If you have any MBA graduates or management types in your family, you may hear talk of a mission statement. It’s a vision for the company they are leading. Every board has to decide on a vision for the organization they are directing. Why? It’s not a new concept. In fact, it was God’s idea long before it was taught in any management school or seminar. Solomon said it in the book of Proverbs, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Other ways of saying this include, “If you don’t now where you’re going, it doesn’t matter which direction you will go.” “You’re going nowhere, fast.” “Where there is no direction, there can be no progress toward it.”
In light of this great wisdom, many companies have formed large organizations and profited by keeping true to their mission. Is work the only place you need to have a vision?
God has a mission. In Matthew 28 Jesus, the greatest visionary and leader in unconventional wisdom of all time, said this to those he led,
“I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,[b] baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
His disciples knew their mission, and because of it they did more than obey, they lived their mission and they died for it. They did it understanding the guarantee of their leader. In my words,
“Introduce them to me, show them my nature and who I am. Show them what it is like to follow me by your example. Bring them into our family and have them confess their allegiance to my way by having them stand before men and state it in public. I’ll reward them by cleaning up the mess they’ve made of their lives, show them that living for Me is like taking a bath in clean water. The difference is that one washing is all it takes. Don’t worry, no matter what happens when you follow my lead, I’ll be with you, forever, always.”
So, your family is important to you, right? Some people put God first, but most would put family first or second. If family is a priority, why give the development of your family less intentional thought than your job? Do you have a vision for your each of your children’s lives? Do you know where you are heading in your leadership of their lives? Each one of them is unique, and made for a different purpose. Do you know what it is? Most of us just wonder, but the reality is, that this knowledge is available through God!
The reason I stated above that Jesus is the ultimate visionary is that he did nothing that did NOT fit into his mission statement. Everything he is about is for the mission he was sent to do. He intentionally picked a bunch of difficult people to do his work and patiently waited for them to “get it”. Are you one of those people who still needs to get it?
God gives us kids and tells us to “train them up in the way that they should go, and they will not depart from it.” If you have a mission for your company, which is lower on the list, do you have one for your family?
When you look into their future, what do you want them to become? Sometimes this question leads people to stress about college funds or academic achievement, but in the scheme of life with God, do you have a vision for them? I guarantee that God, their designer does. He knows why he gave them their personality and their gifts. How will you know this if you don’t seek God and ask him to show you what it is? The real mission God has for every Christian is the same one Jesus left for his disciples. Show them how to KNOW me. Show them how to SERVE me. Reveal to them who I am, so they can blossom and be who I created them to be.
Great leaders are charismatic. The fire they have spreads to those around them. We all lead by our example, but where are you leading them TO. Are you showing your kids Christ by your choices and daily activity? Kids are smart, intuitive, gifted and if you have passionate faith, they will catch it! Sadly, many of us take our kids to church, trust the Sunday School leaders to “educate” them in God’s ways, but nothing in our daily life is any different than our neighbor’s because of Christ. No one will catch anything from you that you don’t have, not even your kids.
Do you want to raise kids who know Christ, or who just know ABOUT Christ. Eventually, someone may tell them about what Jesus did for them, maybe on a street corner as they hand them a tract. Do you want to leave them to this fate? YOU have the opportunity to put Christ, the only way to real peace and joy (not to mention heaven), right IN FRONT of them for 18 years before the world gets them and sees your handiwork. What are you doing?
Spend time in prayer and do more listening than talking, then write down what matters to you, and whether that Christian title is talk or a LIFE you intend to live. Trust me, your kids know the difference.
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