Creating a Purpose Statement.

I read a book when I was a young mother called "Manager's of Their Homes". I liked that. Manger of my home sounded so much better than stay at home mom. Aside from the title though, I realized that the author was right. A great many of the strengths a manager employs in the work world I now use at home. From that book and others, I have learned to manage and make the most of my days and not let the day primarily dictate to me.



Several years back John and I decided to take this concept one step further. We decided to write a purpose statement for our family. We had always believed in giving our children individual purpose, casting vision and being purposeful in our parenting, but we had never written an actual purpose statement. By this time our children were older so we got them all involved in the process. It took a few rewrites, but we finally came up with something on which we could all agree. Obvious benefits were derived right away from having a written purpose statement for our family.


The first benefit was that it gave us a common bond. We want to do whatever we can to strengthen the family unit. We had vision and a common goal in writing. We were all walking together toward our purpose. It strengthened the integrity of our family. Not to mention that it was fun just brainstorming and listening to their hearts during the process.

The second benefit is that it helped us to say no to "good" things. That may sound strange, but as a Christian family we get asked to do many"good" things: be in the choir, serve on the nursery committee, teach Sunday School etc. You get the picture. I said yes to way more things than I should have always feeling guilty for even wanting to decline. Now, I just refer to our purpose statement, and if it doesn't further it, I feel right in saying no so that I can say yes to the things that do line up with our purpose statement.

Finally, it helped me in the training of my children. When my children sometimes lost their focus, I could point back to our purpose statement and help them see why we do the things we do. Ultimately, I like to use scripture for this purpose but having the purpose statement helps me with those "others can but we can not times."

I would encourage you to think about making a purpose statement for your family no matter what stage of the journey you are in. It is never to early, or late, to have a purpose.

I was asked to put our family's purpose statement on here.

Bushnell Family Purpose Statement

The purpose of our family is to live our lives in such a way that we would inspire others to catch a vision of a God centered faith that is passed down from generation to generation. To challenge fathers and mothers to capture the hearts of their children and to turn the hearts of the children towards their parents through purposeful interaction within the family and by encouraging families to be involved in missions both at home and abroad.