Good Intentions

Good Intentions

It is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.

James 4:17

I have an embarrassing confession to make: sometimes my good intentions suffer from a lack of follow-through. Like the time I bought baby items for a local diaper drive and then didn’t drop them off in time, or the time I picked out flowers online to send to a grieving daughter and forgot to finish the purchase, or the time I sent my nephew his graduation card nine months late. I am full of good ideas, but I will be the first to admit—to my chagrin and my husband’s everlasting frustration—that sometimes I just forget to do things.

One year, I had the idea of doing something in conjunction with my oldest daughter’s birthday. There’s a birthday-box program where you can send shoeboxes filled with certain items to children in poverty-stricken communities around the country. I looked it up online, contacted the program, bought the items, and put the boxes together with my children. And then those four bright boxes sat in my office for more than a year. I never took them to the post office, never sent them. Kindness fail.

Oh, sure, I eventually used one of the boxes to take cookies to our new neighbors, and I gave away the toys and books to children in need locally. But my original intention was never realized, much to my shame.

I know that people say it’s the thought that counts, but in my mind that’s a little disingenuous. It lets people like me feel good about unfulfilled intentions. Scripture says that it is a sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. I can understand this, because in my mind, my failure has nothing to do with what I’m giving away and everything to do with the attitude of my own heart. When I don’t follow through, I’m not considering someone else and their needs, but my own priorities. I will never be perfect, but I can commit to prayerfully trying to do better and make good on my intentions one at a time.

—Kristin

— Today’s Act of Kindness —

Think of one kind act you’ve been meaning to do but have yet to follow through on. Stop procrastinating and do it.