Why Should We Have Marriage Goals?

Our annual goal setting and review has helped us maintain spiritual, personal, and marital growth in our relationship. Even if you’re not typically a “goal-setting” person, you probably do set some expectations for your marriage: where you’re going to live, what type of a house, how many kids, where will you work, what church to attend . . . . Life is full of decisions and married couples make most of them together. Here are a few parameters to consider when setting goals:

Schedule alone time together and pray—Ask God to be a part of your goal setting and to give you courage, patience, and peace.

Set maintainable goals—it’s ok, even good if goals stretch you both. But if they’re not realistic, you may not take them seriously or give up on attaining them. Don’t set goals you’ll “try” to maintain. If you don’t think you’re going to do them, then reconsider something more doable.

Set measurable goals—For example, if you want to grow your savings, establish a specific dollar amount and steps to reaching that goal. If the goal is to move, agree on a timeframe and a particular neighborhood or city. You’ll both know when you’ve reached these types of goals.

Set purposeful goals—We don’t typically pursue something we don’t feel has value or purpose. So before you set any goals, determine why they’re meaningful to you as a couple.

Not meaningful to your in-laws, friends, or even your kids . . . they may benefit from your goals . . . but you must want them enough to push through even when it’s difficult. Ask each other why you want these goals and discuss how you’ll work together as a team to achieve them.

2020 has been a hard year for everyone. Little did we know as we ushered in the New Year that we would soon be experiencing a pandemic and recession that has touched everyone’s life and put unexpected challenges on most marriages. And we don’t know what to expect in 2021, but if our marriage is secure, we can make it through together in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, for richer or poorer because we’re united as one in marriage.

  • Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. – Genesis 2:24
  • So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate. – Matt. 19:6
  • The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the Lord. – Prov. 18:22 NLT

10 Marriage Goals Every Couple Should Have for 2021