On a mission...

I read a book years ago called “Living a Purpose-Full Life”. The first section of the book discusses creating a unique mission statement for your life. It really resonated with me. At the time I was working on my MBA, learning about missions, goals, values, objectives, etc. for business-related projects. Why not also have a mission to guide my own personal endeavors?

But coming up with a personal mission statement was more difficult than I expected. How do you narrow down all of your thoughts and interests into one brief statement? But part of the process outlined in the book was “data collection.” What is your personality type? What are your passions? What unique experiences have already shaped your life? What are your spiritual gifts? When do you feel happiest? And so on…

When I started thinking through all of those questions (i.e., collecting my data), I began to see patterns in my life. So while sitting in my Cincinnati dentist office with a red pen and a torn envelope, I wrote down a “draft” mission statement. I fully intended to go back and tweak it at a later date. I would love for it to have more sophisticated wording. But every time I’ve revisited it since that day, I feel like it’s good just the way it is! Divine inspiration at the dentist office back in 2002, I guess.

“Enhance appreciation of God through:

-          Artistic expression

-          Acceptance of different cultures

-          Encouraging confidence in the gifts God gave us”

It is just broad enough that it sums up how I wanted to live 15 years ago, now and moving forward. And the great thing is, it has helped me to make difficult decisions over the years. When I’m considering something, I can see how it compares to my mission to decide if it’s something that my time and energy would be best spent on. I’m a “yes” girl, so falling back on my mission statement helps me filter out what I should not be saying yes to!

It's affirming that when I’ve felt called to do big things, they have all been consistent with my mission statement. For example, my mission trips to China and Nigeria. Both trips were focused on providing aid to children – in China it was working in an orphanage, in Nigeria it was working on plans for a hospital. So I felt like the trips would hit #2 and #3 on my statement… but on BOTH trips, I got there and was asked “do you paint?” I ended up spending my time in China painting murals on bedroom walls in the orphanage. And I spent my time in Nigeria painting murals in a new daycare facility being built on the hospital campus. I'll admit, for a brief moment I was caught up in negative thoughts about painting not being the most important work for each trip… but at the end of the day, I used my gifts to illustrate God’s word and encourage others. Definitely important work and definitely aligned with who God made me to be!

   

            

You’re probably a step ahead of me and see how our current journey fits with my personal mission. Adopting internationally hits on the encouraging and diversity prongs of my statement. More affirmation that we’re heading just where God wants us to go…

I bring all of this up because we’re at the stage in our process where we are starting to raise the remaining adoption funds. Thinking through this has been a challenge for Chad and I because we really dislike fundraisers. J We’re been working through what type of fundraising best fits us, our skills, etc. More to come on all of that, but for the time being I am excited to announce our first fundraising effort!

I am going to be hosting monthly craft/art classes. Woo hoo! I LOVE crafting… and I know all of you do too. Even those of you who say you aren’t good at it… you can be good at it with a little inspiration!! So look for upcoming invitations and e-mail me feedback… feedback on crafts you would like to try, on when is the best time to meet, etc. (And if you already meet with a group of women – Bible Study, moms groups, etc. and want me to plan a craft night specifically for your group, let me know!!!)