Wineinger Family Mission Statement
A business has a mission statement. An nonprofit has a mission statement. Why shouldn't a FAMILY have a mission statement.
About 2 years ago, I was introduced to the idea of affirmations. These are statements SPOKEN audibly to solidify truths in mine/ my girls' lives. Here are the previous posts on the girls' affirmations & my personal affirmations. The power of spoken word is EXPONENTIAL... but that's another post for another day.
Shortly after the girls and I created our affirmations, I felt VERY convicted to create a WINEINGER FAMILY MISSION STATEMENT. Here is ours...
"In our family, we love God & love each other.
We are thinkers, dreamers, doers, & go-getters.
We pray instead of worry.
We are grateful instead of entitled.
We know for certain that God created each one of us,
Dad, Mom, Ruthie, Tessa & Joanna,
specifically for this family to work together to follow His plan.
Even if it's scary or unclear, we will spur each other on;
We collaborate and encourage each other.
We have fun together, we work together, we hug each other,
and most importantly, we protect each other.
We remember that whatever we do, we are demonstrators of Jesus Christ.
We take God's call to live missionally very seriously and work to do that every day, because each person is loved by God. Thank you Lord for our family."
WHY did we do this?
A thriving business will always refer back to their mission statement whenever there is a question of, "Should we collaborate with this company?" or "Would adding this to our business benefit us?" When a business is growing & developing and questions direction for their company, they choose what most aligns with the mission of the company. THAT mentality is EXACTLY how I want us to understand and make decisions in our family.
It creates a VISUAL standard for our home. When it comes to discipline, I want to be able to hold up a Bible and point to this picture on the wall and ask, "Did what you just do align with what you know as truth?" When I make a decision and my daughter looks at me and says, "WHY?!" in the most exasperated voice [I can hear it already!] I can say THIS IS WHY! It is written very plainly in scripture and in our mission & goal as a family. That's why!
HOW did we write this?
We worked to cover 3 main components:
Who are we?
What's our purpose?
How are we going to find & fulfill that purpose?
I asked Nathan if there was anything he specifically wanted in the statement. His response: We are hard workers & we are entitled to NOTHING. We look out for our family and we are to live missionally. And I wanted to make sure it included TRUTHS, so they could never question WHY God created them & WHO they belong to. When we were done putting it together, I asked the girls if there was anything they wanted to add...now, remember they are young, but I wanted them to feel included in the process.
They took it as serious as a 7 & 5 year old could [they asked if we could include something about ice cream], but whenever we sit at the dinner table, one of them is staring at the words. They love seeing THEIR name on it. The other night Tessa counted 9 of her sight words on it. :) Whatever! Don't care.... they're looking at it!
If you're reading this & this is something you would like to do for your family DO IT! Steal this one! Word for word...If it benefits your family, take it. Google... pinterest.... there's MANY examples out there. If I can help, I'm there. This was sooo FREE-ing for us as parents...it's no longer about a list of Do's & Don'ts. It's about understand the calling God's ask us to as parents AND as kids and how we will work together as the Wineingers to DO IT!
Making the Print:
I made the print in Adobe Photoshop & exported it as a PDF. This could easily be done in Microsoft Word or Google Docs as well (just export to a PDF or use the Snipping tool to turn to a JPEG).
I sent it to a local print shop here (Pip Printing for locals), but you could also save it as JPEG & print it on a canvas at Walmart, Walgreens & any other local places that print canvas prints.
My frame was a clearance item from Hobby Lobby (total fluke!) But, HERE is a comparable (& cheaper) option from Amazon.
