There’s no day like Valentine’s Day to decide what your mission is in life.  There’s something about love–true love–that brings out the best in people.  When life isn’t about getting but about giving, when there’s a lack of entitlement and an offer of generosity, when there’s the gift of lending of yourself to honor another person, there is purpose and there is love.

We’ve spent the last four years chewing on our ten core values.  From the beginning of this idea, it’s been engrained in my head that a true mission statement isn’t as much about passion as it is about life.  Real life. True life. Life that rises when passions dwindle, life that sustains us when our feelings fade, life that stays close no matter what else is going on.

I’ve been a simple joy person from the get go.  It doesn’t take much to make me smile, and it doesn’t take a lot to fuel my love tank. I’ve seen God in the big stuff, miracles, and extravagance but I’ve been honored most by His still sweet voice in the small stuff–where every day life is the miracle and His nurturing presence and kindness is more than available.

When it came to raising a family, that was my hope. The small stuff. Make sure the small stuff is present and covered. If the big stuff comes, let it come. But His presence has always been and always is most saturated in the intimate spaces of the heart.

And so, as we’ve developed these core values and are still working on them (cause that will be a lifetime’s mission and maturity as this love has it’s way in us), we’ve simplified our family’s lifeline into one statement.

I’ll keep posting as we finish up our process on displaying our new nursery rhyme of a mission of statement.  I think it exemplifies our personalities perfectly, it gives us the freedom to give generously, and it keeps division at bay. Who in the world could be against simplicity, freedom, love, and good deeds? I think that’s a mission worth living.

XOXO,

Sarah