“Man does not plan to fail, he just fails to plan.” ~Frederick Douglass
Today we start our annual planning time. We’ve done this every year since 1995. We started out with one day, then a three day weekend, and have steadily added days until we are now taking a full week.
For the next week Dan and I will take three two hour sessions a day to pray and talk. In seven days that will be 20-21 hours. Whatever will we talk about for that long? Everything!
Our purpose is to live our lives as individuals and as a family more intentionally for the Lord.
What a delight it is to take time to pray over and discuss every area of our lives together. Three of those days will be spent on our children. In the morning Dan and I will pray and talk about each one, then spent the afternoon praying and talking with each of them.
During the other four days we will discuss Dan and all aspects of his life – his walk with the Lord, his work, his goals, hopes, dreams, and anything else he wants to talk or pray about.
Then we’ll discuss me, our marriage, our family, church involvement, finances, giving, vacations, our home, use of our discretionary time, and I’m sure I’m forgetting some area – but be sure we discuss anything that we do individually or as a family. We seek the Lord for His plans for our next year.
It’s a wonderful time for me – well for all of us because we know we will have each other’s undivided attention. There will be enough time to discuss anything any of us want/need to discuss and pray over it.
I’ve been very thankful for all the input I get during this time about our homeschool efforts. Dan and I do talk throughout the year, but this extended time together without interruption has been extremely helpful.
How would you like your husband’s undivided attention for 4-6 hours a day?
We covet your prayers for us during this week. The enemy doesn’t want us to build a strong family life so we always have plenty of warfare before, during, and after this time together.
We’ve put together a book Purposeful Planning that is available in our book store and will give your more information on how to plan your own planning time.
I also wanted to let you know that Adobe is offering Creative Suite 2 free. Just click on the link for your download for either MAC or PC.
And last, I want to remind you about the new book available from Shannon O’Donnell – Love’s Memory. She wrote a guest post yesterday with all the details it 
here. Be sure to check it out.
Finding Joy in the Journey,
Phyllis
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Phyllis Sather
Proclaiming God’s Faithfulness at:
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6 Comments
momstheword
I’m so sorry I didn’t get to this earlier! I hope your time went well, I KNOW it did when God’s involved!
What a blessing to be able to plan and talk together. I remember stressing out sometimes before a new homeschool year and bringing my concerns to my husband. Even though he wasn’t actually involved in the planning and choosing of curriculum (HIS choice), he was still able to give me good advice and help me when I was struggling over a choice or something! Thanks so much for linking up to Making Your Home Sing Monday!
Phyllis
Thanks for stopping by. Having Dan’s input for homeschool has been a great advantage. He seems to see the big picture while I tend to get bogged down in the day-to-day.
Phyllis
Thanks for stopping by Tara. If you want more info email me privately – Phyllis@Phyllis-Sather.com
Tara
Hi Phyllis, thank you for linking up over at The Proverbs 31 Sanctuary. Your planning time sounds amazing, our family could do with something like that. Have a blessed day. Tara.
Kirsten Oliphant
Just found you through the Create with Joy linky so I am surfing around your blog. 🙂 I love your planning idea! Rob, my hubby, HATES that kind of thing, so it would be miserable for us, not fun. And I get too task-oriented and anal. But…we’d be more intentional for sure.
Phyllis
Our planning times have been a huge blessing to our family, but its because my husband is so into it. Thanks for stopping by.