A successful business does not operate without meetings of the management team. Such sessions provide time to plan, direct, strengthen, and organize. Certainly parents should meet to make plans, strengthen marriage bonds, and keep the family running smoothly. This is the time to share hopes and dreams as well as to develop a shared parenting strategy.
Basic GuidelinesSet a time and place to meet that is quiet, comfortable, and distraction free. Have a calendar, or individual planners, with scheduled activities filled in. Be sure to have a notepad and pen. Agree to listen to one another respectfully and use the time to focus on family members, needs, goals, and your relationship as a couple.
Develop a workable agenda. Since time and schedules take such a big part of family time, go over calendars, important dates, and upcoming events. Use time to reflect on the needs of each child and one another.
- Start with prayer, asking for God’s guidance.
- Agree to listen to one another respectfully.
- Look over calendars. Go over each family member’s known activity dates. Note any conflicts and discuss how to resolve them.
- Make a note of stressful times for a particular person. Circle in red the dates of anyone’s hectic schedule as a reminder to prayer extra for the person on those days. Consider ideas to help make the day less stressful for the busy family member.
- Write down the one greatest need of each person for the month and the one greatest praise. Plan to center prayers and devotions to encourage strengths and overcome problems. Brainstorm ideas to encourage talents and successfully prevail over struggles. Pray for the individual.
- Schedule family workdays as well as fun filled outings for the coming month.
Plan for the Future
These sessions offer time to discuss future hopes, develop goals, and face challenges together. Talk about dreams and hopes as well as problems.
- Discuss family relationships, needs and joys. Do not let this become a gripe session. Each spouse who brings up one desired change should also share a joy about the family. Discuss possibilities to make changes
- Discuss long-term family goals, including vacations, home improvements, and educational goals for children. Break goals into steps. Plan to implement one step over the next month.
- Chat about parenting techniques that are effective and ones not working. Brainstorm and choose new methods, if needed.
- Discuss finances when needed and how to stay within the budget or ways to add income.
- Share Scriptures that come to mind. Discuss the verses and how God may be using them to provide direction.
- Pray for the needs and praise God for the joys.
- Decide on date for next pray and plan and mark it on calendars.
Benefits of Planning Sessions
Taking time to communicate as a couple strengthens the marriage partnership and helps moms and dads work as a team. Between pray and plan meetings, look for opportunities to develop strong points for each family member. Do this by listening to people in the community and reading community news. Ask others how to get someone involved in local programs that match interests. This includes finding areas of service for an individual or whole family.
Children will benefit from more directed parenting and seeing their moms and dads working together. Family meetings for the whole family can be developed at the parent meetings. The parent pray and plan sessions will strengthen couples by providing time to communicate with one another, pray, evaluate family life, and develop goals.
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