Tuesday, April 6, 2010

"What's a Motto for You?"

When my hubby and I were first dating,and then when I had brainwashed and hypnotized him into thinking he couldn't live without me (bwahahahaha), we sat down and spent a lot of time writing up a Family Mission and Vision Statment. What an exercise! If you ever think you know what you want your life or your family or your marriage to look like, and if you think your spouse wants the same, you should definitely be ready for your eyes to be opened by a truly fun, and exceptionally useful, exercise such as this.

I remember one of the things we had on our list "wants" for our marriage and our home was peace and a lack of anger. Great idea. What does that look like? Where does that come from? Well, we searched out the scriptures to find what the Word said about anger, and boy, did I ever learn I had a LOT to work through from my own angry, angst-ridden past before I could truly live in peace with anyone. Very eye-opening...and humbling.

Recently, I've been looking at Romans (you just gotta love Romans) and I have found several passages that would make for wonderful starting points for a family motto. Chris and I have been revisiting our goals and our vision for the family and these passages sure set a beautiful tone. Read these, and try and convince me this isn't what you want for your marriage, your family, your workplace, your ministry, your relationships, your church.


Romans 14:19 "So then, let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding."

(my new favourite) Romans 15:5-6 "May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Jesus Christ, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."


Now both of those have SO much to dig deeper in to, and more to define and grasp that you could really study that for a long, long time. But just imagine what your home, what my home, might look like if one of these was the new motto, or the new focus and mind set.

What scriptures do you look to for purpose and focus? Do you have a key verse, or a life verse, that drives you?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Barb,
I love your family. This is great. Will you share more of your family's vision statement with me sometime? I feel like I would learn much from it.

My family did something similar probably... 10 to 15 years ago. In one sentence, our family's vision statement is "Glorify God by blessing others in service and pursuing truth, beauty, and goodness in life".
love, Rhiannon

Linda Rempel said...

Thanks for this Barb! The longer I am married (25 yr next month) the more I realize that unity(oneness) is one of the most important things between husband and wife. When God said "and the two shall become one flesh" he was speaking on many levels, all of which are important in creating the unity needed to glorify God in our relationship. There is not much that is more difficult than this coming together as one, and words such as 'endurance' and 'encouragement' are good indicators of the level of effort required but it is what He says we are to be and in striving to be this we glorify Him. :)