Family Mission Statement

Have you all heard about creating your family mission statement?  Everybody's doing it.  OK, I don't really know about everybody, but some people are doing it.  I first read about it at Simple Mom.

The concept is easy:  create a statement about the priorities and values for your family.  And why would you want to do this?  Because then no matter what situation you're in, you can reflect on your mission statement as a way of coming to a decision.

I have been tossing around the words Freedom and Joy for a while, so I knew they had to be part of our Family Mission Statement.  And I remind myself to use Patience and Kindness with my children, so those words would have to be in the Statement too.

But what about my heavy emphasis on health?  And what about our lives outside of our little family?  And what about the future of our jobs, lifestyle, and learning? 

After much deliberation, I crafted this:

We choose Freedom and Joy.
We love each other with Patience and Kindness.
We work towards Order and Beauty.
We promote Harmony and Trust in our relationships with others.

There is much to be said for leaving things out of your Family Mission Statement.  Like, I highly value healthy eating, exercise and being environmentally friendly, but am I really ABOUT those things?  Not so much.  And my third point in the Mission Statement covers a lot of ground.  I will delve deeper into each point in future posts.

What about you?  Does your family have a Mission Statement?  Please link to your blog if you have written about this topic.