#51 - Create a family mission statement and frame it

The other day, Simple Mom wrote a great post with 20 starter questions to get people thinking about what to include in a family mission statement. After two years and a dozen attempts to sit down and come up with a mission statement on our own, this was just the tool we needed to finally complete #51 on my list of 101 goals in 1001 days.

The main point from the blog post (which was a little deep, but I soaked up every word) was to create a statement that "guides you as you make future decisions." Since blogger no longer lets me copy and paste things into my posts (don't get me started...) I'll summarize a couple of her examples: if you're convinced as a family that your home should be a place where you practice hospitality to others, it makes more sense to keep it "ready" for guests and you're more motivated to keep it straightened. If a goal is to live simply and free from the burden of others, it's logical to strive to be debt-free and not accumulate needless clutter.

Yesterday, Mike and I each filled out the 20 questions separately, then met after the kids were in bed to compare our answers and see where we have common themes. The repeated themes we saw (which weren't a huge surprise) were Honesty/Integrity, Love/Respect, Financial Responsibility and to be Christ-like. So, based on the skeleton that Simple Mom suggested as a first draft, this is what we came up with. We're going to further expand on the points within the mission statement this weekend, but for now, this is the meat of it:

We believe that our purpose as a family is to be Christ-like, to live with integrity, to live simply, to maintain a sense of family unity, to be good stewards of our resources and to lead by example.

We will accomplish this by:
* valuing truth and love as our main guiding principals
* making our home a place of peace, joy, kindness and hospitality
* prioritizing integrity above lesser values and
* interacting with each other in a spirit of respect.

I have to say that this completely reflects the priorities that Mike and I have felt, but have been unable to properly verbalize. I've framed this mission and have it displayed on our bookshelf, knowing that we may need to revise or tweek it over time. But for now, it's perfect.