Mothering With Purpose

I've been going to a really wonderful Bible Study for Moms for about 6 weeks now and it's been dramatically shifting the way I view parenting and also giving me so many new ideas for incorporating faith into our daily routine.  This study's main objective is to give a mother more purpose in her parenting role and tools to mother with more passion and direction.  I wanted to share

a morsel here and there and maybe it will encourage you also.

Create A Mom Mission Statement

Large and small businesses, churches etc. create mission statements when they are founded.  I worked for a book publisher for several years and we referenced our companies mission statement regularly during our weekly staff meetings.  This was the CEO's way of encouraging his employees to work with purpose and vision.  Here is how Wikipedia defines a Mission Statement, " A mission statement is a statement of the purpose of a company or organization. The mission statement should guide the actions of the organization, spell out its overall goal, provide a path, and guide decision-making. It provides "the framework or context within which the company's strategies are formulated."  If companies and organizations have found mission statements to be so essential then perhaps there is something that moms (and Dads) could glean from this practice.

Source: emergingmummy.com via Adriel on Pinterest

It is only natural that a task that we have to do day in day out might lose it's sense of wonder and our passion and purpose for that task will fade from time to time.   As moms we can easily lose sight of the parenting goal or perhaps we don't even know what our goals as mothers are.  I know that I hadn't really thought too much about my daily motherhood goals.  I just knew that I wanted to raise my little person to become a moral big person who loves Jesus.  This was a good start to my Mom mission statement but, it wasn't specific enough to really impact the way I mother each day.  So I began to think about what my Mom's mission statement should look like and actually I am still thinking about it.  The picture above was my rough draft and I am continuing to fine tune it.  Ask yourself:  What do I want to accomplish each day as a Mom?  If I knew that I might die in a week (sorry to be morbid but, sometimes it actually helps us to think more clearly!) what things would I want my children to know more than anything else?  What do I want my kids to remember about their time with me?  What kind of people do I want to help them to grow up to be?  What can I do each day to instill value and purpose in their lives? What do I need to cut out or cut back on so that I can be more intentional with my time everyday? Each Mom (or Dads) mission statement should be a little different as we all have different goals and motivations as moms.  Create a Mom mission statement that resonates with you and put it somewhere that you can see it regularly.  I'd love to know if this is something that could help you as much as it has been helping me!

Source: breakitmakeitorbakeit.blogspot.com via Adriel on Pinterest

Here is a passage that I love from my study: "Jesus knew what His job was here on this earth.  The vision and energy with which He pursued that purpose made up His passion.  He walked out every day of His life with that understanding.  You and I desperately need to know what our purpose is and we need to pursue it with passionate energy and vision.  But most of us have no sense of purpose in our daily responsibilities as moms and we find it hard to be passionate about doing the same tasks over and over again each day.  This is the challenge of motherhood that each of us faces."  The main goal of the study I am in is to point out to moms that Jesus understands what we are going through and that we can look to Him for the tools that we need to be more successful as Moms.  Jesus knew that He was only going to be on Earth for a short time and He knew that his mission was to teach the gospel and to love daily and hourly.  He lived with purpose and we can definitely learn from His example. 

Source: spirituallythinking.blogspot.com via Michelle on Pinterest

I've noticed that since starting this study that I have had a lot more patience with my daughter.  I have been keeping the TV and the internet off a lot more during the day and purposing to spend more time playing and laughing with my daughter. I've been referencing my mission statement regularly to see if I am staying on track and it is helping a lot!  I feel more purposed and more motivated.  I'm not saying that a mission statement suddenly makes motherhood a breeze or that everyday is now peachy (in fact, I am being put to the test with incessant terrible twos tantrums the past two weeks) but, it helps a lot. I hope it can help you also!