Getting a Clear Vision is paramount for any relationship, especially marriage, because life brings many responsibilities and problems that take all of us in many different directions. If two people do not have a Clear Vision for the future the relationship can become stale and empty because of lack of purpose and right priorities.
**Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. ** Proverbs 4:25
It is easy for any of us to allow ourselves to be distracted with the issues that pop up in front of us from minute to minute. Proverbs 4 reminds us of our need to have a Clear Vision that looks forward toward the future. Getting stuck in today’s difficulties can make us short-sighted and steal our hope and joy. We all need to learn how to stay focused on what is most important and has a higher priority. Learning to discern what is urgently before us and what is the real priority from hour to hour will help us all avoid conflicts over little things in our relationships.
Having a Clear Vision can help keep problems and daily circumstances from eating up our time and energy. Trying to navigate our lives can be exhausting and lonely and overwhelming. One parent may be home while the other goes to work each day. One spouse might work nights while the other works days. One might love sports and the other prefers craft fairs. That is why a married couple needs to have a vision that they can build together, something that keeps them on the same track moving forward towards a common goal and helps to keep both partners eyes on the prize.
Even in a friendship or among siblings, if the two participants don’t share a common goal or interest, the relationship can grow dull and cold. Two people who want a lasting relationship have to find at least one thing that they both agree on as a priority or shared interest in order for the relationship to stay fresh and challenge each other to keep growing and moving forward together.
We all can ask ourselves in every relationship we have:
Where are we going together? When do I need to be me, an individual with personal interests and strengths, and what areas of my life do I need to share with my spouse, friend, sibling, neighbor? What priority do we need to share that will fortify our relationship in every area?
Some ideas for common goals and vision could be….
Be the best neighbors any community ever had.
Work towards Financial Freedom together or just to be free of your mortgage.
Start or finance an orphanage or sponsor a needy child together.
Volunteer at a homeless shelter together.
Host a ministry in your home together.
Be Scout leaders together.
Travel the world together.
Learn a language together.
Start a business together.
Play a sport together.
+++++ It doesn’t have to be a major project. It can also be simpler things like:
Let’s get the garage cleaned and reorganized.
Let’s make a commitment to take turns on a car pool to take the kids to school.
Let’s decide to have date night/girls night out every Tuesday.
Let’s remodel the basement and rent it out on a vacation rental site.
Let’s explore a new park or museum every Saturday.
Whatever ideas we come up with the key word is together. Relationships need to find at least one thing that both parties deem important or fun or challenging. They can then work together and learn how to do it together. It will create conversations, activity and challenges that both parties will grow from and it will ignite a fresh, warm fire under the relationship. A common vision will also help smooth over the delicate areas of the relationship because it will get everyone’s eyes off a problem that they have yet to find a solution for. Often, time is the only answer to certain situations. Or it is possible that a new vision may even give some new perspective that gives you a surprising outcome to an old problem.
A Clear Vision shared by any two or more people will foster unity, clarity, renewed energy, excitement, and creativity in any project they take on. If our marriages are overwhelmed with problems or growing stale from boredom or from being too busy on the wrong things, a new Clear Vision can spark new life into a commitment that was made until death do us part. I
If our friendships have become distant and unattended, a new Clear Vision can draw us back together and help us to make fresh memories that may also last a lifetime.
**Where there is no vision, the people perish: ** Proverbs 29:18a
Proverbs 29 tells us that if we continue to live without a Clear Vision for our lives and our relationships, there is little hope of a positive outcome.
So, how do we start igniting new fire into the ashes of our relationships?
We can choose the one relationship that is most important to us and start discussing ways with them on how to share a Clear Vision that will strengthen our time together. What interests do we both have? What is one thing that we always wanted to do and would like to do with the one person that we care the most about? What steps will we both have to take to get the vision started? What time-consumers need to be sacrificed in order to make the vision happen? What resources will we need to get the Vision off to a good start? What books or articles can we read to open our vision even more?
**Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. **
A Clear Vision needs a laser focus towards a better future and a well thought out plan. We can get the conversation started and over the next few weeks form a great plan for a new and exciting future for all of our most important relationships.