Review
Short and sweet, Purposeful Planning is a planning primer that might help you get a jump start for planning an annual weekend getaway for a family meeting that will keep you all moving in the direction the Lord is leading you.
Purposeful Planning uses three guidelines–keep it simple, be creative, and be flexible–and covers an introduction to at least ten different areas to discuss each year including:
- house
- family
- children
- home education
- summer school
- evenings/discretionary time
- church
- finances
- vacations
- celebrations
Purposeful Planning includes questions that will get you thinking about your own goals for your family. The book includes examples from the author’s own list of projects, achievements and goals, and she even describes what she did to keep the children entertained, and what to bring on the trip. This book is written from the perspective of planning an annual family event, children and all. The guide is complete with snacks, financial information, curriculum to discuss. Purposeful Planning makes sure the children are entertained with books, movies and games — while husband and wife talk for 16-20 hours about family goals.
What I really like most about this simple story is the willingness of the author to step outside of her own comfort zone and follow the leading of her husband in order to respond to him when he wanted to create a plan for the family.
If you are a wife who likes to plan with a husband who prefers to manage, well then for you this book might feel like trying to lead a horse to water, or like pushing a rope. But if your husband is a planner like Phyllis’ husband, then you might enjoy reading the story of their journey to establishing this annual planning weekend, its benefits, and how a wife can support her husband’s wishes to plan for the family.
The website also offers an instant download of the Purposeful Planning Handbook for $5.95, with printable forms for your own planning weekend, which follow the topics of the book, and an MP3 download for $9.95, plus they generously offer a free e-book for military families.
This eighty-eight page book, which can be read in less than an hour, could be a helpful guideline for young couples with children, who are wanting an example on how to develop a long term family plan.
About the Reviewer
Phyllis Sather is an ordinary woman serving an extraordinary God. She has been the joyful wife of her best friend Daniel for 27 years and became a stay at home mom 25 years ago after retiring from a management position. She has homeschooled their three children, Emily (24), Rebekah (2), and Eric (20), for the past 19 years and is now working on “Home College”. For five years she has had a column on mother’s and daughters in TEACH magazine, now Eternal Encouragement. She has published several books, including her favorite, Purposeful Planning.
Sather Homeschool began in 2007 with our desire to help families live more intentionally. Purposeful Planning is a great resource for discovering the Lord’s plan for your family. It helps you to get a look at the big picture and make plans for achieving what you see as the Lord’s desires for you as a family and individually.
