Friday 17 February 2012

Family Vision Statement


Rainbow remains us of our hope in God
February 19, 2010 is family Sunday at Lifetime Vineyard, Adoor. It is a time to honour and bless families and to rejoice and mourn together as a faith community. Pray that God will continue to enable you to be godly husbands/wives/parents and to be a blessing to all around you.

Family Vision Statement: Where is your family heading to?

Once I participated in target shooting. The event made me realize that even when I aim at the center, often the arrows fell on different points on the board and sometimes flew outside the board. Then imagine shooting with no aim. This idea led me to introduce this topic—to develop a vision for the family.

Many of us are familiar with company's vision statements. How important is a vision statement for a family? When my husband and I began traveling with the same vision for our life together, we become more productive and our life together became a blessing to us and others. It does not mean that our first few years of life were boring or less colourful. We have enjoyed each other and grew in love with each other ever since we got married with a deep desire to serve God and to raise a godly family. But a common vision gave us a focus to move forward and together cling to God in good and happy times.
Proverbs 29:18: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Instead of simply living our lives together for 40 or 50 years how fulfilling it would be when we have a vision for our families! God's desire for couples is to be one flesh which implies oneness in every aspect of life even though they are two people. A well framed vision statement will help to answer life’s great questions as far as the family is concerned. It is like a compass that guides the course of a ship in the vast ocean or in today's term the GPS that directs us when we are unsure of the way. Imagine how meaningful it will be when everyone in the family knows and lives up to the purpose to which it exits! When followed closely, it can be one of the means to help to move forward with vigor and grace and every decisions will be a step towards your destination.

I guess you got my point. Why wait? Now let us get to work...
As a family (include children if they are old even to understand the discussion) prayerfully ask the following questions which can help you to frame a vision statement.
Why is our family here? Or What is God's purpose for our family? This expresses the purpose of your family.
Where are we going? Or What do you want to achieve? This has to do with the vision of the family.
How will you get to the goal? This deals with means to achieve the vision.
What are your important values? This explains important values of your family.
As you answer these questions you are framing different parts of your family's vision statement. Put all these answers together to one meaningful sentences. This may not be the final one but a start to see God's unique purpose for your family.
You can post your family's vision statement in your bedroom or kitchen and read it at least once a day!
Hope you will have the vision statement ready before I share my thoughts with you next thoughts. Until then may you live in peace with God and others!