Mission Statement

I'm a little nervous.

I am convicted that I should write more with the purpose of teaching.

Now, I know that some have commented that I want to teach about my faith, and that is partially true. I am passionate about my faith and so it comes out frequently. However, my purpose for writing has been more of a processing technique for me. I have learned so much about what I believe because I have written it out, and at the same time I get excited about it so I want to share in case it would bless someone else.

But now I feel like I should teach more about what I think is beneficial for my family, and possibly for someone else's from experience. That was my original intent anyway. I get sidetracked easily.

I feel inadequate because I know "expert" does not describe me. Teacher, maybe. Obedient is what I hope to be.

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I am working on ideas for my Home Project, including Household Administration. I think this could be an entire degree program, but no one would ever pay to learn about it because it makes ZERO money.

Anyway, before we can do anything else, we need a family mission statement. I attended a workshop on this last April.

Since then, we have had several family and parent meetings. Now we have an end result.

I used the notes from my workshop, but if you are interested, Franklin Covey has a mission statement builder here.

This is what we did:

1. We had a family meeting brainstorming what characteristics we would like to have as a family. It was a long list because the girls listed all the My Little Pony elements they could think of (minus magic). We also had to explain what some of these words meant (Generosity, Loyalty). They listed the fruit of the spirit, and others came up in the middle.

2. We (Sook and I) looked up verses for and summarized for : family, Christian characteristics, marriage, and children. A good concordance or study Bible would help for this.

3. For the same categories, we listed our unique family gifts, passions, and priorities. Some of these included having fun together, remaining loyal to each other, valuing each other, and growing strong together so that we can bless others.

4. Taking  2 and 3 together, we made an outline for our mission statement.

5. I wrote it. It was long. Some will be short and sweet. Some will be longer. Every family is different.

6. I wrote it on canvas and hung it up on the wall, along with a few Bible verses that were appropriate.

A few things I learned about and love about this project:

• God made unique individuals and unique families. Don't think just because another family serves in one way that yours should too. It was fun to pray, dream, and discover our families purpose.
• This takes a while. It should not be rushed, but should be done in a timely manner because of the benefits.
• I loved how it brought us a little closer together.
• It provides us some direction for future decisions.
• It has already been used to teach our children character.
• It always goes back to God's word, which is our foundation. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
• It started a precedent of discussing important issues with the family with Sook as our leader.

and finally,

• I had a good excuse to paint something.