Family Mission Statement
Last week I came across some blog posts on "Celebrating the Family." Since this is a subject near and dear to my heart, I'm looking forward to reading what will be written, and participating myself. Today's subject is family mission statements. Sue gives an excellent example of how to write one here. And I can attest to the value of mission statements. Almost 25 years ago Wayne and I wrote personal ones and I still go back and look at mine on a regular basis. One of the things that makes it so valuable is it doesn't change; what was important to me then is still important to me now. While we never officially sat down to write a family mission statement we did purposefully come up with a family motto, and I think it has done a marvelous job in helping us be successful in achieving our common family goals. Here's the story of how that happened (a repost from a couple of years ago):
Memorable Monday Moments
Family Motto
This weekend Wayne was assigned to give a talk on reverence and respect. That reminded him of one of our "memorable family nights." As he remembers it, the suggested family night lesson was to come up with a family motto. The kids were young (I'm thinking the oldest was about 8) so we wanted something short and easy to remember, and after much discussion we decided on "Show Respect". At that time we just posted it on a paper on the fridge, but several years later we made a wall hanging that was a bit more permanent.
It's interesting, but I remember coming up with "show respect" a bit differently. I thought the idea for that early family night lesson was to come up with some family rules. The same parameters were in place - the rules needed to be short, simple, and easy to understand. We also wanted them to be positive affirmations instead of a list of don'ts, and we didn't want to have a giant list of rules. Sounds like a tall order! We talked about how we needed to obey Mom and Dad, we needed to be kind to brothers, we needed to keep our rooms clean and help with chores, etc. And we figured that that one phrase - Show Respect - covered all those things. Then later, one of the kids had a kindergarten assignment to make a family coat of arms which included a family motto. At that family night we decided our one family rule equaled our family motto.It really doesn't matter whose version is correct. The important thing is we have a family motto and it really works!
Here are links to the blogs that are hosting this celebration. All of them share great ideas that will help you have the best family ever!
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