Welcome to Day #5 of the 31 Days to Professional Homemaking series. To learn more about this series, click HERE. There you'll be able to follow along or catch up if you happen to miss anything. Also, please know that I am not an expert in marriage, motherhood, or homemaking. I'm just a woman {who happens to be a wife, mother, and homemaker}, trying to figure it all out, by the grace of God. This series is just as much for me as it is for anyone reading.
Before we get started, I'd like to offer you the following button, in case you want to share this series with your readers:
"Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he."
{Proverbs 29:18}
On Wednesday, we talked about the purpose of our home. But what if someone asked you to tell them the purpose of your family? Could you answer them? Or would your response sound more like, "Umm... well, you see, we strive to love and obey God... and, umm... well..."?
In case you couldn't tell, today we're talking about family mission statements. It may sound fancy or overwhelming, but I promise you that it's nothing to run away from. But, before we get into how to create, let's talk about why it is so important:
In his book "7 Habits of Highly Effective Families", Stephen Covey said, “Every decision we make is ultimately governed by some kind of interest or goal or objective or value or principle, whether we know it or not. A Family Mission Statement is an effort to bring to an explicit level what your goals and values are so that people are on the same page.”
- It acknowledges the fact that there is a purpose for your family; more than just to live under the same roof.
- It provides direction for each member of the family; each person will know the role they play in accomplishing the overall mission.
- It unifies the family, because everyone is working for a common goal.
- It allows you to focus on your family's priorities, and eliminate what doesn't fit.
{To read more about the
So, how do you go about creating an effective family mission statement?
PRAY
Look I know this is the typical "Christian" first step, but it is definitely the most important. Remember, this verse from yesterday:
DETERMINE YOUR VALUES
What kind of things do you and your family value? If you're not sure, take a look at the questions in this post from Passionate Homemaking and this post from Simple Mom to get you started.
For this step, you'll want to sit down with your spouse {and any children old enough to contribute} and go over those questions together. FYI - If you don't have any children, or they're too young to actively participate, plan a date night specifically for this step.
CHOOSE YOUR PRIORITIES
Based on the answers to those questions, did anything jump out to you as a priority? If you sense a theme going on then, whatever it is, is your family's priority. Once you identify those themes/priorities, choose one or two to focus on. Maybe you noticed that spending time together seemed to be important to everyone. Or, maybe, you and your spouse want to be debt-free so that you can give more generously to those in need. This will be the overall goal of your family.
CREATE AN ACTION PLAN
Now that you know what your priorities are, how will you accomplish them? If spending quality time together was a common theme among your answers, how are you going to make sure that quality time happens? If you and your family want to be debt-free in order to give more generously to those in need, what are some practical ways you can work towards getting out of debt? What are some ways you want to give generously?
If you were to say, "I want our family to embrace a more natural lifestyle," and you stopped there, then that would simply be just a dream. But, the minute to create a plan to move your family towards that natural lifestyle, it became a genuine goal. You see, a goal is just a dream unless you have planned out how you're going to get there.
WRITE YOUR MISSION STATEMENT
I don't know about you, but if I don't write something down, it's very likely that I won't remember it. Even if you've got an awesome memory, though, it's a good idea to write down your family's mission statement so that everyone can read it and so you can keep each other accountable, if someone isn't fulfilling their role.
To help you out, I'd like to share a couple of "formulas" I've found...
Kristen, from We Are THAT Family, came up with this:
To…. (Do something)
In such a way that….. (Quality of action)
So that…. (We gain these results or benefits)
From that formula, her family came up with this mission statement: “To make a difference in the world, a single light, shining brightly in such a way that we keep Jesus our focus, listen closely to His voice & enjoy life. So that we can say at the end of the day, we’ve touched others & thrived.”
Tsh, from Simple Mom, came up with this "skeleton" of a mission statement:
We, the [family name], believe that our purpose as a family is to [general mission statement]. We will accomplish this by:
• valuing [principal] and [principal] as our main guiding principals
• making our home a place of [adjective], [adjective], and [adjective]
• prioritizing [value or action] above lesser values
• interacting with each other in a spirit of [adjective]
You could also use the Mission Statement Builder at Franklin Covey.
SCHEDULE REVIEWS/REVISIONS
Once you have your family mission statement written down, make the time to review it. At first, you may want to get everyone to memorize it and once they do so, surprise them with a "pop quiz" every once in a while to see if they can still quote it {and allow them to give you a "pop quiz", too}. Then, schedule a time to sit down as a family and reflect on how well you all did in achieving the mission for the previous year and set goals to do so in the coming year. {New Years' is the perfect time to do this...}
The idea of creating a family mission statement is to identify the overall purpose your family. This means, ideally, what you come up with will last your family until your children are grown and out of the house. But, different seasons of life do tend to make revisions necessary. Maybe you'll never have to start from scratch, but it is okay to change things up.
That's the beauty of a family mission statement. You're family can write and rewrite the statement as often as is necessary. However, I would recommend sticking with at least one overall purpose that will see through through. May I recommend: "To glorify God by loving and obeying Him, as well as loving people." After all, our overall purpose is to bring glory to God {always} and, in Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to “'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Today's Challenge:
Each day, I'll give you challenge: one small thing you can do to apply each day's topic to your life and your home.
Here's your challenge for today:
1. Write a mission statement for your family and, if you were not able to write it with their help, set a date to go through these steps with them. Then when you've got a mission statement that everyone can agree on...
2. Display your newly written mission statement somewhere in your home. That way, everyone will be able to read it often, thus keeping it fresh in their {and your} minds.
Kristen, from We Are THAT Family, used some scrapbook paper and a frame to showcase her newly written family mission statement in a cute way:
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For more information on family mission statements, check out these resources:
- The Benefits of Having a Family Mission Statement from Homeschool.com
- How to Use a Family Mission Statement from Families with Purpose Blog
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