Our religion recommends that we have weekly family meetings called Family Home Evening. Sometimes we just do something fun together, sometimes we talk about goals and things that are not going all that great in our home at the moment, sometimes it’s a chance for us to learn together as a family. These times have been extremely important for our family. It gives us a chance to do those things that we know we should but never seem to make time for.
One topic I try to address at least a few times a year is that our family needs all of us to work together if we want to be happy. We are all on the same team and when we remember that a family should be a place where everyone feels comfortable and loved then everyone is more likely to succeed. I’ve addressed this topic in various ways over the years based on whatever we seem to be struggling with at the time and the ages of our children. I thought that creating a series of posts sharing each one might be a good resource for everyone.
Working Toward Happiness
A Family Vision Board
This one is really a great reminder of how we want our family and home to be. We can’t go anywhere if we don’t know where we are going right? So creating a family vision board helps keep our goals in mind. We have made a few different ones over the years and I usually hang it where we will all see it often. I usually just use a regular sized sheet of card stock. We go through magazines looking for pictures and while we do this we talk about the things that make us happy in our home. We usually end up discussing the fact that bickering and being selfish things that really get in the way of being happy at home. Some of the pictures that have ended up on our family vision board are: people hugging, people reading, family movie nights, family game nights, someone smiling, a person apologizing, people sharing, clean rooms, yummy foods, people working together, a family praying together, a schedule, people relaxing.
One really great thing about this activity is that without pointing fingers it helps you realize where you could personally make changes to help these things happen in your family. Usually when we are finishing up, I ask my kids if they want to pick 1 picture that we should focus on as a family for the next week. Then we talk about it at our next family home evening. Often we will pick another one and work on it for another week. We call them our vision board goals. This system has been really instrumental in helping our family form good habits.
Family Motto
We have a family motto that we came up with years ago. I made a pretty version of it on the computer and we hang it where we can remember it. Ours is “Eternal Perspective, Present Joy”. It helps us remember that there are long term things that we are working on, but at the same time we should be experiencing joy. When we make goals we try to make sure that they are in line with our family motto. Make one for your family and see how it helps you!
Family Goals
Often after talking about something as a family we make a goal to improve. Talk and learning are great, but action after learning is the most important part. So make those goals and put them near your family vision board. Some goals that we have made in the past: Speaking more kindly, replacing screen time with family time, reading together, cooking together, making time to learn something together. Here is my biggest bit of advice about making goals. Always try to make goals in the positive. We usually fail when we try to just take something out of our family life. If we say instead that we are going to replace it with something positive we do much better.
What goals have you made as a family? What motto did your family come up with?
