Starting the New Year with Vision!
12.30.11
Every year it is our family’s tradition to set goals for the upcoming year. We sit down as a family, with a big pile of cinnamon rolls, a large tablet of paper, markers, and the day before us. It is a wonderful tradition that we have built in our marriage and now our family. We highly recommend it to you!!!
First, look over the past year as see what you are grateful for and WHY you are grateful for them. THIS helps you prioritize ideas for the year to come.
Second, have everyone brainstorm dreams, visions, and plans they have for the year to come. THey can be big or small, short term or long. Just get them all down. From reading that book you’ve intended or planning time to spend with friends- put it on the list.
Third, make some categories to organize your ideas. We have categories for personal vs family, fellowship and ministry opportunities, educational goals and spiritual goals.
Fourth, we pray about everything on the list. Then, talk about it some more. Are the goals realistic? Are they in line with our family’s vision for itself? Are the inline with God’s word?
Last, we set practical (daily or monthly) goals that help us accomplish these year long goals. We get the calendar and see what we can plot out, what needs to stay the same, and what needs to go.
We encourage you to involve you WHOLE family! Everyone can be a part. We’ve had little ones share GREAT ideas. For example, one year we were talking about spending more time with people and one of our little ones said, “Lets have them over for a pizza party!” That was a GREAT and TANGIBLE way for a little person to contribute to our bigger family vision of “Fellowship with other families”.
Each time we study a character quality with our Wisdom Books, we try to apply it to as many areas of our lives as possible. When our family studied the character quality of Responsibility, this monthly planner was “born”. Feel free to print it out and use it how ever you see fit. In the little “scroll” on it we usually print scripture we are memorizing & in the “star burst” we put the character quality(s) we want to focus on.
Here it is: calender May this bless you as you plan out your year in 2012!
“A Vision without plans makes a visionary.
Plans without a vision makes drudgery.
A vision WITH a plan makes a missionary!”
In addition, we have planners and journal pages to go along side the Wisdom Books listed to the right under “Recommended Resources”. May these bless you as you plan out educating your children.
In gratitude for all GOd has blessed us with 
The Martin Family
Thank you so much for all of your wonderful resources! We are new to ATI and just completed our 1st Wisdom Book. We are looking forward to starting our 2nd one soon.
Many blessings!
Lisa
Lisa,
We are so glad you have begun in ATI- you will surely find that it blesses you more and more every month!
Enjoy the bounty!
Jill
Happy New Year Martin’s – from the Great White (a little green, actually) North!
The Nelson’s
I echo this post!!!
Success starts with strategic planning. But then it calls for us as servant of the Most High God to leave the results in His hands.
Our family has a quote this year taken from the writings of William Bradford – They committed themselves to God and resolved to proceed!
What direction, comfort, and peace this brings.
May the Lord richly bless the Martin family as they proceed to follow the will of the Lord.
Happy New Year!
Oh THAT is a great quote! How often do we commit something but then fail to proceed. When things get tough, I think of Abigail Adams saying to John Quincy “A genius would give to be born at such a time as this!”