Mommy Monday ~ Making a family mission statement

I consider myself to be a pretty intentional mom. I know how I want my kids to act. I know how I want them to treat me, treat others and I know how I want them to respect God. But I do not ever want to come across like I’ve arrived. Like I have it all together. Like my family is just one perfect little unit that needs no work.

Let me be clear: I work hard to be very purposeful about raising my kids. BUT: I always have a lot I can work on!!

I was so challenged by my good friend Angelsea who wrote a blog post about her family writing a mission statement. When I read it, I though…DUH!!!! Why have I never thought of this?! It’s so simple. But it’s so deep. And it’s so good.

So…here are her tips on how to come up with your very own family mission statement.

Does your family have a mission statement? 

If not, I have included some questions to help you create your own family mission statement. At the end of the process, you will be able to combine the answers to these questions to create a concise statement for what you (And more importantly, God) want your family to be. Note: if your kids are old enough, I would encourage you to include them in this process so that they have ownership over your mission statement. 

Step One: Mission Questions.

What is the primary goal for your family?

What family practices do you think would please God?

What family attitudes do you think would please God?

What are some things in your family that might displease God?

What are some of the core values you have?

What goals do we have for our children? For our family?

What would we like people to say about our family in 30 years?

Name some adjectives we would like to be able to use to describe our home environment.

Step Two: Summarize.

To write a mission statement, you simply need to take the answers to the above questions, and place them in a simple statement. You want this statement to be something you can remember. If it is too long, you will never refer to it. If it is unclear, it will be useless. It must be both concise and clearly practical. Here is an example of a mission statement:

To raise kids who love Jesus by practicing the gospel in loving service to one another, seeking to remove unloving language and actions, honoring and respecting one another as Christ has done in our lives.

The main goal: to raise kids who love Jesus.

The practices: serving one another

The attitudes: Love

The unwanted practices: unloving language and actions

The adjectives: honor and respect

Step Three: Display and Remind

Now that you have a mission statement, you can use this to help encourage growth in you and your kids. First, share it with your children. Have them agree to what you have written; perhaps even have them sign a sheet of paper with this statement on it. Second, write this statement on a piece of paper and put it somewhere where you and your family will see it consistently. Third, when someone does something out of line with the mission statement you can refer back to it at any time.

See!?! I told you it was so good! Thank you Angelsea for challenging me in this area. My family has already started thinking about what our family mission statement is going to be. I can’t wait to share it when we’re done!

Be sure to go and follow Angelsea’s blog here.

And just because…Here are a few pictures of my family from our day in Boston this weekend. (Thanks to my assistant,  Madeline, for taking most of them!)