2023 Word of the Year: Intentional
"May He kiss me with the kisses of His mouth!" Song of Songs 1:1
The Father is sending beautiful kisses from heaven, kisses from the heart of God that are going to minister to your heart.
February is known for being the month of love, so what better way to celebrate it than loving intentionally? Throughout the month, I looked for little ways to love.
Thoughts from my Journal:
- Watch for God's intentional love: His kisses from heaven.
- His kiss is a beautiful sunrise, reminding you His mercies are new every morning.
- His word kisses you with the wisdom you need today.
- You may be kissed by a snowflake. It's Him saying you are unique and wonderfully made.
- His kiss is a picture that brings you joy.
- A kiss may be a song that blesses your heart.
- His kisses are found in a hug from a friend and the smile of a stranger.
- His kisses are dreams coming true, desires fulfilled.
- Love is audacious.
Audacious: showing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks
intrepidly daring, adventurous
extremely bold or daring, recklessly brave; fearless
"Be audacious in your day. Be contemptuously audacious in your exploits of love this day. Plan audaciously. Love audaciously. Dare with audacity this day.
Love without limits this day. Surprise someone with the affluence of love. Let every person you meet today be a victim of the outpouring of My love through your life. Waylay some unsuspecting person with buckets and buckets of love.
As you release love, you release yourself. Love will overturn everything in your life contrary to love. Today the spontaneity of love is going to ambush your enemies and defeat every strategy of hell against you." from a prophetic word to me for 2023
Being audacious doesn't come naturally to me.
What holds me back from loving audaciously?
- Fear: they are busy, don't want to bother them, won't accept me
- Comfort: Don't want to step out of my comfort zone.
- Laziness: loving takes more effort than I want to expend.
- Intentional love is shown by the small things I do every day. Grand gestures are wonderful, but it is what I do on a daily basis that shows what is in my heart.
- Pay attention and appreciate the small gifts of love that I receive. Love is in the coffee that Steve brings me as I sit on the porch or at working in the office. Love is in the text messages for my kids. Love is in the little things that Mom gives me. Love is in the neighbors checking on us during the cold.
Scriptures:
2 Timothy 1:7 AMP For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline [abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind, and self-control].
MSG God doesn’t want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving, and sensible.
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Jude 20-21 TPT But you, my delightfully loved friends, constantly and progressively build yourselves up on the foundation of your most holy faith by praying every moment in the Spirit. Fasten your hearts to the love of God and receive the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gives us eternal life.
Romans 5:5 TPT And this hope is not a disappointing fantasy, because we can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us!
Quotes:
When love puts its arms around fear - fear melts. -Ann Voskamp
True love doesn't happen by accident. It's deliberate, it's intentional, it's purposeful, and in the end, it's worth it. -Darlene Schacht
Love is the thing that enables a woman to sing while she mops up the floor after her husband has walked across it in his barn boots. -Hoosier Farmer Saying
"Let me not imagine my love for You is very great if I am unwilling to do for a human being something very small." -Elisabeth Elliot
Picture It:
Action Plan:
Love Intentionally
- #write28day challenge: be faithful to post, read and comment
- Worship
- Listen and affirm my husband
- Visit and help Mom
- A smile, a hello to a stranger, a hug to a friend, and a chat with family are all ways I can love intentionally.
My Celebration:
Love Me Day- hair cut followed by Barnes and Noble visit. Buy the new "in her studio" magazine and treat myself to Caramel Macchiato and pastry in the café.
Discoveries along the way:
Matt Tommey e-mail Feb. 14:
"When; you learn to live from love everything changes. Living confidently in love frees you to do everything, be everything, and have everything God designed for you without the self-imposed limitations of fear.
But you have to intentionally choose to live from love. As you do it will become more normal for you. At first, you will resist. Everything in you will want to resist because it feels unnatural. But this is the process of sanctification; choosing to love by God's grace, through faith."
Donna Serenity in Suffering e-mail Feb. 23:
"Loving others often involves sacrifice. Yet we show the greatest love in the smallest of tasks. Truthfully, when we feel like it, loving others is easy. but living our love when we don't feel like it, reveals our true motives in loving.
Loving others in the small tasks of the ordinary every day reveals our great love of God."
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Highlights & Review:
-Setting my intentions first thing in the morning has made me more productive.
-Participated in the #write28days challenge. I intentionally read and commented on blogs.
-Made cookies for Steve for Valentine's Day.
-Dan came and spent the day with us. We had lunch at Cracker Barrel and then visited Dad's grave. That afternoon at Mom's, we looked through Dad's record collection and explained who those artists were. Had a great day with him, Mom, and Steve.
How is your journey progressing this month?
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2 comments
Watching for God’s intentional love is so helpful in finding it. Seek and you will find. :) I’m trying to be intentional this month in saying thank you more often to my husband. He does so many things for me!
Ah! The little ways God shows us love and we show it to others are so important.
Thank you for showing us how loving intentionally works!