Procrastinator that I am, I usually find time to do things weeks, months, or even years after I should have actually done them. When I finally take the time to complete something, I realize that I shouldn't have put it off so long. It's usually not that I don't want to do it - it's just that other, more pressing things, seem to take precedence at the time.

Take, for instance, my Life Plan. This time last year, we were going through the series at church. We were challenged to write out the plan that we thought God had for our life and some goals that we would work toward accomplishing in the coming year. I never took the time to sit down and flesh the whole thing out - I put a lot of thought into it, and I had some idea of what it would look like, but I never had anything on paper that I could take out to and say, "this is my Life Plan." Until last night.

My wife decided that we should have a weekly family meeting - every Sunday night. Ok . . . good idea. But what would we talk about? I thought we needed some sort of plan for what we would discuss at the meeting. What a perfect time to sit down and write out our Life Plans together, then use them for the "agenda" at our family meetings!

After two hours of hashing over words and discovering the goals that we each have, we came up with individual Life Plans and a family Life Plan. The three plans contain a mission statement, core values, and goals. Our individual plans also include our spiritual gifts.

My core values are authenticity, character, creativity, devotion, excellence, teamwork, integrity, leadership, learning, loyalty, servant leadership, and family. My spiritual gifts include encouragement, wisdom, knowledge, service, leadership and administration.

I wrote three goals that I would like to accomplish this year. Some will be harder than others: have a consistent quiet time, lose 20 pounds before August, and find an administration position that will allow me to provide leadership for a school building.

Our mission statements are short descriptions of the purpose we believe God has for our lives. This is who we are, and why we exist.

My mission statement:
"To use my gifts and abilities to make the greatest possible impact on Missouri public education while providing the best possible life experience for my family."

Jessica's mission statement:
"To raise my children at home in order to instill morals and give them a stable and loving childhood."

Our family mission statement:
"To challenge each member of our family to be a moral, productive individual who commits to follow God and actively seek His will for his or her life."

Now that we have taken the time to flesh out the details of our Life Plans and commit to live them out, we can hold each other accountable for the progress. If you'd like more information about Life Plan, check out meadowheights.com and click on the GROW tab.