Establishing Or Re-Establishing Goals

Do you and your spouse have the same goals for your marriage? Saying “I do” starts our lifelong journey in marriage, but our relational happiness and fulfillment are never achieved automatically.  Instead, they require teamwork and a lot of it.

Early on, Joe and I worked together to establish our relationship goals and find ways to implement them.  Our journey was not always easy, but the reward has far outweighed the time, energy, and sacrifice required.

Here are some things we did that will hopefully help you and your spouse establish or re-establish your relationship goals:

• We Discussed Personal Expectations.

  We communicated our expectations of each other in the relationship.  We discovered that some expectations were realistic and attainable.  However, others were unreasonable and impossible to execute, based upon our uniqueness and capacity as individuals.

• We Discussed Marital Expectations.

  We talked about what we envisioned our marriage to look like and why.  We learned not to squeeze our relationship into the box of someone else’s example but worked toward establishing our unique relationship according to God’s will and plan for our marriage.

• We Created a Game Plan.

  We decided which marital goals we both wanted to adopt into our marriage and discussed practical ways to implement them daily.

• We Conducted Regular Check-Ins.

  We touched base with each other regularly to discuss our relationship goals and ensure we were both working hard to continue achieving them.

 
Often, we can go from being in sync relationally to getting thrown off course but cannot pinpoint when, why, or how it happened.  This “derailment” happens to all of us, and it can be so frustrating going through it.  That is why we need to recognize the disruption as quickly as possible and work together to get things back on track with God’s help.

If you feel out of sync with your spouse, I would love to pray for you today. Let me know in the comments.