Family Mission Statement – Leading Questions
Plan an evening with your family this week. Relax over a cup of hot chocolate and answer these few questions.
These questions are not comprehensive — feel free to elaborate on your own, to skip some that don’t seem to apply, and to focus on what’s important for your family.
These questions are meant to serve as a springboard to get your thoughts flowing.
1. What are a few strengths of each member of our family?
2. Collectively, we are at our best when we are…
3. Collectively, we are at our worst when we are…
4. If we had a free day together as a family, how would we spend it?
5. What are some of the practical ways we can serve each other?
6. What are practical ways we can serve others outside our family?
7. Name three things you think you could do better as a family.
8. What would people say today about our family as a whole?
9. What would we like people to say about our family as a whole in 30 years?
10. If our home could be filled with one emotion, what would it be?
11. Name three adjectives we would like people to use to describe our home environment.
12. If we could name one principle from which we want our family to operate, what would it
be?
13. What are the top four priorities we want our family to value?
14. What is the main purpose of our home?
15. What is the secondary purpose of our home?
16. What is the individual purpose in life of each member of our family?
17. What is one way we are unique as a family?
18. Describe the status of our family in 10 years…
• financially:
• intellectually:
• emotionally:
• relationally with each other:
• communally in our environment:
• physically:
• spiritually:
19. Where are you as a family in 10 years? What does your home look like?
20. What is the purpose of life?
Well done! Here is what to do with your answers:
Look at your responses and see if there’s a theme
If you repeatedly talk about making a difference in your community, perhaps that’s a value that you collectively share as a family.
See if any of your answers differ greatly.
That could be a big deal, or it could be nothing. Either way, it should spark some discussion between the members of the family.
Highlight a few of your repeated themes
Find a few descriptive words that encompasses these values. For example, if your answers repeatedly deal with being frugal, with not living among clutter, and having plenty of free time as a family, perhaps one of your descriptive words is simplicity.
Tweak some of your answers to be more timeless. For example, if your answer to the question about one principle from which your family operates (number 12) is “patience as we live through the baby and toddler years,” you could talk about whether patience is a theme that is significant in the long-term. Perhaps one of your guiding principles is patient endurance and self-control.
Start creating a draft of your family mission statement
Using your answers to these questions, start writing down values that you all agree on. There’s no right or wrong way to write this, but do try keep it short, timeless, and applicable. If it’s too vague, it won’t really help in your day-to-day decision making. If it’s too long, it’ll be difficult to remember.
You could try a skeleton like this:
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]
• prioritising [value or action] above lesser values
• interacting with each other in a spirit of [adjective]
Be creative and original! Let your statement reflect who you are as a family.