Creating Goals & Plans

A key part of the Stake Goals & Priorities is encouraging individuals and families to seek the Lord's help in creating their own goals and plans in various aspects of their Christian discipleship. Creating such goals and plans may be a new experience and can be challenging. Some may struggle to know how to start.

While the Stake Goals & Priorities page outlines what our stake presidency has felt impressed to set as our priorities, this page is designed to provide some guidance on how to get started. Most notably, we encourage individuals and families to use the inspired structure of the Children and Youth program as a guide to setting goals and making plans, and this page shares some ideas on how to do so.

Build on the Children and Youth Program

The Stake Goals & Priorities align with the principles found in the Children and Youth program, as shown in these excerpts from the Parent and Leader Guide:

Vision (of the Children and Youth program): Strengthen the rising generation's faith in Jesus Christ, and help children, youth, and their families progress along the covenant path as they meet life's challenges. (p. 1)

"Prophets have said that this generation of children and youth is among the best the Lord has sent to the earth ... They have the potential to have a great impact on the world. They have been invited to help gather Israel on both sides of the veil. A higher, holier approach is needed to care for and minister to them." (p. 2)

Home-Centered Aspects of the Children and Youth program (drawn from pp. 6-7) that align with the Stake Goals & Priorities:

Gospel Learning: Scripture study, home evening, family history
Service and Activities: Home evening, family service, family activities, ministering
Personal Development: Personal goals, family goals, guidance, encouragement, love

Our stake leaders have encouraged us to set individual and family goals and to make plans to accomplish them in each of the areas of the Stake Goals & Priorities, which can align with the four areas of the Children and Youth program as follows:

Intellectual: "Consistently study God's word"
Physical: "Build a self-reliance plan"
Social: "Gather Israel on this side of the veil"
Spiritual: "Gather Israel on the other side of the veil"

A Pattern for Growth

We can set goals and make plans in each of these four areas using the same pattern for growth taught in the Children and Youth program (pp. 6-7 of the Personal Development Youth Guidebook):

Discover what you need to work on.
Plan how you will do it.
Act on your plan in faith.
Reflect on what you have learned.

As individuals and families work to set goals and make plans in each of those four areas, they model the same process their children and youth can use in their own personal development.

This pattern is simple, yet it can greatly guide us and our families as we strive to "Invite all to come unto Christ and partake of His goodness."