I also get frustrated when I feel like I am doing so many simple things (laundry, coloring, sweeping, carpooling) and not getting to live fully into the BIG, DREAMY, PURPOSE that I write out in my journal (more on that later).
So getting to share this "purpose and values" weekend with the girls I love was a double bonus. We headed to Carlton Landing and I mapped out 2 full days where we would learn to live into who God created us to be.
My mentor gave me an incredible idea that she has done with groups. I looked up the meaning of each person's first and middle name and wrote it down in a journal for them.
The THEME OF THE WEEK=LIVE INTO YOUR NAME and our verse was Isaiah 43:1. "I have chosen you, I have named you as my own."
Kristi-Christ follower, Maggie-means Pearl, Caroline-free man and song of joy, Ashley-from the "ash" tree, and when you look up Ash tree you see the significance of a towering tree whose roots are deep. Amy-Beloved, and Jacquelyn-Protector and lover of beauty.
It was amazing how each girl's name matched so well with her life. We then starting casting vision and value for our lives based on our names.
This weekend is my kind of weekend. Community+vision+dreams+purpose+facemasks=BLISS. All of my favorite things and being able to share that with others was so memorable. This is the last trip I will take with my girls before I move so I wanted it to be memorable.
WEEKEND AGENDA:
I will run you through the weekend, because it's something that you could do with your family or people in your circle of friends. I truly believe that having a purpose and vision for your life and the values that will help you attain that purpose is necessary to living into who God created you to be. Making a purpose statement for your life doesn't just happen over a weekend. I will tweak and continue to formulate mine over the coming days. I also need to understand that in each season of life the way I reach my purpose might look different.
Friday night I gave each girl their journal of their names, I had a blank canvas journal so they could paint, draw, write on their cover. We did that Friday night together as I told them the theme of why we were here.
I wanted these girls to know they are CHOSEN AND NAMED, and that they are here for a PURPOSE. Each person having their own special and divine purpose.
Ephesians 2:10 "For we are the product of His hand, heaven's poetry etched on lives, created in the Anointed, Jesus to accomplish the good works God arranged long ago."
2. THINGS THAT BRING US LIFE
3. CRAZY DREAMS
After we brainstormed those lists we started to craft our mission for our life around those things. THE WHY we are here. It took some of us 30 minutes and some of us the rest of the day and into the next to start to understand why we are placed here. How God has purposely designed us to do something beautiful with our lives: truly living into our names. The beautiful thing was when I saw the girls speaking into each other's lives.
"Here is another strength you have, or I love that dream and you could totally do it, I see such strength in you."
WORDS matter and verbalizing those dreams and passions to others is life-giving on a different level.
We were also creative with how we saw our mission. I had lots of paints, watercolors, markers, and pencils. I let the girls be creative in writing out their mission. Maybe drawing a picture of their mission helped them, or painting their statements in their journal. Everything they did had meaning and purpose and to see them do it creatively was beyond beautiful. The different patterns, shapes and colors they used to express who they were was so fun to watch. NOTE: I would never ever had done ANY type of painting or coloring until I took Brene Brown's life journal class. I was completely intimidated to do any sort of art, because it is not something that comes easily to me. But now that I have the freedom to be creative and it doesn't have to look perfect I find that water-coloring in my journal is one of my favorite things. Who would have thought?
After we took some time to play around with our mission we had some time to just explore nature and clear our mind. Running through nature, yoga on the overlook, paddle-boarding on the windiest day in history, (I need everyone to know I did not fall in!)
I love how Whitney English describes values. She says, if our purpose is our WHY, then values are the HOW we make the WHY happen. She says, values answer the questions: "What culture do I want to create?, What kind of life do I want to lead?" Here is a great list from Whitney's website. We chose 5-10 values for our mind, body, soul. Or you could do it for personal, spiritual, family. You could do a million different categories. We chose 3. After we made our values list we then picked 2-3 from each list and came up with 5 TOTAL or for me, 8 since I couldn't let some go. And since I am the the boss of me, I could pick as many as I wanted. For some of us it took hours to hone through these. We looked them up in the dictionary and talked to each other about how we fit each of these values and how these would be values that were consistent in our lives.
So by the end of the weekend we had our purpose (our WHY) and then the VALUES (our HOW). This is the lens we look at life through. The lens we use to commit or say no to things in our lives.
Here are my purpose and values, I am sure I will tweak it in the days to come, but for now I love this.
But here's the deal, after coming back from a weekend of dreaming big and thinking of our future and how we get to do great things, Monday was a BUZZ KILL for me. The only thing down on my goal list (get sheets here) for Monday was to do laundry...LAUNDRY ya'll. Not help someone live confidently in who God created them to be. No impacting and influencing or creating a culture of WHOLENESS, but 6 LOADS of LAUNDRY. That is it..... Laundry by the way is not so much life giving to me. I don't finish a load of laundry and think, I l lived out my values and vision today, high fives all around!
And I was sad the whole day. Like literally sad and distracted. I was sad I wasn't doing BIG and audacious things, changing lives and helping peeps be the best version of themselves. And then I read an article about leaving a simple legacy.
I started to think: Can I have a larger purpose or mission and also a simple one? Both coinciding but looking different each day and in each season? I have come to the conclusion that I can't DO IT ALL in this season, but that doesn't mean I can't do it all throughout my life with the help of Christ. Not on my own...that's a whole other blog post!
Many of us have these big and bold life-changing dreams and then we feel stuck in the mundane of miles of laundry, grocery lists, playing teenage mutant ninja turtles, and making gluten-free muffins so my husband doesn't starve to death. Oh, wait that's just me!
How can I have BIG and SIMPLE purposes that intersect? For me it will be coming up with a mission statement for just my family. Yes, I still want to help create a culture of wholeness and help my hubby and kids be the best version God created them to be which is my personal mission, but in my day to day mommy life it is going to take the simple things to do that. Nobody's got time for that, I think most of the time. But I HAVE to have time for the simple things, the simple legacy.
It might not FEEL like my big dreamy purpose that is written out on canvas, but I choose to believe it is.
So my motto might have to be Live and Dream big, but also live simply. Two things melting as ONE.
So I will start by asking myself a question each day.
What does my family need from me?
How can I simply be Christ's representative to each of my family members today?
This could be as simple as doing laundry so my husband has clean underwear, being fully present while Holden acts out Ninjago, or researching gluten and dairy-free foods for my family. I don't like simple, it feels not as important, BUT IT IS what makes the important, IMPORTANT. And I think many of us just need to tell ourselves this every minute of every day. I want to be heaven's poetry written on my kids, my husbands, my friends hearts daily. Not just in the BIG ways, but in the small simple ways too!
Ephesians 2:10 "For we are the product of His hand, heaven's poetry etched on lives, created in the Anointed, Jesus to accomplish the good works God arranged long ago."
I would love to hear your thoughts and any wisdom on how you live purposefully.