A few weeks ago on Twitter, I shared that Chris and I wrote a family mission statement and the response was way more engaged than I had anticipated and very positive. So much, that you guys asked me to share what made us do that and how to go about it.
If you follow me on Instagram, I’ve shared a handful of times that Chris and I got separated in 2016. It was hands down the hardest time in our marriage. While it only lasted a few months, we took reconciliation very seriously and had to set new standards in our marriage and for our family.
One of the ways we were able to establish clear standards for our family was by writing a family mission statement. You hear of people writing mission statements for their business or non profit. Not often do you hear this being done for family, but it made total sense for ours.
WHAT IS A FAMILY MISSION STATEMENT
A mission statement is a formal summary of the aims and values of a company, organization, or individual – in our case, a family. We’ve talked about so many things we want to do as a couple, as a family and even individually, but without a mission statement we could easily lose focus of what actually matters.
WHAT OUR FAMILY MISSION STATEMENT IS
For us our faith, being creative and positively influencing others are top priorities. Our family mission statement is:
To bring joy and light to our community through freedom of expression in Christ.
A breakdown of what that means to us:
If it doesn’t bring joy and light, we’re not interested in being a part of it.
For us, our community includes our family (relatives & close friends), our church family, neighbors and the groups of people we interact with regularly and/or identify with.
Freedom of expression is so important to us as creatives. Chris and I are able to do many things and the thing we agreed on is to not be boxed into one thing – but ALL of our strengths.
In Christ, which to us means in Love. Not romantic love, that agape Love. Regardless of anyone’s social standing our goal is to everything in Love.
WHY WE WROTE OUR FAMILY MISSION STATEMENT
Aside from our mission statement, we then have very specific goals over the next 5, 10 and 20 years we’d like to accomplish to be a blessing to our family, friends and community. Chris is really great at manifesting and has written each of these specific goals on index cards and reads them every night before going to bed.
These goals include individual, marriage and family goals and also include Bible verses that specifically apply to these goals.
I have also written out my version of goals for life on index cards to affirm and manifest them. I’m not as good as Chris – I read them more weekly than I do daily, but I try my best to keep them at the front of my mind.
Writing a family mission statement was vital for our household because we wanted to have a solid foundation for how we made decisions both individually and collectively. It allows to stay in alignment in our day to day lives as we slowly but surely build our family legacy.
HOW WE WROTE OUR FAMILY MISSION STATEMENT
Sharing our goals, defining our core values and coming to an agreement on what was best for our family was how we wrote this mission statement.
But that’s how we did it. It took us a few weeks to get it just right. We wanted it to be one sentence that made sense the first time you heard it. We were fine with elaborating when asked, but when people heard it, we wanted it to be crystal clear and true to who we strive to be. We plan our getting it painted on a wall in our new home, so we don’t forget and can affirm + manifest it daily.
Do you guys have a family or personal mission statement? How did you guys go about defining it?
