The other day, someone asked me if vision boards were Christian? I’ve used vision boards for my goals for many years now, and today I want to share why I believe they’re biblical and how you can create one to start seeing your goals come to life!

Resources Mentioned:

I AM Christian Confidence Affirmations: https://ashleyvarner.com/affirmations
The Mindset Rest Self-Paced Program: https://ashleyvarner.com/mindset

Highlights From the Episode:

The other day somebody asked me if I thought that vision boards were Christian. And if Christians should even create a vision board at all.

I have been creating vision boards for many years now, and really seen a lot of results from my vision boards. And so today I wanna talk to you about why I think that they are biblical, and how you can use a vision board in your quest to reach the goals that you have, and really experience the dreams that God has put into your heart.

Let’s get started. Welcome back to The Renewed Mind. I am so glad to have you here. If you are brand new, I just wanna introduce myself. My name is Ashley Varner. I am the founder of The Renewed Mind, and I really work to help Christian women to change their mindset, really learn how to take their thoughts captive, and get control of their emotions.

I also love talking about productivity and goal setting, and I think a lot of goal setting starts with your mindset. So today I want to talk to you about vision boards.

Should Christians use vision boards?

There’s a lot of discussions out there where people are asking and talking about this idea of visualization. And many Christians believe that that’s not really a take that we need to have on setting goals and really just experiencing, visualizing the things that are gonna happen in our lives.

Many Christians that have a negative view of this, believe that we need to put everything in God’s hands, and it’s not okay for us to look to the future. Personally, I think that vision boards are a great tool whenever they’re used properly.

I really see vision boards the same way that I view affirmations. And so if you’ve ever heard me talk about affirmations then you probably know the direction that I’m going with this. But whenever I think of a vision board, what I see is a visual reminder that I need to take steps to walk in faith towards the dreams that God has placed in my life.

Whenever I look at a vision board or I set milestones for myself, I always remember that at the end of the day it’s the Lord that determines my steps. And so I’m not going to allow a vision board to completely replace any kind of calling that I feel from the Holy Spirit or any kind of just direction that I feel the Lord is leading me on.

Just because something is put up on my vision board doesn’t mean that it’s set in stone. What vision boards are really great at is keeping a vision or a dream that God has placed in your life in front of your eyes.

So whenever you have a dream or a vision or a goal that God has placed on your heart, it can be easy to get excited and motivated about that dream for a little while. And then it gets put on the back burner, that dream gets filed away, and we don’t think about it anymore.

I believe that we are supposed to put action to our faith. We are called to be good stewards of the things that God has given us. And that includes the dreams that He’s placed into your heart. And so, as you are given these goals and dreams if you put them up on a vision board, whatever type of vision board that you use, if you put them up there, what happens is they’re in a place that you see them every day. You’re reminded of the excitement and the joy that God placed in your heart whenever He gave you that dream in the first place.

I definitely think that people can use things like vision boards or affirmations improperly. But whenever we use them as a tool to keep what God has put onto our hearts just front and center so we’re super and hyper-focused on it, I think that they can be a tool to really propel us into the life that God has for us.

Now, remember, it’s important to know that it’s not the vision board itself that makes your dreams come to life, right? If you set it up there it doesn’t magically make things happen in your life. But what it does is it keeps your mind fixed on the important things.

If you have a vision board on your wall, it becomes more of a priority for you. All those things that you placed on there become fixed. You fix your mind on all of those things, and it’s your mindset. It’s the things that you’re thinking that lead to motivated emotions, and then ultimately actions.

So as you create a vision board, what I want you to do is be very sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Be really sensitive to what God is saying to you and realize that at any time, God can throw a wrench in your plans. And that’s okay. That’s what we want, right?

But whenever we are fixed on the dreams that we believe He’s given us, it propels us forward to take action. And I believe that we need to be taking action. That’s what living by faith is, right? It’s not just thinking that God is gonna do something. It’s not just expecting Him to do something, but it is listening for His guidance, and then taking the necessary steps and actions that He wants us to take in order to reach the goals that He has for us.

How can we make vision boards God’s way?

So how can you make a vision board God’s way?

The first step is to invite God into the process. Ask Him what goals that He has for your life. Ask Him what dreams that He’s put in your heart that He wants you to focus on right now.

Because sometimes we get goals and those dreams and plans that we have for ourselves are great but maybe it’s not the right time, right?

Maybe it’s not the right season for us. And so what you can do is invite God into your goal-making process and say, Lord, what do you want from me right now? What things should I be focusing on? What things can I take out of my life so that I can focus on the things that you have for me right now?

I really love this verse in Proverb 16. It’s verse nine and it says, “We can make our plans but the Lord determines our steps.”

So as you’re inviting the Lord into this process, remember that at any time, His will and His plans and the things that He has placed in our hearts at different seasons, completely override anything that we want to plan. Give room for the Lord to move even as you’re setting goals and plans.

The next thing that I want you to remember whenever you are setting a vision board God’s way is to stay humble. Whenever we stay humble, we are being open to what the Holy Spirit has for us.

I think that a lot of times, whenever we are humble, we’re saying, God, I wanna do this for your glory. It’s not because I wanna reach a certain income goal or because I wanna have drive a certain car, it is because I wanna give you the glory for this. So as you put dreams into my life, Lord, let me stay humble as I take action.

Setting Goals

That’s the second thing that I wanted to share. I want you to stay humble, but I also want you to take action. If there are dreams that God has placed on your heart, I want you to make a list of all the tasks that you need to do in order to reach that goal. If you can get as minute as possible, that’s even better.

So say you have a dream that God has put onto your life to run a marathon. And you feel like this is something that God has put on your heart so that you can focus on your health, so that you can meet some goals, maybe meet some people in your training.

I want you to start making a task list of everything that needs to be accomplished in order for you to get there. So things as simple as researching running shoes, buying a pair of running shoes, researching different kinds of shoelaces, researching marathon plans, researching marathon races in my area, find an accountability partner. Maybe you need to buy a treadmill. Maybe you need to map out courses around your area where your house is.

I want you, as you begin putting things up on your vision board to make a task list as small, even if it seems like it’s nothing. Even if the task seems super small, I want you to dig deep and get a list going of all the things that you would need to do in order to reach that goal.

And then start checking off those things one by one. So you might think that something super small isn’t going to get you closer to your goal, but what it does is it increases your buy-in. So what I mean by that is any time that you put effort and you’re checking off these things, what you’re doing is you’re getting a little bit more skin in the game. You’re getting a little bit more committed to this big goal that you have in mind.

It’s a lot harder whenever you have maybe 20 small tasks marked off to turn around and not accomplish that goal, to just let go of it or to turn your back on it. If you don’t ever look at all those small to-dos that you might have on your task list, this huge dream is overwhelming. And so if we can break it down into small tasks, it becomes more manageable, and we stay more committed.

Ultimately, whenever you set goals, I think that you are committing to God’s plan for your life. And ultimately you’re saying, Lord, I am gonna have a visual reminder that I’m gonna submit to what you want me to do in my life.

There are so many things that God has planned for you. And if you just let them go by the wayside, you’re not gonna accomplish them. But I think the more that we put stuff in front of us, whenever you have a visual reminder of the dreams and the goals that God has put in your heart, it helps you to take action. It helps you to say whatever it takes, whatever the tasks are, God, if you have put this on my heart, I believe that this is something you’ve given me to do, and I’m gonna submit to your will for my life. And I’m gonna take the necessary steps to get there.

So remember, just because something is on a vision board, doesn’t mean that it’s gonna override God’s divine plan for your life. So if you have something, maybe it’s just a dream that you have, right? It’s a goal that you are envisioning, and something changes. God calls you to do something else, it’s okay. Just because something’s on your vision board doesn’t mean that it is set in stone, always leave room for God to work in your life.

So I just wanted to end this video by sharing a couple of different ideas that you can use to create a vision board. So at the end of last year, I had some girlfriends over and we had a vision board party. And one of the favorite things that I enjoyed about that morning was all the different types of vision boards that were represented. So we had some people that had huge canvases. There were all kinds of mod podge and really crafty ladies in my life that they were putting all kinds of stuff. And then I had some people who were very simple. One person had a photo box, and they had lights in it, and there was pictures.

They all brought all of the stuff and the dreams and the goals that they had been praying about. And it was just a joy to see all of these dreams come to life. So I had encouraged each woman to come up with a word for the year. And we got to share the dreams and the goals that God had given us.

For me, I like to have a couple different types of vision boards. So you can actually see behind me, it’s like a scarf hanger that I put together and I just pin different photos of dreams and goals that I have. And that is in my prayer room. If you wanna check out the video where I give you a tour of my prayer room (Prayer Room Tour: https://youtu.be/j_QlAe4G2Iw), you’re actually gonna see a close up of that.

I love to have this visual reminder in the room where I spend a lot of my time praying and seeking the Lord so I can see it and say, yes, those are the things that I want to accomplish in my life. Those are the things that I’m really focusing on this year.

Another way that you can have a vision board is to go digital. So if you have an album on the photos app of your phone, you can just swipe through those photos every morning and be reminded. I like to have a section in my notes in my phone where I go through and just have detailed reminders of what each of my goals are.

You can also have a Pinterest board that has pictures and ideas from your goals that you can go through as you’re on Pinterest.

There are so many different creative ways that you can use vision boards to help you to reach the goals that God has put into your life. Some of the ladies that came to that vision board party even took a picture of their vision board, their physical vision board, and put it as the screensaver on their phone. I love that idea because every time that you’re looking at or phone, you’re reminded of the goals and the vision that God has placed on your life.

So I hope that this helped you. If you have been wanting to create a vision board but you weren’t really sure how it could fit into your Christian life, this is how. So I would love to hear some of your ideas in the comments, let me know if you created a vision board, what was on it, and how God was working in your life this year, all right?

That is all that I have for you, my friends. I am just so thankful that you are here. Let me know what you thought of this video, and if you wanna see more like this on productivity and goals. And I will see you next time