Choosing intention in the new year

It’s a new year!

Do you have your resolutions ready? Go to the gym, save money, travel more, read more books, etc.?

I don’t.

I don’t have resolutions, nothing to check off a list. Though honestly I think resolutions can be super fun. In 2025, I set out to camp once a month (I got 9 trips in—booyah). Anyway, I don’t have resolutions this year, but I do have intentions.

The year 2025 rocked my little family system. So much so that by New Year’s Eve, my husband and I on our end-of-the-year date both sighed, “Can we finally stop talking and reflecting on this last year? Let’s move forward. Who do we want to be?” We’ve been listening to this Shaboozey song on repeat lately:

Let’s stay and walk the line ’til the end
And I know you're tired, hell, so am I
We can’t take the same road again
So let’s stay out here for a while

That song has echoed the haunting feeling that we can’t take the same road we did in 2025. We need new intentions, a new vision, a new imagination for this year.

So we sat down for a kidless moment on New Year’s Eve and had our sobering “Who do I want to be?” intention-setting conversation.

As goofy as this might seem, my intention was this: I want to be a happy mom this year. I know that many days I am a happy, flourishing, joyful, present mom. And I also know that the overstimulating, lonely, overwhelmed, grumpy, exhausted moments of motherhood took a toll on my mental health, my soul, and our household.

So my 2026 intention comes with an organizing of my patterns, rhythms, and habits. What are the microdecisions I’m making every day that help me live into this intention?

I am slowly establishing new practices: putting my phone away for long stretches of time, going to sleep early, waking up to work out before the sun rises, trading out my nighttime dessert addiction for a cup of tea, asking for more help, inviting community into my struggles, hosting in my home even when it’s a mess, investing in more childcare. 

None of these practices are perfect. None will be perfectly sustained throughout the 2026 year. And that’s not the point; the point is that my intention is guiding me to who I long to be—my true self—and my everyday rhythms will nourish this intention. 

As you head into this year, is there a word or phrase or sentence that centers you, that draws you toward who you want to be? How might intention-setting or resolutions connect you more deeply to yourself, your community, or God? We know God is already with us in these ordinary moments. These intentions, rather than highlighting our inadequacies, are sacred pathways to who we are created to be. 

As we head into this new year, let’s have fun as we live into the people we want to be!