Most organizations and businesses have a mission statement. A mission statement is a formal summary of the aims and values of the company, organization, or individual. As a family you can do the same. As a homeschool family—by choice or by government mandate—you should definitely have a mission or purpose statement. It will be a bit more detailed, in that it will not only show who your family is, but it will also show how you will bring this purpose to life.
Here are a few steps to get started on your family’s purpose statement:
Make it a date night! Sit down with your husband and pray:
Pray for God to give you an eternal perspective. How can homeschool build up the kingdom of God?
Gaze upon the life of Jesus to know what ultimately matters.
Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the wisdom and words to guide your family.
Write. Here’s a quick outline to follow:
Your first paragraph (don’t worry you’re not writing an essay!) should contain why you are homeschooling. The reasons can be many but look at your role as a godly parent. You were not blessed with children to merely educate them. God chose you to teach and to “train [them] up in the way [they] should go;” (ESV, Proverbs 22.6). Write out your intention either in your own words or use a bible verse— just make sure whatever you write clearly states the purpose.
Use the additional paragraphs or bullet points to define how you will live out your family’s purpose. Consider your convictions, ministry, the emotional and physical needs of your family, and character training. Also, think about your family’s schedule. Does Dad work full-time, Monday through Friday? Weekends? Nights? What is your work schedule? Is travel a big thing in your family or do you want it to be?
End your statement with a verse that reminds you what you have been given, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate,” (ESV, Psalm 127.3-5).
Type it. Print it. Hang it up.
Hang it up where you will see it every day while homeschooling. Store these words in your heart and it will be stored in heaven where it will not fail, “where no thief approaches and no moth destroys,” (ESV, Luke 12.33).
Your mission or purpose statement will and should be a written manifestation of how you live life and what you deem important. It will put priorities in order. It will plainly show if Jesus is first or if worldly matters are between you and God. Your statement will also put your family back on track when it feels like everything is falling apart. Also know that as your family changes your statement may change as well. It is not written in stone. Just as your family is dynamic so is your purpose, as long as it keeps the focus on God and your intent.
We have a responsibility as parents to teach our children why and how to walk towards God. It does not matter how homeschool came into your home, what matters is what we do with this blessed time we have been given. Should we allow “distance learning” to pull the reins from our hands? Can you accomplish your family’s intent when someone else is determining how your children are educated? Can your family’s purpose shine brighter when you don’t have to constantly filter out negative influence?
This may be the time to reach into every aspect of our God-given purpose, as parents, and live it out.
“‘Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules —that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long,’” (ESV, Deuteronomy 6.1-2).