What's Your Mission Statement?
Do you have a personal mission statement?
It was this week’s theme for the other blog I write for, Kingdom Bloggers (I write every Monday),
so I’ve been thinking about mission statements a lot this past week. I worked
for a marketing company for several years and I saw how much investment was
given to formulating a mission statement. A vision statement identifies an
organization’s values, identity and their future; a mission statement
identifies how they are going to get there.
Entire business courses are focussed on why vision and
mission statements are important for organizations (which I can’t explain adequately
in a 500-word post, but I’m writing from an assumption it’s true); the same is
equally true when applied to individuals.
I like to win (at games, at life, at anything I try). I’m
competitive by nature and whether I win or lose a game, I need to know where I’ve
placed. Then when or if I play again, I can strategize better for a win or at
minimum increase my personal best. Since
my mission statement in this example is, I like to win, then I can evaluate if
I’ve accomplished the mission.
My personal vision statement is, God is always good, and his
plans for me are prosperous to give me a hopeful future. My personal mission
statement is, To know God’s voice and act on it. Once a mission statement is
established, then making decisions becomes easy, even if you are caught between
a rock and a hard place.
You can assume what my daily activities might be if I want
to know God. The obvious ways to know God’s voice is to read it through his
Word, and to pray and allow God to speak through prayer. I’ve been pursuing God
actively for the better part of two decades. I know his voice although I wouldn’t
say I’ve “arrived” at the end of knowing his voice, so I keep pursuing intimacy
with him by spending time. Reading the Bible and praying are excellent ways to
learn to hear and know his voice but there are also a lot of other expressions
and inflections of his voice which are made known through nature, the arts, and
science to name a few more ways.
I actively put myself in a better position to hear God
(such as Bible reading, prayer and worship) but by using my mission statement
as my parameter I can identify what things might be blocking my ability to
hear. For example, God speaks to me through dreams and visions. I look forward
to sleep because I know God can use that time to speak to my spirit and give me
instruction (Job
33:16). I also know our minds process thoughts and images we’ve seen
throughout the day, so I purposefully keep my eyes and ears cleared from any
junk that will hinder or limit God’s voice. Over the years, I’ve become more
sensitive to movies and TV programs; I limit what I watch to shows that
encourage and celebrate good decisions and values.
I [try to] live every part of my day being intentional about
my mission statement. I want to know his voice, and act on it. The rest will
follow.
What’s your mission statement and how does it make a
difference in your daily life?
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