Episode 403: I’m Talkin…Intentional

I’m Talkin’, episode 403 for January 4th, 2026.

This is Joel from the I’m Talkin’ microcast, where I share my thoughts on a topic that has piqued my interest this past week.

This week, we’re talking intentional.

So I looked up the definition of intentional, and it’s pretty simple.

It says on purpose or deliberate, and I think that’s perfect because that is exactly what I’m thinking about when I think about intentional.

So I am not much of a New Year’s resolution kind of person, but there’s a couple times over the course of my life where I’ve chosen a word that I try to make personal to me over the course of the upcoming year, and this year the word intentional came to mind.

I had dinner with a friend, and he’s a very intentional person, and I thought, I should be more like that.

I should happen to more things than let things happen to me.

And so when I think of the way the world uses this word, there’s really no difference on the surface.

As often as the case, it’s the depth of the word that makes the difference, and therein lies the challenge for those of us who call ourselves Christians.

As a Christian, intentional means something very similar, doing something deliberate, doing something on purpose, but there’s an added depth to the word, maybe an added focus, and that really becomes a number of things, I guess.

One is based on who God is and what He’s done for us.

It means that our intentionality can be at a different level, and I’m hoping to base mine on Scripture this year.

So I found a number of verses, maybe somewhere in the 20 to 30 range, and I’m hoping those become my memorization passages for this upcoming year as well.

And so when I think of that, I’m thinking of taking those Scriptures and how they apply to my life, how they apply to my relationships with my wife, with my kids, with my grandkids, looking at my relationships at work, how do I do my work, how do I perform on a daily basis.

And it’s not that I have to perform for God, it’s that I want to be intentional in my actions.

I want to do things deliberately.

As I said before, I want to happen to my life.

I don’t want my life to just happen to me.

That’s going to be hard for me because sometimes I am lazy, and sometimes I just want to go through my day.

I’m good at what I do because God has given me talent for that.

And yet, in parts of my life, I tend to let those things float, to let those things slack and just happen and then react to them as they do.

This year, with prayer, with concentration, with help from my friends and family, with Scripture memorization, I hope to be more intentional.

Until next week, this is Joel from the I’m Talking microcast.