course of our days. He reminded us to wake up every single morning with the intention that the rest of the day would be fabulous......to actually say out loud that "today is going to be a blessed day!" Instead of complaining about your back, your finances, your lack of sleep, your busy schedule....to proclaim each day that you are blessed, that your are healthy, vibrant, full of energy. I must confess, that at times, I find Joel to be a tad cheesy, but I am right on board with him on this one!!

To top it off, at church on Sunday, the message was on "How to Manage Your Money".....it was all about having a plan (intention) for your (God's) money, not simply moving money from account to account or crossing your fingers that the credit card will go through, but actually sitting down with your spouse on a monthly basis and taking a hard look at where your money is going, and how we can be better stewards of the money God has blessed us with. Specifically, he spoke about the 10-10-80 Plan, which is to Give 10% of your earnings, Save 10% of your earnings and the final 80% is left for your lifestyle (and whatever debt you may have). So simple, yet very few of us actually manage our money in this way.

I think it is safe to say that God is speaking to me about the power of prayer and intention!! Here are a few of the ways I plan on putting this into practice:

1. Scheduling a time/place to sit down with my husband and have a Family Finances Meeting each month

2. Continuing to write down our family prayers on the chalkboard in our kitchen

3. Making time to pray with my husband and with the children outloud (other than just at dinner and bedtime)

4. Coming up with a Family "Mission Statement" and a Marriage "Mission Statement"....nothing too fancy, just coming together as a family to create a plan listing out the values that are important to us.....what we want our family and our marriage to look like