Family Mission Statement

We're following along with Simple Mom on her Back to Basics series. This week we're creating a Family Mission Statement. As Simple Mom so wisely suggests, use this exercise to "Discover what you're about."

After a few days of discussion between Chris and I, and also sitting down at dinner last night and talking with Jillian, we've come up with a few things that we feel are a good "roadmap" for our family. We made several lists about our family's goals and what we feel our strengths and weaknesses are. I'm not going to share all of those here, because some things are private and just for our family, but I will tell you that taking the time to do this this week was a very worthwhile experience and I'm so glad that we did this together.

As we were talking, our family's overall theme and wishes became evident pretty quickly: we all want to live a happy, simple, worry-free life. We want to have peace. Once we had established that, we turned to Proverbs and the book of James for instructions on how to have peace, seeking some wisdom on basic rules for living a life as God wants us to.

Our Family Mission:

To Be Focused on PEACE

How we hope to foster Peace:

• In Our Home: by keeping things simple and remembering that the purpose of our home is to create a physical and emotional shelter for our family "Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife." Proverbs 17:1
• In Our Family: remember each day to laugh together, to speak to each other with kindness, and to be firm in our commitment to love each other. "Let love and faithfulness never leave you ... write them on the tablet of your heart." Proverbs 3:3 Overall, being "quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry." James 1:19
• In our Spiritual Lives: to put God first and not waste time on worry, trusting that He is in charge and will take care of us.
  
• In Our Hearts: to live a life of integrity and do the right thing, even when it is not the easy thing - without expecting any credit or acknowledgment. "Do not merely listen to the word ... Do what it says." James 1:22
  
• In Our Minds: to learn something new every day and to store up knowledge "turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding." Proverbs 2:2
  
• In Our Bodies: by eating right, exercising, and being aware of what we put in and on our bodies
  
• In Our Financial Dealings: by getting out of debt with intensity and by not being a borrower or a lender, but a GIVER whenever we are able "Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act." Proverbs 3:27  Read about our personal financial Turning Point and all of our Frugal Deeds on our journey to becoming debt free.
• In Our Relationships: by being content with what we have and not comparing ourselves with others. Also, by pruning caustic relationships and seeking worthy friendships. Learning to say "no" when we feel we need to so that we can really enjoy what time we do spend with people an experiences we have.
  
• In Our Environment: to tread lightly and live simply, to aim to leave a place better for our having been there

I can see that keeping one main mission/goal in mind will really help with daily decision making. For example, in our home keeping the goal of PEACE in mind will help us in setting priorities for:

• our daily interactions with each other
• our daily schedule and rhythms
  
• our possessions - what we keep, what we prune away, what we bring into our space
  
• care and upkeep of the structure of our home
• care and upkeep of the items within our home

More specifically for me, my tasks as a home keeper have a very clear & defined purpose: to create an emotional shelter of peace & calm for my family (weeding out harsh words, loud voices, unsettling strife and not over-scheduling us or creating stress) and to make sure our physical spaces are peaceful and calm - visually pleasing and uncluttered and clean.

"Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife." Proverbs 17:1

It is better to have a simple, peaceful space - even if it may be meager - than a feast of things, overwhelming clutter, and lots strife within our household. In other words, less is more. Now, as I'm going about making my priorities, I just have to ask myself if something or some task will bring peace or take away from it and that gives me my answer.

I feel like this is an awesome start. As long as we keep the simple mission in mind to focus on PEACE, I really believe that the rest will follow.


You can see other family mission statements and share your over at Simple Mom today