As we see many posts on different platforms about vision boards and plans for the new year, I was reminded of a post I shared at the beginning of 2022 and it went something like this: It is almost the end of January 2022, the excitement of the new year persists and many of us have set our plans, goals and targets for the year.
Our vision boards are either done or we are busy creating them and eagerly await the manifestation.
We glance at it daily if not every other day. The belief is that the more we see our goals the more we internalise them, and, as it has been said, ‘they’ll become part and parcel of our thoughts, thoughts turn into behaviour and soon we will work and walk towards our set goals without much thought…it will be second nature, we will achieve these goals in auto-pilot mode’ so says many a coach.
For me, the past two years, including 2023 have been a little different when it comes to planning and gearing up for the year ahead.
The Process changed
Like many, I started 2021 by creating my vision board. I sensed that 2021 was going to be a year of major changes in my life. I pre-empted some of the changes to be sad and scary, but viewed these anticipated changes as good life milestones and therefore included them on my vision board. This decision, I thought, would keep me focused and prepare me for what was to come, and maybe also help me to better manage the blow these changes would bring to my life.
This new ingredient of creating my vision board was to me but it did not interfere with my understanding of the role of the vision board being to keep me focused and intentional. I understood a vision board to be a declaration of what is to come in the future. And as Habakkuk teaches – write it down plainly so that it may come to pass.
Hope of influencing and controlling what was to manifest in my year was a big part of creating my vision board. I wonder…is this the same for everyone?
As I was busy, choosing pictures and gluing them to the board, I realised that what I was no longer creating a vision Board. Somehow my attention and internal conversation was to God about the pictures I was gluing to the board. It was no longer a vison board but a Prayer Board. From that moment onward, I continued my creation intentionally with prayer in mind instead of vision and I stopped calling it my vision board but my Prayer Board.
This is how my my vision board became my Prayer Board. This resonated better with me. It gave me a feeling of going into the new year with God as partner and leader, as my first step and part of my every step towards what I hope for.
Prayer Board because all that I had cut out from different magazines and glued to the board were truly the things I hoped for and have been praying for…some for months and some for years. They included achievements I have been striving for – like time management, better financial management, freedom and spending more of my life in quiet spaces.
As these thoughts came to mind, the idea of that creation being called a vision board felt disingenuous because, at some level, I could not confirm without doubt that the things on the board were brought to my mind by God and the Holy Spirit or just things I simply desired and hoped for from a human level.
Not in my hands
Another truth is that as a daughter of the Most High I know that I will not be able to achieve without God nor do I ever want to. Proverbs 16:9 “The heart of a man makes plans but the Lord establishes his steps.” Does this not sound like a perfect secured partnership? This is the partnership I yearn for with God. Especially because I know that God has my destiny already created, secured and sealed.
What is better than partnering with the creator of all things? I need to stay in Him and on the path He’s set ahead of me and walk the path with His guidance and leadership towards my set anointed destiny…after all, He has plans to prosper me and give me a future filled with hope: Jeremiah 29:11.
Like a Christian girl, I placed my Prayer Board in a secret place for the Bible says ‘But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.’ Matthew 6:6.
And my Prayer Board that I made in 2021 still hangs in my secret place, for it is to stay between me and God. Yes, the Prayer Board I made in 2021 remains my Prayer Board for 2023.
You May Ask ‘Why?’
It is because Habakkuk 2: 3 teaches that “…it awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end – it will not lie. If it is slow, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not delay.” And so, until I see my prayers come to pass or hear God instruct me otherwise, I will keep my Prayer Board up and continue praying, trusting and waiting to see God’s answer.
I also came to realise that maybe a yearly vision board – what I now call a Prayer Board – limit’s the time we allow God to answer our prayers.
Who are we to set a time for God?
God speaks to us about His perfect timing, how do we know that His perfect timing is within the 12months we’ve set?
Acts 1:7 says: “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Lord has fixed by His own authority.”
2 Peter 3:8 – Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day’
The two Scriptures, and many more, teach me that I am unable to know God’s timing unless He specifically announces or reveals it to me.
As I ponder more on vision board vs. Prayer Board, I realise that it is good for me to have a Prayer Board as it welcomes and brings God in all that I plan, hope for and all the steps I take towards achieving the goals. Using the word hope along with my plans satisfies my heart for the reason that it demands surrender to God and allows Faith to be part of all of it, because, still, with this Prayer Board I live Faith – conviction of things I cannot see and evidence of things I Hope for.
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