Mission Statement

I've been hearing about families writing their own mission statements for some time now. I never gave it much thought. Well, until Super mom Kate Gosselin (WHAT? You don't know who Jon and Kate Plus Eight are?) said she'd written one for her family.

That was all I needed to hear to start my own research and see what it's all about. There are a few places in the Bible where honorable and good intentioned men verbalize their plans for their family and its future (see 1 Kings 2:1-4). The idea of sitting down with Terry and discussing and formalizing our thoughts on our family sounded fun. We decided to come up with a type of "floor plan" for what we wanted our family to be. Then we laid out some specific ways that we would get there.

Even though it's pretty private, I've tried to use this blog to share the new things I've learned, so here is the Terry and Sarah Domino Family Mission Statement:


Our mission as a family is to honor God in all we do. To pray without ceasing and further the kingdom of God with our minds, actions, words, and lifestyles. To keep Christ first and spread the good news about Him. To honor and respect the infallible Word of God by keeping its commandments, honoring its admonitions and taking its verses to heart. We will be honest to one another, yet gentle, thanking God for creating each family member, specifically and uniquely, to be a part of our household. We will be knit together in love.

We will strive to meet these goals by doing the following:

1. Working together as a family.
2. Spending time each day in prayer and reading the Bible.
3. Giving thanks for our blessings.
4. Using positive language.
5. Practicing selflessness.
6. Tithing and looking to God for advice on all financial matters.
7. Respecting our parents.
8. Eating dinner at the table as a family.
9. Lifting each other up.
10. Attending church and small groups on a regular basis.
11. Giving. Financially and of our time.
12. Laughing.

Pretty lofty, huh? Yes, we know how difficult it will be to live up to. In fact, I'm pretty sure it will be impossible. But it gives us direction and lets us easily remember what's important to us. When our kids are older I hope to be able to bring it to them when they misbehave or are confronted with conflict and ask them if their behaviors meet our goals. Maybe once they're old enough they can write their own.

The exciting thing is that it's already come in handy. We've been able to look to it in low times or times of struggle and see whether we were straying or following through.

I'm especially touched by God's genius when I read, "We will be honest to one another, yet gentle, thanking God for creating each family member, specifically and uniquely, to be a part of our household." We wrote this statment long before we had even an inkling that Domino Baby 2 was in danger of a medical disorder. Re-reading our mission statement now allows us to remember that we know and trust that each member of our family was designed especially to fit within our specific family unit. Gives me chills to think God was speaking to us about our next baby when we didn't even realize it.

I know it's cheesy, but we're already thankful (even Terry!) for taking the time to write it all out. And in typical male fashion, once we were done Terry suggested we give ourselves a rating for each goal we listed. No, I won't be sharing our final score. And no, it wasn't good!