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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