It’s never too late to come together in unity as a couple to pursue your God-given dreams
After hours of traveling, we ripped off the required face masks and sat back to relax on the deck of our resort in Puerto Vallarta. This trip had been postponed several times, and the smell of saltwater with the ocean breeze on our faces felt like sweet victory.
Every year, we try to take time away, just the two of us, to do a vision retreat using the XO guidebook. However, this year it was July before we could get away. I took a bite of the delicious macaroons housekeeping had left for us and opened the first chapter of the vision retreat book.
My heart sank as I read the words on the page, “Before you go…”. “Oh no, we are already behind!” I exclaimed to my husband. We were supposed to do prep work before leaving on this getaway. Not only did we wait until July to have our annual vision retreat, but now we failed to do our prep work!
We had two choices at that moment: throw our hands up and say forget it or start where we were with what was in our hands. Thankfully, we chose the latter. We even left time for a great outdoor adventure of ziplining, horseback riding, water sliding, boating, and of course, alone time in the bedroom. Here’s what the Lord reminded us about pursuing goals as a couple through that vision retreat:
- It’s never too late to come together in unity as a couple to pursue your God-given dreams. While we might have waited until July to get together on our goals, God downloaded some incredible plans we are seeing come to pass already in 2022. We started a scholarship fund, started building our dream home, and said no to things that aren’t ours to carry. If we had quit because we got a late start, we would have missed out on God’s blessings.
- You’re not always going to agree on everything, but there needs to be unity on the end goal. It’s entertaining to read the difference in answers from “him” vs. “her” in our vision retreat book. For example, on the question that asked “Things our relationship needs,” my husband answered “sex and fun” while I responded “spiritual growth and intentional conversation.” Of course, we both care about these things, but our priorities and desires are different. While our day-to-day opinions might differ, our end goal of a close-knit, God-honoring family who serves the Lord in all we do is the same.
- Prayer changes things. When we couldn’t agree on what dreams and goals to pursue as a couple, we would take time out to pray about it. When we both went to the Lord with a submitted heart, He could redirect us individually. A simple prayer that has kept us on track is, “Lord, remove any dreams in our hearts that are not from you. But if it’s from you, make it burn so passionately that we can’t help but pursue it.”
When we start a new year, we are at peace with how we spend our time, money, energy, and resources because we know we are following God’s vision for our lives. It’s true that without vision, people and dreams perish. Take time to get alone with your spouse and dream about the year to come. Our vision retreats rarely include the exotic resort I described above. Our first vision retreat took place ten years ago in a humble cabin in the woods. Use whatever is in your hands and watch as the Lord gives you and your spouse God-sized dreams for the year ahead.