McGarry Family Motto

Dave and I have wanted to create a family motto for a LONG time!  And I was trying to think of a better way to structure family night instead of scrambling Sunday night like I sometimes do.:)  I think what we will do for most of this year's family night lessons is try to have each month's family night theme be one of the statements from our family motto.  I thought we could try to memorize the scripture that goes with that statement all that month, and do 4 lessons on each point.  I also came up with a primary song or hymn that goes with each that we can sing for family night.  We do special Christmas and Easter lessons for the whole months of December and April, so that just leaves 2 months left that we need to come up with as far as family nights for the year.  Hopefully this will help us to be more purposeful and have more of a plan when Monday night rolls around.

I don't think a family motto makes or breaks happiness in family life, but I have always been inspired by the story in Alma about the title of liberty.  When the band of Christian's freedom was threatened, Moroni ripped his coat, and took a piece of it and wrote what they believed in, and what they were fighting for:
 

Alma 46:12 "And it came to pass that he rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it—In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children—and he fastened it upon the end of a pole.

  And he fastened on his head-plate, and his breastplate, and his shields, and girded on his armor about his loins; and he took the pole, which had on the end thereof his rent coat, (and he called it the title of liberty) and he bowed himself to the earth, and he prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren, so long as there should a band of Christians remain to possess the land—"

 

I have always wanted something like this for my little family.  To give them a sense of belonging, a feeling of identity, and strength to rally around.  We wanted our kids to get the sense that they belong to something bigger than themselves.  However, my kids have been too young to really understand, or contribute to the making of the family theme, and I wanted them to be a part of it.  This year, the oldest two are at a good age to contribute.  We thought the new year would be a good opportunity to introduce our theme.  And decided to make it an "after New Years" party for the family night right AFTER New Years as a fun way to introduce it, and get the kids excited!  One of the Monday nights BEFORE the New Year, we asked the kids what they thought was important to our family, and what our family should stand for and believe in.  Their answers were simple, yet powerful and instructive.  Here are only a couple of the things they mentioned:

We talked to the kids and I did quite a ridiculous amount of research, trying to fit EVERYTHING our family values and holds dear into one statement.  I soon realized that that was an impossible feat, and everything I read confirmed what I came to learn as a classroom teacher that, if it is not short and sweet, they will never remember it and it will be ineffective.  Unfortunately, every time I tried to make it short and sweet, it seemed to be just fluffy, and have no substance.  I tried statements that we use over and over with the kids like, "McGarrys can do hard things" and "worry about your self", but they just weren't enough for a family motto.  Finally, I think it was inspiration, when I came up with the idea to use all the letters of our name to start off 8 statements about our family identity and what we believe.  I also thought it would be cool to back each statement up with scripture to add more power behind the words.   

Anyway, we had an after New Years dinner, with homemade Chineese food(my family always had Chineese food growing up for New Years), and let the kids open up the family motto, which we framed and wrapped.  I put "McGarrys" Instead of just "McGarry" because as parents we are always trying to get just one more word in with our kids, or one more lesson, and I had to try to squeeze just one more statement into our family theme.:)  It was a fun night with crazy hats, and fun food and games.  I love new traditions and having fun with my family!

The decorating crew:  We spent about 10 dollars at the dollar store and got some really "classy" decorations, hats, and noisemakers(Sorry neighbors!).

Ready to party!  with our family motto wrapped and ready to go.  Dave was on nights, so we had to wait for him to wake up. 

Homemade Chineese food, eating on the floor, and crazy hats!

I put some silly fortunes in everyone's cookies.  The kids laughed and got a kick out of them, even if they WERE a bit cheesy!

  

We played tons games the rest of the night.  The kids made up one about not letting their balloon touch the floor.  

Our framed motto:

 

We want to keep our family motto, but continue this tradition every family night after the New Year by having a yearly scripture theme/goal that we can memorize and work on as a family as well as our family motto(kind of like what they do for mutual).  New Years growing up, especially as I got older was a time to make memories with friends, and we think continuing to have a family celebration on the family night AFTER New Years will allow our kids to have some fun memories with friends on New Years Eve, but help give our family purpose and direction each year!  Here is to new traditions!  Can't wait to see what 2015 has in store for our little family!