Family Purpose Statement

It has been so very long since I posted on here. Almost 3 months. A lot has happened, but I won't digress. One thing I would like to start doing on my blog is keeping up with it. I know that several of you have emailed me and asked "where are you," "why aren't you posting." Usually my posts ended up being so long that I get interrupted several times. Or I am aiming for perfection instead of completion and ended up with nothing. This year I am going to focus on concise posts, practical posts, more frequent posts - and hopefully more pictures. Maybe my iPhone pictures, as uninspiring as they may be, will speak a bit for me.

So, to start 2012 off with a bang, I want to share our family goals and my personal goals. I hope to do that over the coming weeks. For Christmas, my little ones gave me a new book (I asked for it). Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider. I requested the hardback version, versus the Kindle, because it has charts and such and I wanted to be able to make copies.

One of the very first things that Tsh recommends is making a family purpose statement. I have tried to do this on many ocassions, but it just ended up being my purpose statement instead of one for our whole family. This time, Big P and I took several of the questions that she gives you and talked about them at length. Me being the wordy of the family, compiled it all together and Big P tweaked it with me. She emphasizes how this should be timeless, and not really goal oriented, but values oriented. That took some thinking, prayer, and work. It was a fun project!

Here is our family purpose statement is (this is just an example - you must go through this process yourself to have the desired effect):

We, the Salinas’, believe that our purpose as a family is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. 

We hope to accomplish this by:

•  Growing in Christ likeness, purposing to raise godly adults, and ministering to others.
• Making our home a place of safety, joy, and peace.
• Choosing time together (producing or exploring) over personal entertainment.
• Interacting with each other in a spirit of kindness and servitude.
• Working to get out of debt and taking care of what we have.

 I purchased a document frame at Walmart for $3 and an iron easel for $5. Printed up a copy of our statement with a very cool font - (Jellyka Delicious Cake available free on dafont.com) and boom, here's what I got....

I then printed up a copy to go inside my planner so that I can reference it when we are making plans during the year. Our #1 goal is to stay on track with the things that God has willed us to do and be a part of.

What about you... Have you thought about making a family purpose statement? I'd love to see yours. Please leave a comment below with your statement or link to your blog post about it.