When a new year comes around we are often inspired to begin new things and to set new goals. This is something that my wife and I have done for years together, namely, we would sit down on New Year's Day and write out personal goals and marriage goals for the year. And we would review our goals from last year.

This year we decided to do goal setting as a family. We broke down the goal setting categories as follows:

1. Faith Goals

- how much of the Bible to read this year

- how many times do we go to Mass/week

- how many times do we receive the sacrament of Confession/month

- what should our family prayer times look like

2. Physical Goals

- what sports skill do you want to learn this year

- what skills do you need to improve on

3. Virtue Goals

- what specific virtue do you need to work on this year

4. Education Goals

- what subjects will we tackle this year in homeschooling

- what subjects do you need to work on in order to master

- what levels do you want to pass in Scouts

5. Reading Goals

- which classical novel will you read this year

- which books do you want to read this year

- what subject do you want to research this year

6. Person Goals

- what do you want to personally do this year (learn archery, knit a scarf, etc.)

7. Family Goals

- where should we pilgrimage this year

- where should we vacation

- what do we need to add or fix in our family daily routine and structure

The experience was very positive. My oldest wrote down her goals in her journal and I wrote down the rest of the family's goals. We'll review them in 6 months and again next year. I think this is something we'll do every year with our children.

This is all part of parenting by design: purposefully parenting with the end in sight; the end being 'raising our children to be self disciplined so that they can achieve self-mastery so that they can give themselves fully to their vocation.'

in Christ,

Kenton E.