A few months before my husband and I were married, we wrote a purpose statement for our marriage hoping to be able to look at our beliefs as a couple and determine some goals that would serve as a guide for the way we wanted live our lives and raise our family. It was a very good exercise for us and actually took almost a week to write in between our conversations, writing down our thoughts, reading Scripture, praying and deciding exactly how we wanted to word it.

This is what is says:

By God’s grace we will seek in our marriage to exemplify the relationship between Christ and His church by exhibiting a self-sacrificing devotion to Christ and by making the Word of God our uncompromising foundation and guide to all our lives affairs; by practicing selfless love, enjoyable companionship, and spiritual concern and accountability toward each other; by creating a Christ-honoring atmosphere in our home; by raising children who love and fear the Lord; by working as a team to be a light to the lost and to edify the body of believers for the glory of God.

We had it printed in our wedding program and asked that people pray that we would be true to our statement. It now sits framed in our bedroom on our dresser and we often look it over to re-analyze where we are and where we should be.

You may have something like a purpose statement for your marriage or family, but if you don’t (and want to), start by sitting down and writing out the following:

1. What is our purpose (as a couple? as a family?)?
2. How can we carry that purpose out?

Then put some flesh on those bones and fill in your statement with the “how to’s”. It’s a very fun excercise and a great way to get your family involved, and when you are finished, you can frame it and put it on your wall!

Check out more Works-for-Me-Wednesday ideas here .