2021 Vision

Having great relationships in our media-driven culture is like trying to swim upstream. We have to cultivate our relationships on purpose. If we just coast through each day, we will veer towards the flow of disrespect and dishonor that we take in on television and media.
 
One of the best ways to build intentionality in your home life is to have a vision out in front of yourself and your family. If you have young children, talk with them about your family vision enthusiastically each day. The vision we have in our home for our relationships is “Honor God and Honor Each Other!” I realize that is very simple, but a good vision should be simple! It needs to be something that the 3 or 4 year old in the family can understand and remember as well as everyone else.
 
We decided to implement this after we moved to Rochester and met some new neighbors. They had two amazing teenage daughters who were extremely polite to their parents and others. They had impeccable people skills, but even more important than this, they had very genuine and sincere hearts of love. Both of the girls babysat for our children and they were amazing. Our kids would beg us to go on dates because their babysitters were so fun!
 
When we asked our neighbors how they had raised such sweet, kind kids, they told us that in addition to leading a Christian parenting study yearly for the neighborhood to stay refreshed, they also had a family vision and regular family meetings. At these meetings they would talk with the kids about what events were coming up with their family in the next few months and would always talk about the family vision, such as, “How have we succeeded at showing honor to God and each other this month?”
 
We adopted this idea ourselves and started having occasional family meetings. We talk about things coming up in the future and also about how we have succeeded in honoring God or honoring each other lately.
 
I would encourage you to put the family vision up in your house somewhere that everyone will see it several times a day, like the front of your fridge.
 
If you were going to have a family vision like “Honor God, Honor Each Other”, or “Love God, Love Each Other”, I’d encourage you to also put a scripture up with it. One possibility is Romans 12:10, which says, “Be kindly affectionate to one another, with brotherly love; prefer one another in HONOR.”
 
When we have a relationship vision, it helps to keep our home life on course for success! We keep going back to the vision and it eventually really gets in everyone in the families hearts; even in parents who maybe didn’t come from a respect-filled or loving home.
 
Our loved ones are God’s gift to us, and with this gift, we have a wonderful opportunity from God to value and nurture them the way God would.
 
Be blessed!
Pastors Shaun & Amy

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