Family Mission Statement

As I mentioned before, I am participating in the Celebrate the Family Celebration.  Today, the topic is Family Mission Statements.  Admittedly, we don't have one.  But there is an excellent article on Chocolate on my Cranium on how to create one!  So we'll use some or all of the tips there to work on ours.  However, I was thinking about a family motto, and it reminded me of when we were living with my parents, we were very discouraged at the hard times we'd been going through (little did we know they were far from over!) and my husband said " think we need to remember to be happy, no matter what!  In fact, that should be our saying 'Be Happy, No Matter What'."  I've always meant to put that on some kind of board or wall hanging and display it somewhere obvious in our home.  But we've several time reminded each other to be happy, no matter what, and if someone is in a bad mood, my daughter will say she wants that person to be happy and she'll draw them a picture or something to help them be happy.  Another thing that goes along with that is just counting our blessings.  I think my husbands family is tired of hearing us talk about when we lived in the motel, but we bring it up a lot when something's wrong with wherever we're living.  We'll say things like "At least we're not living in a motel!"  Sometimes we'll even break it down to the basics to each other "We have a roof over our head, we have food to eat, we have clean water to drink and bath ourselves and our kids, we have some sort of soap to wash ourselves and our kids and our house, we're healthy, our kids are healthy, we have family members who have helped and are still willing to help if we need it, we'll be fine."  We've also stopped saying things like "I won't be happy until...." or some other version of that statement, or "When such and such happens, then I won't feel so stressed."  There's always something to be stressed about and something that could improve, but....it could always be worse. 

So remember:

BE HAPPY, NO MATTER WHAT!

This post is part of the Celebration of the Family with Chocolate on my Cranium, We Talk of Christ, The Redheaded Hostess, and Welcome to the Madness, check them out too for more great articles on the family!