Hi there. My name is Sarah, and I’ve a missional story for you. It began like this…I was a bit nervous about my kids’ behaviour when I invited her over. This mom and her two kids were new to our area and I wanted to get to know them. As my youngest came up for the third time with a grievous complaint against his sister, I blurted out… “Our family’s not perfect. We don’t have it all together.” Turning to me she said, “It’s so good to hear you say that.” In those short sentences of honesty we’d achieved common ground and I’d learned a very important lesson.
Often, when we talk about family on mission we have a false notion that our family has to be perfect first or look a certain way.
- “We can’t be on mission, we don’t have it together yet.”
- “Let me figure out how to parent, then I’m in.”
- “My marriage needs to be in a better place first.”
- “As soon as I work through my broken family past.”
“…then we’ll be on mission.”
Being a family on mission is knowing that God redeems and restores all things. Even broken relationships. Even your family. When we can recognize Jesus’ work in our family’s broken story, we can share Jesus in others’ broken stories. PLI believes there’s a new picture of family where broken men and women, boys and girls integrate mission into daily family life.
So how does a family on mission share Jesus?
One way is through inviting others into your family life rhythm that’s worth imitating. Maybe it’s praying before a meal, reading the Bible after dinner or sharing where you’ve seen God at work in your day.
We rest on Sundays. It’s our sabbath time. We’ve started inviting the neighbors. Nothing fancy, there’s actually a rule. You can’t cook or bake, just bring what you have already. We pray together, eat together and enjoy each other. It’s simple…honest…together as family. It’s worth imitating.
- What’s a family life rhythm that you have that’s worth imitating?
- How can your family participate in the mission of God in your neighborhood?
So that’s my missional story. Through it I learned an important lesson… You don’t have to be a perfect family, just point to the One who is.
