Vision Planning: Top 3 Questions to Filter Your Time

Summer is almost here! Every time our schedule changes drastically like when summer starts or when its back to school in the fall or when it’s the start of a new year, it’s good to spend some time praying through how we want to spend our time for the upcoming season. We call this Vision Planning. Vision planning helps us use our time wisely and intentionally, prioritizing what matters most: loving well, dreaming big, living joyfully. When it comes to prioritizing time, I turn to my top 3 questions that help get you started.

Top 3 Questions to Ask Yourself In Transitions:

1. What Brings You Life?

In a big whirlwind of unknowns and big choices to make, a dear friend spoke with me. Linda Dillow (author of the classic, Calm My Anxious Heart, and her new release Hope for the Hurting Heart. Both are excellent.) She was reading my book When Mountains Crumble that very morning, including the chapter on writing a Life-Giving List. This is something I’ve done since high school in order to help me weed out busyness from my life. And it’s a tool I leaned on when my husband died in the middle of a move in order to try to find some ounce of joy in the sorrow and overwhelm.

But sometimes (and often), we need someone else to speak truth and remind us that we aren’t helpless in the chaos and we do have tools in our back pocket! And writing a Life-Giving List was the perfect tool for me to pull out of the cupboard and put to use.

Writing out what brings you life is an excellent guide to find your truest heart. There’s no expectations of shoulds or peer pressure involved. It’s just simply identifying what makes you feel alive. This is so good to remember when planning out your summer (or your fall or your new year).

2. What are your priorities?

Ms. Linda asked if I’d written these down recently as well. I know them by heart but it was so good to write them down and see them on the same piece of paper that held what brings me life. Christie Love from LeadHer taught me years ago to filter my decisions through my priorities. When the whole world feels like it’s spinning around us, it’s hard to get still and quiet enough to think straight. So Ms. Linda’s suggestion was a breath of fresh air.

3. What are your dreams?

We live in a culture that really glorifies duty, responsibility. and bustle. But I’ve learned that when I connect with my heart and dream with the Lord about what could be, it helps guide my best decisions. And when I’m working toward a dream and not just in a rat race, my work is more beautiful, more rewarding, and actually benefits God’s kingdom more. We’ve been taught to not really trust our dreams and the things on our hearts. But what if we did? What if we risked letting our hopes and dreams guide us more in our decisions. What if we risked Naming Our Desires?

We used to go on Dream Dates and just dream together. It was so good for our souls. I continue dreaming in my own ways now, usually with pen and paper and a little sketch or a private Pinterest board.

When we set our hearts on the Lord, when we set ourselves apart in His presence, He promises to gives us the desires of our hearts. There’s a sanctifying of our dreams as we pursue Him. The more we become like Christ, the more our dreams change.

 I’ve learned that my dreams can be trusted to the Lord. And He can be trusted to hold my dreams for a better time or trade my dreams for better ones. Sometimes, He moves in ways we didn’t have imagination for. But He can redeem every heart break, every broken dream, and He can be trusted to hold our dreams. Whether He fulfills them or trades them in for something better. His ways are always better.

Vision Planning:

Summer, Fall, and the new year are wonderful milestone markers to sit down and take a little vision retreat with the Lord. I used to do this with my late husband and it was so amazing to pray through what we wanted to prioritize in our family and to seek God’s heart for our family for the next season.

Since losing him, I still do this with the Lord. It doesn’t look like a romantic getaway to have fun and pray together. It’s more like a sneak away to the back porch or kitchen floor between all the things. I can’t do it in one weekend getaway right now. But. I do it over time here and there.

It’s so refreshing to work through The Vision Planner and really seek out God’s heart and priorities for me and my family. He often pleasantly surprises me. We can tend to put a heavy yoke of expectations and peer pressure on ourselves. But His yoke is easy. Even when He calls me to do radical and seemingly superhuman or super painful assignments, He provides the grace for it. And when I know I’m doing exactly what I’m called to be doing, there’s a deep level of peace and trust and knowing that comes with it as a reward. But when I’m just flailing around without direction and vision, it sure increases the overwhelm and feeling of internal chaos.

We’re putting The Vision Planner on sale NOW as a gift to you for the summer. Pray through your summer and fall vision while you enjoy the poolside and sunshine.

Catch it here:

The Art of Vision-Planning©