A Family Mission Statement

For years I have been hearing about creating a family mission statement. It always intrigued me because I am all about trying to find a focus for what I am doing and keeping my eyes on that. Anyone who knows me knows that I love acronyms. I prayed about this for a long time and decided that I wanted to use our last name, Webber, to create our mission statement using the letters in our name. I sat down and wrote every verb that I could think of that started with those letters that sounded like it would go along with something that could be a core value of our mission.

Wait, Walk
Educate, Encourage, Enjoy, Enter, Examine, Expect, Extend
Behave, Believe, Bless
Radiate, Raise, Rejoice, Remember, Reproduce, Remember, Rest

Then, I narrowed them down to these:
Walk with God
Enjoy and Examine God's Word
Believe that God Can Do the Impossible
Behave Like a Christian
Enter His Gates with Thanksgiving
Reproduce Other Believers in Jesus

After that, I found Bible verses to be the foundational truths of each part of the mission.

I typed it all up, prettied it all up, and printed out our Webber Family Mission Statement.

I am sharing it with you in hopes that it will motivate you to make yours as well. God Bless!

Appreciation

D.L. Moody said, "Character is what a man is in the dark."

Instilling Godly character into our kids is crucial. Character is who they truly are.
After reading and highlighting so much of an awesome book,
Parenting With Scripture, by Kara Durbin,
I decided to make Character Studies for my kids and I am going to share one with you today.

Basically, you look up the definition of the character trait. Then, there is a verse to memorize.
Then, there is a passage of Scripture that illuminates the character trait in action.
After reading the passage, there are Observation and Application questions to go through.
Lastly, a place for prayer is given to encourage a time of prayer.

The first one is on Appreciation. Who doesn't appreciate being appreciated?
But what I have realized that more important than being appreciated by others
is having an attitude of appreciation toward God and others.

APPRECIATION

Word to Look Up: appreciation:

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Verse(s) to Memorize: Psalm 100:4:

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Scripture to Read/Study:
Luke 17:11-19:
¹¹ Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem
    that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
¹² Then as He entered a certain village,
    there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.
¹³ And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
¹⁴ So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”
    And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.
¹⁵ And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned,
    and with a loud voice glorified God,
¹⁶ and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
¹⁷ So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?
¹⁸ Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”
¹⁹ And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

Questions to Answer:

Who are the key people in this lesson?

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Describe 9 Lepers: ________________________________________________________ 

Describe 1 Leper: _________________________________________________________

What happens?

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How does the 1 leper stand out?

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What does Jesus say to him?

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Application to Plan:

What is the key thing you learned from this lesson?

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 How can you apply what you learned from this lesson?

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Prayer to Pray:

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If you need an easier-to-print PDF version, please e-mail me at mightyacorns613@hotmail.com

Psalm 1:1-3

PSALM 1:1-3

Scripture:

 

Psalm 1:1-3

¹ Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
   nor stands in the path of sinners,
   nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
² But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
   and in His law he meditates day and night.
³ He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
   that brings forth its fruit in its season,
   whose leaf also shall not wither;
   and whatever he does shall prosper.

 

Observations:

 

Blessed means that this person has joy and contentment that can only come from God.
He also has the believer’s blessings that are reserved for God’s children.

To truly follow after God, one cannot follow after the ungodly. They must avoid associating with those who are walking in sin. Caution: Please don’t think this means the believer doesn’t interact with unbelievers at all. It means that the believer is not following and taking “wisdom” or counsel from unbelievers/sinners. Rather, his wisdom and counsel comes only from the Law of the Lord, the Word of God, which he not only meditates on (thinks deeply about), but also takes delight in (enjoys).

 

One of the blessings of being a godly person, is that they are like a tree planted by rivers of water. They are surrounded by the abundant resources that God gives His children. They are never parched and never run dry. They always have that Living Water.

They also bring forth fruit, which is demonstrated in their life through peace, joy, contentment, love, and godliness.

 

One of the greatest promises here is that whatever they do will prosper. Caution: This does not mean that they will live in mansions and drive fancy cars. It means that when they are following the Word and will of God, they will prosper because they will be on the right path.

 

Applications:

 

As Christians and Christian parents trying to raise our children to be Mighty Acorns for God, we must only seek counsel and wisdom from God through reading, studying, memorizing, applying, and praying the Word of God.

 

We must resist the temptation to follow after the “wisdom” of the world. We must cherish the Word of God and seek to encourage our children to also. When we do this, blessings will abound from God.

 

Prayer:

 

Heavenly Father,

You are the source of all wisdom. You are omnipotent, all-knowing. Your ways are above our ways; your thoughts higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8). Your Bible is the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God. It has perfect wisdom for our lives. Help us to cherish You and Your Word with all our hearts. Help us to meditate on Your Word day and night. Help us to follow You with all that we have. Help us to raise our Mighty Acorns and that they would be Mighty Oak Trees that would be planted by water, with roots so deep and wide that they will never be shaken, that bear fruit for You and Your Kingdom, whose leaves never wither. Lord, help us to prosper in whatever we do to bring honor and glory to You. Amen.

This method of studying Scripture is called "SOAP Method".
Basically you write out the Scripture verse(s),
write out any of your Observations about the verse(s),
write out any Applications to your life,
and then write out a Prayer to God about the verses.