It’s so easy to make rules about life.  To imagine things as black and white and perfectly planned.  Then you walk out into the world armed with a list of rules and expectations and sure enough, you run smack dab into a gray situation.

And you have to choose.

It’s not always easy or obvious.  Your rules don’t fit and you find yourself redefining the original rules and expectations.  Life is fluid.  Sometimes you just have to go with it.

Being intentional is no different.  When you decide to be intentional about life it can almost become a religion.  A rule to live by.  A mantra.

But you have to be careful because being intentional isn’t the same as setting goals or planning ahead and it’s really easy to begin to blur that line as you shift into trying to live a life of being intentional.  Sure a calendar helps you to be intentional about your time and learning to set realistic goals makes being intentional more possible, but being intentional is really about this moment.  Whatever this moment is, whether it is intentionally planned or unintentionally presented.

Take this little guy.  He followed us home last month.

Daxson shook his head.  Now’s not the time for a dog, he mouthed to me as the dog happily licked my kids.  He was right.  This wasn’t an intentionally planned moment.

But this dog.

He’s sweet and docile and extremely lovable.  He makes my kids giggle and he brings unbiased love to our little domain.  He’s loyal and protective and always happy to see us.

He was homeless, having been dumped in our neighborhood, and in need of people.

So we made a decision.

We kept him.

We chose that one moment over a multitude of future what-if moments and we chose to keep him.

Sometimes life is like that.  We fail to be present in this moment because we’re far too busy thinking about our imaginary future moments.  Being intentional is about THIS MOMENT right now and how we choose to live THIS MOMENT.