The transition was tough, but it also provided space for us to get on the same page as a family. After lots of prayer and discussion, my wife and I developed a family mission statement. It wasn’t an easy or quick process. We prayerfully discussed each word and concept. Today, our mission statement serves as our family’s pocket-compass. As opportunities and decisions come it helps to direct our steps. Let me share it with you:

“Our mission is to love God and others like Jesus did. To understand who we are, both our strengths and our shortcomings. To seek freedom within and peace without. To faithfully walk the road laid out before us with compassionate eyes and grateful hearts. And to sacrifice for the benefit of others.”

I LOVE this statement. Let me flesh out why by highlighting key phrases…

Like Jesus did: He’s our model for life. We want to have the type of relationship with God that He had. We want to love others like He did. We want to make disciples like He did. In short, we want to walk like Jesus walked.

To understand who we are: We want to be strong in self-awareness. We’d like our awareness to extend not only to our strengths, but also to our weaknesses-to those places within ourselves where we are wounded and reactive. To the ways we self-protect and manipulate others relationally. This is important because when we move toward others to get approval, admiration, or respect we aren’t loving them.

To seek freedom within and peace without: The Gospel is about bringing freedom from sin and its effects. As we become more free, we become more whole. We seek freedom from things like our need to be respected or liked, freedom from fear of conflict or failure, freedom from social anxiety, etc. As we experience freedom within, we’re able to bring about peace and restoration to the world around us. Our lives are meant to leave behind a wake of restoration that can be seen in the people we’ve loved and the places we’ve lived.

With Compassionate Eyes and Grateful Hearts: Jesus modeled a heart of compassion to the hurting and oppressed. It’s a foundational character trait of a mature disciple. As we become more like Christ, we should be more compassionate, not more dogmatic. Seven times in Scripture, we see Jesus moved to compassion for the crowds. Gratitude flows out of an awareness of what God has done and continues to do in this life. These two are connected. To love others requires compassion and to experience love from others requires gratitude.

To Sacrifice for Others: Our lives are not ours to do with what we want. They are to be laid down and poured out for the benefit of others.

Once we had our mission statement, we memorized it. In our family, we begin the process of memorizing it around two and a half. That may seem young, but two-year olds can remember a lot! CLICK HERE to watch our daughter reciting it when she was two and a half.