Intentionally Defining the Mission of Your Family

Do you remember what it was like when you first held your child in your arms?  Think back to all of the dreams and plans you envisioned for this precious gift laying safely and securely in your arms. Fast forward 2 years later, 5 years later, 10 years later, ask yourself if you are doing everything possible to reach those dreams and plans you envisioned on that very first day.  Sometimes, as parents we get so busy with the everyday life of living and raising children that we may lose sight of what is most important in raising our children. How can we as parents stay on track in preparing our children for the future?  For starters, it is important that we have a plan.  Better than a plan, why not a mission for our family? 

Ten years ago, we were at a cross roads in deciding the future of our children’s education.  We prayed a lot and desired to do what God wanted us to do for our children.  My wise husband suggested that we write out a family mission which would reflect the core values that we wanted to pass on to our children.  

The organizer and researcher I am, I immediately started looking for resources on how to write a mission statement. Gathering all that I had learned, I came up with a simple plan.  Basically, my husband and I individually wrote out the core values which we desired to be the foundation of our children’s character.  We then simply compared our thoughts and ideas, chose the core values in order of importance, and wrote out a mission statement.  My husband actually wrote it out himself. I vividly remember the moment he sat at our kitchen table and handwrote our family mission statement.  Nothing made me love my husband more than to see him intentionally set into place a plan as to where we will lead our family.  I am eternally grateful to have a husband who showed such strength, leadership, and vision for our family.

The beauty of this mission statement is that we have been able to use it when making decisions regarding so many issues in our family.  Once it was laid out, it became very clear to us as to what route to take in educating our children.  You see, family is the place where the core values of the heart are nurtured.  In order to nurture those core values, it is vitally important that we specifically and intentionally define those core values.