What is your family's game plan?

I was sitting at a high school football game several years ago watching a team that had a tradition of winning championships. Their offensive plan of attack was always the “triple option”. They had run this offense for years and although “slow”, “dirty”, and not very “flashy” it was tough as ever for any defense to stop it. They had nearly perfected this plan and ran this “smash mouth” type offense successfully for years. I remember sitting at this one particular game where it was taking the team a little bit longer to get going and it was as if this offensive strategy wasn’t working anymore. I heard well-meaning but ignorant fans hollering from the stands, “Come on Coach! Run another play!” and “Throw the ball Coach!”. Sitting sixteen rows up in the stands I still knew what was going through those coaches minds-“Stick with the gameplan”. Eventually, their offense “blew the gates open” and their proven plan had worked again. I commended these coaches in my heart in that they stuck with the gameplan even when the pressure was on. Even when they were ridiculed and being mocked by their own fans. Even when they weren’t seeing immediate results. And especially because they didn’t throw out the proven playbook to follow someone else’s.

Like sports, we have gameplans for almost every other thing in life. If we want to loose weight we have a game plan to do that. If we have a financial goal to get out of debt or retirement we have that. When I was in the insurance and financial services field I had a hourly plan, a daily plan, a weekly plan, a monthly plan, and an annual business plan. My proven goal each day was one that had been proven successful by other agents who came about long before me. It was “Set two appointments a day each day for sometime in the future.” I did not leave my office each day until that goal had been met. I knew if I called enough people, got in front of enough people eventually I would get the appointments I needed. I knew even if people told me “no” I was just around the corner from a “yes”.

So back to my original question, “What is your family’s gameplan?” It doesn’t take a genious to look around and see that something is not right. You can even look back only 40 or 50 years ago and see a huge melt down from the family. God has laid out a specific gameplan in his word on our roles as husbands, wives, and children. And I believe he gives each family a specific gameplan just for that family to carry out. The truth is we have an enemy that is out to destroy the family unit and we can’t just expect and just “hope for the best.” If we just sit idely by and just go through the motions we will either be totally defeated or never live up to our potential. This takes specific, intentiall action on our parts to execute the plan!
I have had a passion for several things in my Christian walk but one that burns deep into my soul is for my family. Over the past seven years the vision God has given my family has gotten more and more narrow and more and more focused. Now, I believe without a shadow of a doubt that God has given the Payne Family a very specific plan to follow and it is my job as the head of my home to cast that vision to my wife and family. My wife is the one with the legs that helps me carry it out every single day. I could not do it without her heart and soul. Fortunately, she is just as or more passionate about it than I am. We can’t afford to put “hot items” on the back burner like we do our lawns that need to be mowed. This is urgent and needs immediate attention. I can’t tell you how many times I just cry and cry in prayer when I realize the briefness of time that we trully have with my daughters. Will we do a good enough job? Will they be ready to take on the world? Will they reproduce what we are instilling in them? Will they fall in love with Jesus Christ? Will they make wonderful, loving, Godly wives to their husbands one day? All of this can become quite overwhelming. It is then I realize that we are at the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ. We need his Holy Spirit to give us wisdom, courage, and confindence in His plan. We need the power of his Holy Spirit working and molding the characters of our daughters. Without this vital ingredient nothing will work. But with this vital ingrediant anything is possible.

Here are some quesitons to ask ourselves?

1) What is the gameplan for my family at this stage in life?
2) Are we executing and carrying out that plan?
3) What do we need to change in our lives to get with the gameplan God has given my family?
4) Are the players of the home following the gameplan?

Some examples of some goals to set.These are some I have laid out for our youth workers before.

1) Goal #1-To become Fully Devoted to Jesus
• How will this be carried out? How will we "get there"? It’s not just going to “happen”. The Bible tells us to “train ourselves to be Godly.”
• Spend quality time each day to connect with Christ. Read and study his word, worship time, stay connected with the Body of Christ, etc.
• Through off the “sins” and other things in our lives that will hinder us from reaching this goal.

2) Goal #2-Have a strong marriage
• How will this be met? How will we "get there?" "How will we strive towards this?"
• Over the next 30 days my wife/husband and I will have “date nights”, or other times where we can connect each other, and communicate.

3) Goal #3-Raise Godly Children
• How will this be met?
• Modeling a godly walk with Christ in front of them, Model a godly marriage in front of them. Spending quality time with them. Training and teaching them.
• Learning from other godly parents that have walked before us.

These are just examples and allow the Holy Spirit to give you specifics for your family, marriage, and children as we each are wired differently. I will get very specific with our gameplan and our roles, etc. with my family.
We have been given the great priviledge and responsibility to be apart of family. Is it serious enough to us that we have sat down, prayed, listened to the Holy Spirit, and written down a specific gamplan for the household? Restassured, the enemy of our souls has a very specific gameplan to tear down the family unit. We can’t afford to allow him the victory in our family.