Peace, Patience, Presence

Peace...what we seek.

Patience...what we need.

Presence...what it takes.

I recently reread the book ...be transformed: the 28-day intentional living experiment. In the introduction, the writer defines intentional living as “choosing a lifestyle with purpose, direction, and intentional daily actions...choosing to live life with an intentional, active life-plan.” He then goes on to discuss what he calls the four stages of intentional living: assess, aim, act, and adjust.

Assess

Examining our Lives.

Contemplating our Purpose.

Visualizing our Future.

Aim

Determining our Direction.

Developing our Goals

Choosing our Plans

Act

Prioritizing our Tasks.

Choosing our Habits.

Practicing our Experiments.

Adjust

Assessing our Progress.

Refining our Process

Enjoying our Transformation.

The writer then goes on to discuss what the “foundational four” areas of intention that include attention to faith, family, fitness, and finances. As I look back at these stages of intentional living and these areas of intention, I can’t help but ask myself three questions…

What do I seek?

What do I need?

What does it take?

With this in mind, take a moment to look at your hands. In your hands, you hold three pairs of glasses. We will give these glasses names. The first pair of glasses, we will call Peace. The second, we will call Patience. The third, we will call Presence. I invite you to put on the glasses of Peace and read through the four stages of intentional living and the four areas of intention while repeating the phrase, “I seek peace.” Then put on the glasses of Patience and read while repeating “I need patience.” Finally, put on glasses of Presence and read while repeating, “this takes presence.”

Let’s give today our attention. Let’s give our lives intention. Let’s remember that we all seek peace, we all need patience, and this all takes presence.

Enjoy the day!