This year, one of my goals is to travel once a month. Every year, my husband and I prayerfully dream up our goal list, and this year traveling more kept popping up. Finally, we landed on traveling once a month. It's only April and I feel like I've already learned so much by implementing this goal.
Here's the "why" behind our goal, and some ways you could consider implementing a similar practice in your life.
It creates a boundary on work and rest
My husband and I are both in positions where work never ends. There is always more to do, and we are both the kind of people who are eager to dive into work and give it everything we have. Our goal to travel once a month has forced us to create a rhythm of work and rest. We work really hard throughout the week (aside from our sabbath day) and then we rest.
For us, it's difficult to fully rest when we're at home. I definitely think there's room for growth in this for us, but for now, our solution has been to physically go somewhere else where there is not as much work glaring at us.
If you don't have the ability to travel more like how we've chosen to there are so many great ways to create boundaries between work and rest in your daily life.
One of my favorites is simply going on walks. A walk with my pup always clears my mind, and when I leave my phone behind, I'm able to find a little piece of sabbath in the middle of the week.
It helps us to prioritize our marriage
Our time at home isn't always intentional. Sometimes we're distracted by our work, or our phones, or laundry, or groceries. It's easy to forget to turn to your spouse and ask them more than just the typical, "how was your day?"
Traveling once a month has allowed us to revisit the bigger questions, and to refocus on one another while we're strolling around Savannah looking for somewhere that serves waffles or stuck in traffic driving home from the beach.
Outside of our traveling routine, it's made us more intentional in our relationship throughout our time at home.
Cooking dinner and doing the dishes every night starts to feel mundane, but setting aside intentional time to slow down and really talk to one another throughout the week revitalizes our relationship, and reenergizes us in our dreams.
It gives God space to speak
If you're anything like me, you might find it difficult to hear God when you're rushing from one thing to the next, focused on nothing, and constantly distracted. But when your pace is slower, when your focus is fixed on Him, and your free from distractions and other responsibilities, God starts to speak as if He's been speaking all along. (And I think it's true that He has been speaking all along, we just need to give Him our attention so we can listen.)
The most crucial thing for me to hear God's voice is to eliminate distractions. I need to not have my phone to answer if someone calls. I need to be well rested, and not dependent on my morning coffee. I need to not be in a rush, with my mind clogged with a to-do list and my gaze constantly drifting to the "next" thing.
When we travel, I slow down. I turn off my phone. I sleep in. I don't have a to-do list. And God speaks, and I listen. And then I'm closer to Jesus throughout the week.
For better boundaries on work, for healthier, more intentional relationships with others, and to give God the space He deserves, you don't have to travel once a month.
You can meet with Him in the early morning before anyone else wakes up (and go to bed earlier so you don't fall asleep while you pray). You can go for a walk before you rush to the next thing after the last thing. You can turn off your phone. You can commit to a date night (with your spouse or with yourself).
There are so many reasons we love traveling, but what God does with us when we're away is our favorite.
What is a creative way you've allowed God to speak to you throughout your week?