Growing up with the family I have, having basic rules for the house just weren’t enough. Time-outs included listening to motivational tapes by Zig Ziglar (I know his voice in my sleep now) and laying out goals for the future. Mom’s top priority was to create a “haven of peace” in our home. Going with the 48 Days philosophy that to truly succeed you must first know yourself and know your mission, our family had a mission statement we taped on the wall:
In a safe place, people are kind. Sarcasm, fighting, back-biting and name-calling were exceptions. Kindness, consideration and forgiveness are the way of life.
In a safe place there is laughter. Not just the canned laughter of television, but real laughter that comes from sharing meaningful work and play.
In a safe place there are rules. The rules are few and fair and are made by the people who live and work there, including the children.
In a safe place people listen to one another. They care about one another and show that they do.
Please God, make this a safe place. ~Mary MacCracken
What wall, you wonder? The bathroom one, of course! Where else do you go several times daily and sit/stand still without anything else to do but read something? If you ever want your family to memorize something, I’m telling you, this is the way to do it! (And yes, I wrote the above from memory).
Now that my girls are getting older (1 and 3), it’s time that we start really laying out the principles we want to live by. Although I cherish the mission statement I grew up with, I was eager to find our own. We do have our basic rules laid out by Ladybug Girl:
But a mission statement is more than that–it’s not just going over all of the “no’s”….it’s about addressing the “yeses” the things that are most important to us as a family. I was browsing through a random magazine one day and found it–I don’t know who to trace this to, but this is the essence of what I desire for our home, and what we have chosen to capture as our “family creed.” This is not only in our bathroom, but on the fridge and in my wallet.
Here is what it says:
Over the next few blogs, I want to hash out each one of these statements above–to address why we chose to have them in our creed and what it means to me. I’m excited about this and I’m eager to hear about yours.
Do you have a family mission statement (or creed)?
