Reflecting on the Past, Planning for the Future…

Posted by Brent on Dec 6, 2011 in Blog Entries | 3 comments

It’s become a yearly ritual. It’s in a different place. The setting and context are different each year. But…we do it every year.

Our annual ‘end of the year get-a-way’ is what I call it.

Each year, we go some place to ‘unplug’ from everyday life. We rest. We reflect on the past. We dream about and plan some for the future. And…we seek God.

We’ve been to new places…we’ve been to old places. We’ve been to exotic and not so exotic places. This year it will be a warm, sunny place in another country (it’s a surprise for my wife, so I won’t tell you where ) But…each year we do it – we spend quality time together, seek God together, and it always pays dividends.

How does it pay dividends? I’m glad you asked

*In our marriage

*In our relationships with God

*In our relationships with people

*In our vocations

 

The quality time ‘away’ from everyday life always stimulates good discussions for Stephanie and me. Focused time together helps us to spend quality time with God and quality each other that really develops intimacy. I always enjoy our prayer and planning times. Stephanie really appreciates me taking the lead in planning these times away.

We reflect on relationships that have been mutually beneficial (for the others, for us). In recent years, we’ve decided to change some of where we spend our time in relationships. We invested in new friendships that have really blossomed. Some friendships have changed, and we’ve decided to spend less time on those. We’ve made some good, but hard decisions…and it’s paid off in developing more intimacy in what we now know are authentic relationships.

It’s always cool to talk about what’s going well…and what’s not going well in our vocations. In these times, we’ve made plans for overseas travel, investing in more education for ourselves, in changing jobs, in getting certifications to help us to go further in our jobs. Again…we see growth in this area of our lives, primarily because we make the time to talk about it.

What have you done lately to reflect on the past and plan for the future?

You don’t necessarily have to go to an exotic place. But…you do need to focus on it…or it won’t happen. Please share your stories and suggestions below.