Before I think about what I want a system to do, I care about the intention I am bringing into building it.
That has become central to how I work.
I believe my intention changes the way I think. It changes which ideas I notice, which possibilities feel worth pursuing, and what I eventually create. The heart I bring into the work is part of the work.
My faith in Christ has changed that heart.
I feel loved and protected. I feel grateful for my life and for the opportunity to make things. From that place, I want what I build to carry goodness in its construction.
I want that goodness to be present from the beginning. I want to consider the intention while I am making decisions: why this should exist, what I am asking it to do, and how I want to feel about the work I put into it.
I ask myself what I am reaching for.
Am I trying to make something useful? Am I enjoying the act of creating? Am I giving this idea care because I believe in the good it could make possible?
Those questions bring me back to the part I can actually tend: my own posture going into the work.
I have learned how different building feels when I am grateful before I begin. I have more room to enjoy an idea. I can be curious about what it might become. I can put attention into a detail because I care about it, without asking that detail to prove something about me.
I want that intention to reach into the systems themselves.
For me, this means treating goodness as something to practice in the construction. I have to return to it in the choices I make. What do I include? What do I simplify? What am I making possible? Does this decision express the care I intended to bring?
As I make decisions and pay attention to what I create, I keep returning to that intention. My heart posture gives the work its direction.
I think of the work as an opportunity to shine the light I have been given. My connection to God is the center, and creating is one of the ways I get to express my gratitude for it.
I am grateful that I get to build.
I want that gratitude to be present in what I make.
