I’ve been inspired to write a family motto and create a crest from reading David Crone’s book, “The Power of a Life Message.”
When I watched the movie “Meet the Robinsons” several years ago, the message really struck me. It actually moved me to tears at several points. It’s about a young orphan who is brilliant and invents things, but they don’t always work at first. He has a journey (even through time) to find his family and courage to keep trying at what he does. There’s a quote at the end of the movie from Walt Disney:
“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
–Walt Disney
The line about “keep moving forward” struck me and reminded me of Phillipians 3:13-14:
Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward--to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back. (The Message)
There are many things that I feel define my life together with my wife including creativity, worship, adventure, intimacy, love, family, leadership, etc., but I feel the common thread through all of it will be to keep moving forward. It means not becoming complacent, or settling for what has already been accomplished, but to keep pressing in for the best and highest that the Father has for us. It means to not get caught being focused on the past, and any failures that have occurred, but to look to the glorious hope of a future we have with and in Him.
If you’ve read David Crone’s book, his family’s motto or life message actually comes from the same verse. At first I didn’t want to use this verse because I felt like I was copying him, but it just seems to fit. Moving forward has been a theme in our lives, and interestingly, both paintings we had people work on during our wedding showed us from the back, moving forward into something unknown.
Here’s my first try at a life message:
We as a family, vow to life our lives in pursuit of the goal and the prize that the Father has for us in Jesus. We will never settle for what we’ve already accomplished, or become discouraged in shortcomings or failures. We will express the greatness that has been placed inside of us by the Father, and cultivate and encourage that greatness in one another. We will fix our eyes on what is in front of us and keep moving forward, in faith, hope, and love.
