It all starts again next week. This time, I teach juniors and seniors. We begin with professional materials that include résumés, cover letters, and personal mission statements.
I love personal mission statements for their particular simplicity; they state in a concise sentence or two what a person devotes themselves to in his or her field or future career. Flowing from this devotion comes attitudes, behaviors, and goals.
Beyond our professional lives, I consider what it means to have a mission statement for marriages and families.
It’s actually very difficult. Students tell me that this particular sentence might be the hardest one they write in their lives. It’s the hardest but perhaps the most vital. When you narrow things down to a single mission, it suddenly becomes so easy to make choices. You don’t live a scattered life. You don’t live out of control. You live purposefully, intentionally, and easily.
In the book of Jeremiah, I learn that God gives singleness of heart and action. Some translations refer to a unified lifestyle–one heart and one way–that I’ve always thought sounded so freeing and beautiful.
In 2013, I want to live purposely, intentionally, and easily. I want a singleness of heart and action that determines my attitudes, behaviors, and goals.
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Do you have a mission statement?