The Family Theme

You know how some families have a family theme? A clever saying that can be put on a wall somewhere. A few words to "describe" what all a family would want to accomplish in a single long year.

I've always wanted to come up with the perfect family theme. The saying to beat up all the other sayings on the walls of families I know. But nothing ever "fit" us. Nothing was good enough to cover all the words I have for my family. (Good words of course, duh.)

It was my turn to provide a lesson for our family night. I wanted to talk about goals. I wanted to talk about our family theme. THE words that would inspire us ALL year long. I tried to think of the most clever, wonderful words; the words that when said, would amaze my family and all those who see the words on the wall (or whatever I decide to craft them to).

The perfect words just wouldn't come to me. Nothing was perfect. Then...
My husband David, who hadn't said anything up until this point, burst out with his idea of the perfect theme. Without any mention of brainstorming or moving around the right words to make them perfect,or looking in any book/scripture. He just blurted it out...

"Let's Get Down To Business"

It was perfect. After the .7 seconds of jealousy that he was able to do in .2 seconds what I couldn't do in .25 minutes, I voted yes and now our family has a theme.

There are many reasons why this theme fits us this year. We have a lot going on. We have a lot of unanswered questions, we have a lot of things we should remember to be thankful for. We have A LOT.

We want to take part, in a brilliant way, in all the jobs, callings, responsibilities and plans that we have. We want answers to 4 years worth of unanswered questions and we just don't know how to get the answers or if we'll ever get answers or if we're ready for the answers we're going to get.
We want to grow by leaps and bounds and find ourselves at the end of another year with me writing an amazing "end of the year" letter accompanied by a poster family picture with a beautiful Christmas tree background.

We want to move and breath and live.

For me, "Let's get down to business" means that I have to work each day, each minute, at the small things that make big things possible. It means that I need to do the things each hour that my Heavenly Father has promised me..over and over again...will bring the results I want (and some that I didn't even know that I want).
It means that when I get down to business, I focus on the business and not whether there will be profits.

The business is my husband, my children and my God. The business is the moments when I get on the floor and wrestle with my five year old (because when he's not five anymore, I'm going to horribly miss his 5-year old self). The business is actually looking at my 11 year old when he's telling me about the book he's reading (for the 1000th time) so that he will never forget my eyes looking at him with love and admiration.

The business is giving my 8 year old daughter the time to show me her ideas and creations, so that she gets from me the most ginormous amount of self-esteem anyone could have.

The business is not being able to find ONE SINGLE thing that is more important than time with my best friend (that would be my husband).

The business is pondering and studying the written words of God, so that I know who I am, why I am here, where I am going and knowing all about those who came before me, those who held to the same iron rod that I'm trying to be super-glued to.

The business is LOVE...TIME...Deep Breaths...

So, here's to family themes, craft projects waiting to be made to proudly display the family theme, the 2012 year in review that will kick butt, and the business that makes life worth living.