Mission (being) Accomplished?

What is home all about? Or more specifically, what is your home all about? Is it about sports programs, play groups, academic achievements? Is it about family gatherings, vacation, Super Bowl parties, fitness, or clean eating? How about hanging out at the church a lot or community service?  Whatever your activities or commitments, I'm not here to judge.  Several of these would fall in our 'yes' pile.  The point of me asking the question is to get you to consider what your family values.  Your kids will catch on to what you care about and probably care about the same.  Where do you put your time, money, and energy and what purpose does it serve?

Scott and I asked ourselves this question a few years ago.  We know how quickly time flies by - this precious, formative time with our five little chicks under our roof - and we didn't want it to get the best of us.  Who wants to wake up in 20 years with regret?  No, we needed a plan.  We needed goals to point us to the end as often as necessary, to remind us of our opportunities for the biggest impact.  Scott met with a mentor friend and threw some ideas back and forth.  The friend had the same thoughts for his own family and they had already gone through this process with great success.

So Scott and I sat down and created two things that are extremely important, in my opinion, for any family.  Especially a family that wants to stay focused and tuned in to the whole point of parenting and life amidst the busyness and craziness of parenting and...life.  We wrote out our top family values, then we put it into a fancier paragraph to create our family mission statement.  (These wreak with our scholastic nerdy-ness because who doesn't love a good acronym!? Easy for all seven of us to remember!)

Here are our family values with the accompanying Bible verses that support why each is important to us:

((Love fully and in order))

Deut. 6:5  
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Matthew 22:37-40

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

I John 4:7

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

((be Educated, humble disciples))

I Peter 3:15
But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect

Deut. 6:4-9

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Prov. 4:2
I give you sound learning, so do not forsake my teaching.

((Abide in Jesus and with others))

John 15 (all but specifically this section)
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Hebrews 10:25
not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O man, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.

((Do compassion passionately))

Matthew 25:40
 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Colossians 3:23
And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men

I John 3:18
My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

=

LEAD 
Joshua 1:9 (Our family verse) Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Our family mission statement is this:
We will be a family that is defined by our LOVE for God first, others second, and ourselves last.  We will be EDUCATED, humble disciples of Jesus who are always seeking His will in our lives.  We will ABIDE personally in our relationship with Jesus, closely with our family, in our community of faith and in an influential way throughout our world.  We will DO all things with a passion that is defined by our compassion for others in need and those God calls us to serve.  We will boldly LEAD in the way that we follow Jesus and not be held back by the limitations or expectations of any person.

We love the tri-bond nature of the values, mission statement, and verse, one leading into the next and so on.  I know this seems a little complicated (a friend of mine has a short, one sentence family mission statement), but the main part to communicate with the kids right now is what the L.E.A.D. stands for.  They can learn the "why verses" later.

Scott and I really enjoyed this little homework assignment.  We collaborated and discussed core desires we each brought to the table.  We learned more of why each thinks certain things are really important.  This is a personal assignment, watermarked by past experiences, lessons, character, and every family's will be entirely unique.  TEAMWORK produces such an amazing feeling of growth and being cherished.  And most importantly, as Scott (and I) lead the family and make decisions (about anything!), we have this to ask ourselves: does it naturally fit into our family values?  Is it covered in our mission statement?  We love that as our kids mature, they will be able to see and understand how and why Mom and Dad made the decisions we have.  What our goal as a family is.  What our home is about.

I wanted to encourage anyone out there to tackle this project for your own family.  Especially in light of the current Bible study book I'm reading, Parenting Beyond Your Capacity, and the discussions that stem out of it.  (This idea hasn't been addressed in the book, but it does talk about focus and the end goal and pairs very nicely.)  I know how meaningful the mission statement has been for this home and hope that you can experience the same.  And with all the artsy/crafty people out there, I'm sure amazingly beautiful representations of these values could start hanging on walls in homes everywhere.  Here is how ours hangs: