Family Mission Statements?

[RachelleDrew]

My husband and I were thinking last night that perhaps we should create a family mission statement and print it out and frame it. For those of you that don't know what they are, these are simply a statement about your values and goals as a family that are meant to be used as a guideline for everyone in your home.

Have any of you done this? Anybody thinking about doing this? What sort of things did you include?

[Hemidakota]

"We will serve Lord or perish."

[skalenfehl]

I've never done that. A neighbor of mine used to have a decorative wooden sign on their door from the book of Joshua:

"Choose you this day whom ye will serve...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

Is that what you mean?

[RachelleDrew]

It's more like

We promise to be kind to each other

We promise to be honest

We will be christ-like in our actions.....etc.

It's typically like a paragraph or two long. I'll post mine up when we get done with it. A couple of families in my area do them and they sit down with their kids and talk about everything on it and have them sign it agreeing to keep the promises they have on the mission statement.

[Palerider]

I think thats awesome....:)

[mightynancy]

We have a family motto, handed down through generations of rich military strategic experience.

Never expose your posterior.

[NeuroTypical]

Buy in and shared ownership is crucial. If anyone is just going along with it to get the parents to go away, it's not a family mission statement. Kids have to be mature enough to care in order to make it useful.

Personal mission statements are great things, again, provided you actually buy in to what you end up picking.

I spent years picking mine, before finding one that clicked. It was kind of a life-settling event, I really did see life in a much more positive and energetic way after it fell into place.

LM

[byubakers]

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!

[Gwen]

covey talks about a family mission statment in 7 habits of highly effective families. i wanted to do one but never really got much participation from the rest of the family. as others said it's kinda a waste of time if everyone doesn't want to be a part of it.

i didn't view the mission statememnt builder, but you might find it helpful.

Mission Statement Builder - FranklinCovey

Edited June 23, 2008 by Gwen

[MorningStar]

That's a really good idea!

[Tough Grits]

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 wonderful 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!

What a wonderful post. Than you.

When we have Family Home Evening, my husband gives "Father's Interviews" to Ryan and Cameron. They love going in the bedroom with their daddy and being "interviewed" on their weekly actions and thoughts.

It might be useful if during our next FHE, as a family we come up with some things that we will all work on doing or work on not doing during the upcoming week. Then Michael can use that as the guideline in "interviewing" the children. Hmmmm.

Wonderful idea!!! Thank You!!!!

[dvdreviewergal]

We do not have this framed, but it is thought and spoken often.

Love, kindness and respect.