Make the Plan & Make it Plain...

Have you ever had to write a business plan? If you haven't its a written document of everything that your business is, does, will do and how much it will cost. You have to have an idea, a name and a plan. You have to know what you are going to do and have a plan for how you are going to do it.
The same concept applies to your marriage.
Before he got married, my brother used to tell me that a marriage is a business arrangement. I'm not sure if he believed in love or not; we never really talked about it. The one thing I do remember is, that he believed that there was no other way to looking at being married other than as a business, and was determined to conduct it as such. I'll have to make a point of asking his wife if he still feels that way.
Anyway...
When you begin any business, from a clothing store to a church ministry, it begins with an idea. From there. it progresses to a dream and, if the person has faith and works hard, the dream morphs into a plan and the plan becomes reality. You cannot just jump up one day and make everything happen. A good plan comes from good plans.  So with that being said...
Does your marriage have a vision?

Habakkuk 2:2

"Then the Lord answered me and said:

'Write the vision 

and make it plain on tablets,

that he may run who read it."(NKJV)

The Bible talks about faith being something that you believe even when you can't see it (Hebrews 11:1). 

We have to spend time talking with our husbands to talk about the direction that we see our marriages going in. Before my husband and I got married we had to take a marriage compatibility test in order to complete our premarital counseling. It was a list of questions that we answered in order to see if we were on the same page as far as how to deal with the basic issues that come up within marriage. Who would handle the finances? Who would discipline the children? Who would take care of home and vehicle maintenance? The way that we answered the questions didn't determine whether or not we would get married. They determined if my husband and I shared the same vision for our marriage.

Do you and your husband see the same things in your relationship?

Yes, the Bible maps out certain directions on what roles we play. The husband is the head, the wife is the help-meet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's not the end of the line. There are things that you and your husband must map out, from the general to the more specific. 

How may children will we have?

Will we take family vacations?
In what church will we worship?

Where do we see ourselves in 10 years? 20 years? 30 years?

You and your boo are a team for life.  You can go walking around life all willy-nilly. There are major decisions to be made! An entire lifetime's worth. With all that time on your hands, there is ample opportunity to devise a strategy to make your next days your best days. 

Pray and ask God to give you both direction and agreement on the issues. Take your time and talk about it. Iron out the details. Who will do what when and why. Think of plan Bs and Cs.Don't worry about what someone else said or does; this is you and your man. And don't just talk about what you want to accomplish. This is a collaborative effort. You and him together. Think about it as a team-building exercise. Write the vision down and revise it when necessary. This is important, because if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

So plan....