A Family Purpose Statement

I recently purchased Organized Simplicity from amazon.com because pretty much anything that Ann Voskamp recommends I feel is worth reading. I've been planning a house purge for the month of July since about April. So, this book is coming at the perfect time.

The great thing about Tsh (the author) is that she hasn't written another self-help, run of the mill, cookie-cutter home book. She's written a well-thought, goal based method for concentrating on the things that are important to you and your family. She says one of the first things that you should do before simplifying things at home is to determine and write out your FAMILY PURPOSE STATEMENT.

Do you have one for your family? Well, I must be living under a rock because we don't....I mean not specifically...nope...we don't. So, I've been giving a lot of thought to it....I've asked Bruce to think about what he feels our family purpose is so that we can begin to put together our statement. I've been thinking beyond today and to what I really hope that my kids will grow up to be ...Christlike, grace-filled, compassionate, loving, sacrificial, humble. Tsh says that once you've determined your family's purpose statement that you organize and simplify your home according to that purpose. So when you make purchases you ask how that purchase will help you fulfill or incorporate your purpose statement.

This makes perfect sense to me. But she goes further. She talks about filling our schedules and lining them up with the purpose statement. How does this or that activity reflect God's purpose for your family. Working late, soccer practice, music lessons....none are wrong or bad in and of themselves, but when they interfere with the purpose God has designed for your family, they can become a distraction to doing what God wants your family to do.

In the next few days I will be posting our purpose statement...in the meantime if you're curious about Family Purpose Statements you can check out this: THE SIMPLE MOM

Let me know if you decide to start working on your family purpose statement....or if you already have one leave a post in the comments.