Welcome back to our next post in the “Your Second New Year” series! I was able to get on Facebook and do a live video last week. I put it up on youtube so you could catch it there. You can hear a little about why I started this series, some of the personal challenges I had leading up to it, and my heart for you during it. I hope you’ve had time to spend before the Lord in prayer to see what He wants you to focus on over the next 3 months. This part will be crucial to the step we are talking about today. We get to dream a little and put these focal points into action.

Vision boards are often sorted out into 4 sections, but I also gave you the option of having perhaps one main word or theme that God may be working on with you. Maybe you can’t really pin down words, but you just know the feel that you want your life, family or home to have and you can do that with pictures rather than words. Great. There really is a lot of flexibility with this tool. Once you have narrowed those down, it’s time to take them and give them some life!

I want to address a couple things before we move on:

  1. This is a work in progress. The timeline to work on this is all about you. I am here just simply as a guide and resource! I had someone reach out to me saying that they are struggling with getting some time in because their little baby got sick. That’s ok! Don’t feel rushed and certainly don’t quit just because you can’t keep up. (If you need to push doing this until another season, I understand that too!)
  2. “Success” with this series looks different. Someone messaged me and said that vision boards tend to discourage them because they don’t always complete or achieve the goals on them. I would like for you to think about this a little differently. I would like for “success” to be based on the fact that you took time to pray and ask the Lord where He has you. That’s it. Done. If all you do is that, then I’m thrilled. If you make it to the next step of actually creating a board or binder, then great! Another level. I would be careful to gauge success on the completion of these goals. As much as I love for you to be an achiever, I would rather the achievement be focused more on the journey.
  3. You can do this “half-way” and still get results. I know there are a lot of you out there who are “all or nothing” people, which means that when the craziness of life interrupts your plans to do this board, you will stop dead in your tracks. This doesn’t have to happen. You can do the prayer part, but not get to the board..and that’s ok. You can choose 2 main focuses instead of 4…and that’s ok. You can halfway fill the board up, leaving spots open and unattended…and that’s ok. This “all or nothing” thinking right here is exactly one of the things that gets us into the predicament with losing steam on our goals that we set in January. Finish something. May not be all of it, but finish something. (See point #2 for the main thing I want you to finish 🙂 )
  4. Keep the main thing the main thing. It’s easy to get caught up in details and deadlines. It’s easy to get hyper-focused on ourselves. That’s not the main thing. The main thing is Jesus. It is a look at how we are best using our time in this season to glorify Him in what we do. It’s us making sure we are stewarding the good gifts He’s given us. These focuses can help us stir our affection for Him, and that matters because when we stay in constant communion and love with Him, that will pour out into our everyday lives. So they can be about self-care and such but let’s not let the pursuit of that end there. Our lives can be gone in an instant. The things on this vision board, need to count for something more than what meets the eye.

We are going through the book of Philippians in church and in Sunday’s sermon, we went over  3:1-11. This particular portion stuck out to me especially in regards to this vision board and I want you to keep this in your mind and heart as you move throughout this process.

“For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh...But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

Paul is making a bold comment here. There are many things he had confidence in and could have boasted about. Many things that were “gain” in the eyes of the world, but he considers them all rubbish! He is keeping the main thing the main thing. There are a lot of people who use vision boards to encourage, equip and inspire them, but I want to note that we, as Christians, will use them differently. We will use them as a tool to help us effectively bring the kingdom of God here on earth and to store up TREASURES IN HEAVEN…not TREASURES ON EARTH. (Matthew 6:19-20)

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HOW TO:

  1. Gather your materials. Spend some time at a local craft store, find old magazines, and print off some pictures from the internet. Get as much as you can.
  2. Find time. Now that you have everything, create some space to do this. Put on some worship music. Pray throughout the time you are creating. If you are doing this with someone else, talk about how you feel God will maybe help you as you work in this process.
  3. Get to work! Cut, paste, post, re-arrange. Have fun!

Here are some samples of previous boards/notebooks. I also have a board I’ve started on pinterest where it will give you some resources. You get to decide if this is something you want displayed on the wall, or in a notebook in your drawer.

 

These are part of the Dream it. Do it challenge and I thought I would leave them here in case any of you wanted to use them. You can also search pinterest or etsy for some other pretty vision board quotes! (If you see “peak313.com” it’s because that is what my old site used to be called!)

So it’s time to move to the next step of the challenge and get to work! Consider having a vision board party, and remember, your family can be a part of this too! If you have any questions, please leave them below. I’d also love to see your boards as you are making them, so send me a picture via email or tag me in any of the socials!! After we create the vision boards, we will move to the next step of elimination! (This actually may be my favorite piece to this process!) Stay tuned!

Posts in the series:

Introduction Post

First Things First: Resources

Prayer, journaling, and fasting: Why we need them, how to do it, and how I incorporate them!

 

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