When our children were young, they often would ask to do things they were suddenly excited about. The requests would sound something like this: “Mommy, can we go swimming today?” “Can I have a friend sleep over tonight?” “Can we go out for supper now?” At times the answer they received was yes, much to their delight. More often though, the answer was, “If that’s something you would like to do, we can plan it into the schedule for another day.”
My husband and I agreed that it was important to teach our children about planning from a young age, because we knew it would be very beneficial to them as they grew. We continue to prove in our own lives the profit of consistent planning and preparation; it helps us to stay like-minded and avoid confusion, which promotes peace in our home. From planning our weekly schedule to thinking through extensive details as we prepared for a move across the country, utilizing planning and preparation has helped us to successfully achieve our goals. Planning and preparation are key to achieving our Word-based goals, promoting peace in our homes.
God’s Word encourages us to invest effort in planning and preparation in order to successfully achieve our goals.
Proverbs 4:26:
Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
This verse figuratively refers to thinking things all the way through to the extent of removing obstacles that could hinder us from getting to our destination. What a great description of planning and preparation! “Ponder the path of thy feet.” Having a well-developed plan enables us to foresee potential obstacles and take care of them so they don’t cause problems later as we work toward accomplishing a goal. Proverbs 4:26 in The Amplified Bible, 1987 edition, reads, “Consider well the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established and ordered aright.” By considering well, by thoughtfully considering decisions according to God’s Word, we set ourselves up for success in achieving our Word-based goals.
Jesus Christ taught the importance of thinking through the details of a job in order to plan for the successful completion of it before taking action on it.
Luke 14:28:
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
As we set out to accomplish a task or work toward achieving one of our goals, we can set ourselves up for success by first investing time in planning and preparing—thoughtfully considering our decisions, thinking through all of the details involved—and then taking action. This allows us to move forward with peace and confidence, because we not only have a goal before us but a well thought-through plan of how to accomplish it.
Planning and preparation help us achieve our Word-based goals, promoting peace in our homes. Here are a few examples of Word-based goals and ideas of how to include planning and preparation to accomplish them.
- Spending time with God each day in the Word and prayer is certainly a worthy goal for every believer. One way to help achieve this is by planning to get up early before other responsibilities compete for your attention.
- Keeping an orderly home is another Word-based goal (I Corinthians 14:40). Some simple preparation can make a big difference in this category. For example, trying to clean the entire house in one day could be overwhelming. Instead, consider making a plan to accomplish a little work every day, even doing what you can the night before. If you can, go to bed with a house that is picked up. That helps make for a peaceful environment and can contribute toward a restful sleep and a successful start to the next day.
- Some projects at home are so big, we might be tempted to avoid even starting them. Knowing we need to get them done can be burdensome mentally. To help us be more peaceful, we can prepare for accomplishing these big projects by breaking them down into smaller tasks and faithfully working away at each task until we have the blessing of completing the entire job (Proverbs 28:20).
- Having a household schedule and calendar in plain view helps prevent conflicts in a home. Meeting together as a household to plan for the upcoming week is key. Preparing a weekly schedule and posting it where all can see helps the family to be like-minded and avoid confusion. This can greatly contribute to peace within the home (I Corinthians 14:33).
God’s Word has great encouragement and exhortation on the topic of planning and preparation. It exhorts us to ponder the path of our feet and to count the cost before taking action to carry out a task or achieve a goal. Investing ourselves in planning and preparation is time well spent as it allows us to move ahead with confidence, helps us to avoid confusion, and promotes peace in the home. It also sets us up for success because planning and preparation are key to accomplishing our Word-based goals.