We have done this. Its just my son and I, and he's only 5, but he is old enough to get it and contribute to it even. He came up with a lot of the values/goals. We also hold covenant interviews between the two of us every fast Sunday and write down goals that we want to work on as individuals and as a family unit. I let him suggest things that I need to do better at, and listen to why they bother him, and he does the same for me. When we can commit to working on something, we write it in our special notebook (that has our family values and mission statement at the front) and we sign our initials by each thing. The next month we review how we did on working on our goals, and we either make new ones, or take the old ones and make them more specific or constructive if we didn't do so hot on them last time. It has been wonderful. It helps us feel more purpose and goals as a family and it has given us a safe, personal time to discuss improvements we can make without being in the heat of the moment. It also teaches him about setting goals, covenants, keeping your word, and always trying to improve.
The mission statement and rules often help us figure out the goals we set in our covenant interviews. I think it is a wondeful way to build a strong family and have a direction and purpose. I hope that I can continue doing these, so that by the time he's a teenager, sitting and talking with me will be comfortable, normal and he feels like he can make suggestions for my improvement and feel like he has a voice as a contributing member of our family. I only see benefits from having a family mission statement... and remember to put it somewhere where everyone can see it often, and let everyone play some role in it. Also- I think its great to keep things flexible. Maybe you have a mission statement that's pretty general but provides an overarching purpose direction, but your goals to get there can be flexible and changing as the needs of your family changes. Ours is a series of quotes that we put together to say who we are, where we're going and how we intend to get there. I know mission statements are generally one sentence, but this twist on it worked for us. I won't share all of it with you, but my favorite quote of our family mission statement is a quote you may have seen or heard somewhere before... we may not have it all together, but together we have it all!
Hope that gives you some ideas. Good luck!
