Why your family needs a mission statement.
"And so my prayer for you is that truth will bring prayer into our homes, and the fruit of the prayer will be that we believe that in the poor it is Christ. And if we really believe, we will begin to love…First in our own home, our next door neighbor, in the country we live, in the whole world.”
Often, this excerpt from Mother Teresa’s 1979 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech is condensed and paraphrased to: “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family." This laconic version is more suitable for Etsy signs, home décor, and inspirational internet graphics. Either way, this is Godly wisdom for our family.
As Catholics, we’re fortunate to have thousands of years of brilliant theologians to do the heavy lifting of determining doctrine and interpreting Scripture. Pair that with the intercession of saints and the wisdom of their lives, and well, it almost makes me pine for Protestants. Let’s lean on Holy Mother Church and one of her most modern and renowned saints, Mother Teresa, to guide and order our homeschool toward eternity through the focus of a family mission statement.
Companies have been identifying their core values to cement their mission for decades to effectively build team culture. Back in 1989, Stephen Covey was disenchanted with the decline of character in society. Pulling from his faith and business acumen, he authored The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which has been lauded as the most influential business book of the twentieth century. In his follow-up best-seller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families, Covey says writing a mission statement was the most impactful thing he ever did with his family, “The goal is to create a clear, compelling vision of what you and your family are all about.”
Your mission statement will be a compass for your homeschool and your home life. After all, how can we expect our children to uphold our family’s core values if we don’t hash them out together and hang them on the whiteboard as a guiding beacon? Plus, it’ll give us focus and clarity as Catholic homeschool parents. How often do we get caught up in curriculum, extracurricular activities, and what our friends are doing that seem to be making their kids geniuses? Before long, we find ourselves measuring success by completed lesson plans instead of the formation of our children.
But education has never been the Church's highest goal—that’s formation. The Catechism reminds us that parents are the primary educators of their children, and the domestic church. That responsibility extends far beyond academics. We’re helping form hearts, minds, habits, and souls. When something shiny and new comes a-calling, or our calendar becomes too cluttered—we can simply ask:
- Does this support our family values?
- Does this support the mission God has given our family?
Without a mission, every opportunity feels important. With a mission, priorities become much clearer.
Step 1: Identify Your Family's Core Values
"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies."
Back in the 1960s, people started researching strong, healthy families and the characteristics that make them successful. Herbert Otto of the University of Utah made one of the first lists of traits that functional families have in common.
They are:
- shared religious and moral values
- consideration
- common interests
- love and happiness of children
- working and playing together
Contemporary scientists also list:
- communication,
- adaptability
- appreciativeness
- and connectedness to wider society, meaning they reach out to friends and neighbors in crisis.
Covey listed an important one: to seek first to understand…then to be understood. (That’s a nod to St. Francis of Assisi, and more saintly wisdom.)
Also consider the ideals that define your family and the virtues and characteristics you hope will describe your home.
Some examples might include:
- Faith
- Truth
- Hospitality
- Joy
- Service
- Generosity
- Perseverance
- Humility
- Wonder
- Courage
- Stewardship
- Positivity
- Excellence
- Growth
- Creativity
- Wisdom
- Knowledge
- Grit
- Gratitude
- Hope
- Kindness
- Evangelism
- Being Present
- Mindful
- Adaptive
- Supportive
- Modest
- Prudent
- Proactive
Choose only a handful. If everything is a priority, nothing is.
You can also ask your children and spouse:
"What do we want people to experience when they enter our home?"
"What qualities do we hope our children carry into adulthood?"
“What are some adjectives that we hope people use to describe us?”
"What virtues do we want to intentionally cultivate?"
“What are our passions and talents?”
These answers begin revealing your family's unique mission.
Step 2: Envision the End
“The fruit of love is service, which is compassion in action.”
One of the most powerful questions parents can prayerfully consider is:
"When my children leave home, will they know how to walk with Christ when I am no longer there to guide them?"
Notice the question isn't:
"What colleges will they attend?"
"What careers will they pursue?"
Those things matter, but they are secondary. Our first calling as parents is to help our children know, love, and serve God.
Instead consider:
Will they view things through a Biblical lens?
Will they know their faith and how to defend it?
Will they serve others?
Will they share Christ with others?
Will they depend on the Lord?
When we begin with the end in mind, today's decisions become easier to evaluate.
Step 3: Writing the Mission Statement
"I don’t claim anything of the work. It is his work. I am like a little pencil in his hand. That is all. He does the thinking. He does the writing…the pencil has nothing to do with it. The pencil has only to be allowed to be used."
It’s time to become a little pencil in the hand of a loving God, writing a love letter to the world. Your progeny, they’re the postage on the letter—the Lord’s currency to circulate his message.
Let’s write! It’s time to combine your values and vision into a single statement.
Sean Covey, son of Stephen Covey, and author of The 7 Habits of Happy Kids, is an effective leadership coach in his father’s company. He suggests making the drafting a special occasion by going to a hotel, having a special dinner, or a favorite dessert—anything that will create a memory with the process.
Also keep it pithy. You can present it in bullet points, an acrostic using your surname, or a short sentence.
Keep it memorable. Keep it actionable.
Here are some examples:
"To know, love, and serve God while cultivating truth, joy, and hospitality in our home."
"To raise faithful disciples of Jesus Christ who pursue wisdom, truth, and share Christ with others."
“To help one another become saints by growing in faith, virtue, knowledge, athletic excellence, and joyful service to God and others.”
“To raise up truth-seekers, athletes, and hard-workers who want to affect the world for the better.”
Your mission statement doesn't need corporate polish. It simply needs to reflect the heart of your family.
Step 4: Put It Where You'll See It
"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”
Hang it on the whiteboard, or more aesthetically, have one of your homeschoolers choose a trendy font duo, and put it in a bougie frame that you picked up for 50% off at Hobby Lobby. It should be something your kids can point to and say, “This is what our family stands for.”
While I’ve given you a nice place to plan and write your mission statement in the Homeschooling for Catholic Parents’ Academic Planner, it’s not meant to sit untouched at the front of your planner while the real work happens elsewhere. Rather, it should become the filter through which you view the entire year. Over time, those choices become rhythms. And those rhythms become culture. Before long, your mission statement is lived out around your dinner table, during evening read-alouds, on family pilgrimages, and in the countless ordinary moments that shape a Catholic life.
Step 5: Let It Shape Your Planning
"We are not called to be successful, but faithful.”
This is where many families stop.
Don't.
The mission is the starting point. From there, every calendar decision and commitment ought to flow from it. And the next few school years should be planned from it (until it’s time to revise it).
If your family values hospitality, are you creating space to welcome others?
If your family wants to hone their works of mercy, are you planning opportunities to serve? (Check out pages 16-17 to plan family service projects in my planner.)
If your family values faith, are you worshipping at Mass every week?
The best mission statements start on paper, then blossom into visible rhythms of family life.
A Mission Bigger Than Academics
"What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build it anyway."
These words, often misattributed to Mother Teresa, are from “The Anyway Poem” written by Dr. Kent Keith. Mother Teresa loved it so deeply that she placed her own slightly rewritten and more spiritual version on the wall of Shishu Bhavan—her home for children in Calcutta where her Sisters in the Missionaries of Charity took care of orphans.
Building a family culture takes years of intentional choices. They may seem small in the moment, but over time they become the foundation of a Christ-centered home.
Years from now, your children probably won't remember every science experiment or historical plaque that you adamantly read on those field trips. But they’ll remember the traditions of your faith and culture of your home. They’ll remember what your family loved, what your family prioritized, and what your family pursued together. A family mission statement is simply a way of making those priorities visible, so that day by day, year by year, your family can move together toward the ultimate goal: sainthood.
Happy Mission Statement Writing!
The days are long, but the formation is eternal.