Building Self-Worth & Character While Crafting Goal Setting and Vision Boards
9 steps to build a vision board that points toward God’s plan
Poster boards covered in cut-out words. Cork boards full of photos of places you want to go. Phone wallpapers made of goals or inspirational quotes in careful handwriting. Vision boards are everywhere, and underneath the trend is a good question: what do you want your life to look like, and who gets to decide?
Some advice you hear about vision boards is helpful. But most of it places the focus on what you can accomplish on your own, rather than pursuing God’s vision for your life.
What a Vision, Dream or Goal Board Actually Is
A vision board is simple. It’s a collection of the things you’re hoping for — pictures, words, verses, goals — placed somewhere you’ll see it every day. It doesn’t work by magic. It works by attention + intention. What you look at daily stays on your mind, and what stays on your mind shapes what you notice, say yes to and practice.
Making something visible makes it harder to walk past. If you’ve ever set a goal in January and forgotten it by February, you already know the problem a vision board is trying to fix. A lot of people your age are tired of drifting and want something to aim for. What you’re aiming at matters.
A Vision Board for Manifestation Isn’t the Same as Trusting God
You’ve probably seen the advice: decide what you want, picture it clearly, believe it hard enough, and the universe will hand it over. Read that again and notice who’s missing.
In that version, you make the plan and God delivers. Your board turns into a list of demands. And when something on it doesn’t happen, it causes you to think that you didn’t want it badly enough, or that God doesn’t really care. That’s a heavy burden to carry, and it isn’t true.
Trusting God starts with holding your plans and dreams with an open hand. When we trust someone, we engage with them – we let them know our deepest desires, we talk to them about our struggles and listen to their hopes and advice for us. Trusting God doesn’t mean you stop wanting things. It means you can want them without needing to control how they turn out.
Here’s a simple test. Finish this sentence: If my dream doesn’t come true, then…
- If your answer is “then I failed,” that’s manifesting.
- If your answer is “then God has something else for me,” that’s trust.
Four Verses Worth Putting on Your Dream Board
These four verses are quoted constantly regarding future dreams. All four belong on your board — but a couple of them mean something bigger than the version you’ve seen on a graphic.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29:11
This scripture was written to people who had just been carried off to a foreign country and told they’d be there seventy years. The promise is real, but it isn’t a promise of an easy year. It’s a promise that God’s still writing your story when nothing around you looks like the plan.
“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”
Proverbs 16:9
You plan. He directs. It’s takes both you and God to forge your future.
“Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets, so that a herald may run with it.”
Habakkuk 2:2
God gives the vision, and He directs us to write it down. In this scripture, the prophet wrote down the vision that God provided, the prophet didn’t come up with the vision on his own. So spend some time talking to God about your dreams and goals. Then, write down what God has actually said to you, not only what you’ve decided you want.
“Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Psalm 37:4
Notice the order. Delight comes first. When you delight in the Lord, He changes what your heart desires. This verse isn’t a vending machine. It’s a description of what happens to your wants when you love and seek Him.
Related Articles
Build A Vision Board Around Three Questions
Instead of starting with a wish list, start with these:
Who does God say I am? Build here first, because everything else sits on it. Put the actual words on your board — loved, chosen, forgiven, His — and put the verses underneath them. If that ground feels shaky right now, start here. A board can’t do what only the truth about your worth can do.
What has God already given me? Not what you wish you were good at. Write down what people see in you. What has your youth leader or your mom noticed before you? What do you love so much, that you totally lose track of time? Write those down even if you can’t picture a job attached to them yet, though if you want to think about that part, this is a good place to start.
Who is this for? Every gift points to the giver. Certainly, God is the giver of all things, but He gives us gifts for others to enjoy as well. A vision board that’s only about your own comfort and success will shrink your life without you even knowing. Add at least one area about someone else or something beyond you — a person you want to help, a place you want to go, a need you can’t stop thinking about. Purpose usually shows up right here.
Then add the fun things too – the trip, college, instrument you’re learning, team you’re trying out for, etc. Wanting good things is 100% spiritual! Just let them sit under the three questions instead of taking their place.
Vision Board How to Make in 9 Steps: You Can Do it This Week!
Don’t wait for January. Give yourself forty-five minutes and get started.
- Pray first and ask God what He would add to your board. Write down whatever comes to mind — a prayer journal is a good place for this.
- Gather your supplies: poster board or cork board, magazines, printed photos, markers, ribbons, stickers, cardstock or construction paper. A folder of saved images on your phone works too.
- Start with identity. Write down the words God says about you (loved, chosen, forgiven, His).
- Add your gifts, including the ones you’re still not sure count.
- Add your calling — at least one area about someone other than you.
- Add your verses – handwrite at least one of them.
- Add the specific and the fun. Dates, places, goals, people.
- Hang it where you’ll see it before you pick up your phone in the morning.
- Put a date on your calendar three months out to look at it again and be honest about what’s changed.
Step nine is the one most people skip, and it’s the one that keeps a board from turning into decoration.
Pray Over Your Plan and Inspiration Vision Board
Father, You know what I want. Some of it is good and some of it I’m not sure about yet, but You know the difference better than I do. I’m putting all of it where I can see it, and I’m putting it in Your hands at the same time. Change what I want until it looks like what You want for my life. Where my plan is too small, make it bigger. Where it’s wrong, be gentle with me. I would rather have Your plan than mine. Amen.
Made one? We’d love to see it. Email us, message us on your favorite social media platform or tag us with #niNeVisionBoard — and tell us what was the hardest part to work on.
